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MSWORD - chordchart

I thought I’d put together a guitar chord chart for all to take home with them from the site. I’ve put enough chords on the sheet to get you into trouble. I’ve gone through minor, major, 7th, minor 7th, major 7th, sus2 and sus 4 in the open position for A B C D E and G. I left out F and sharps as you would probably prefer to use barre chords also know as movable chord patterns. I’ve added these patterns to the chart as well. These Barre chords are listed for the E string and for the A string. The root note of the chord will indicate what the chord is. So, if you were to play the major movable chord at the third fret it would be a G major, at the fourth it would be a G# etc.

At the bottom of the chart there is a c add9 and then some blank guitar frames for you to add other if need be.

You really need to start this exercise by reading the post about Major Scales, that post gives a Scale Theory foundation and will help you understand what I am writing about here.

You can create a Minor scale by having a flat 3rd, 6th and 7th. This is a cumbersome approach and understanding the relative Minors is a simpler way to continue.

Every Major Scale has a corresponding ‘relative minor scale’ that shares the same key signature. It has a ‘modal’ name which is ‘Aeolian’. I’ll write a complete post about Modes and you’ll find that also under scale theory. Anyway, you can find the relative minor by starting your scale at the sixth degree. So, for a C Major you will have an A minor. By starting the C Major scale on the sixth degree (which is the 3rd down) you will have played an A Minor. Remember only plat the notes from the original Major scale.

Here is a chart showing relative minors:

Having an understanding of Major Scale Theory and Major Triads will make this formation a simple execution. In fact, you would have probably come across this type of triad a long time before seeing it explained here.

Minor Triad: ROOT, m3, P5

So as for most chords we start with the root, then by playing the third of the major scale flat and the perfect 5th we have a minor triad.

As for any chord formation where the minor third shows in a pattern is irrelevant, as long as the bass or a chordal or melodic instrument does present it. If the minor third is not presented at any stage then there is nothing to indicate you have been on a minor triad. If you have played the the Major Third during the passage then you would have indicated it to be of the major variety.

Another way to look at this triad is too consider the minor scale being played from the root. You’ll find that the third is the naturally occurring one in that scale.

You see, a minor scale is created by having a Flat 3rd, 6th and 7th. You can also create a minor scale by considering the relative Minor scale mode to the Major.

This is the most simple triad to create. It is a Major Chord. You can use this triad as the basis of creating other chords by altering it on the fly.

Major Triad: ROOT, M3, P5

This is the 1st, 3rd and 5th of the major scale. It is a simple as that. On keyboard you may invert the chord to M3, P5, ROOT or P5,ROOT,M3 - these would be known as inversions. On guitar you may omit the 3rd in the first octave and play it in the second octave, it is also likely that you will repeat the ROOT and P5 an octave higher.

Things to know:
You will not always represent M3 in the first octave, and with ‘heavy distortion’ you will almost never use the 3rd in any octave.

The theory of chord construction is no more complex then learning formulas in Math. If you weren’t very good at math at school then I’ll let you know that the numbers you are working with a quite small and you don’t need any other arithmetic skill then you would have in early grade school.

It is important to understand Major Scale theory. Scale theory can get a little complex and complete knowledge of all scales is unnecessary for understand how chord is constructed.

During these chord examples that I will go through, a chord will be often referred to as a triad. Triad being a group of three notes that harmonise together.

Some Quick Major Scale Theory (start here):
A major scale is a group of 7 different notes and an octave. We can start on any note but for this example we’ll use C. When starting on C, creating a C major Scale there are no Sharps or Flats. So a C Major scale will run through like this

C Major - c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c

The formula for creating a major scale needs to be understood. Each increment of increasing pitch is called a half tone. For example: going from C to C# would be considered to be a Half Tone (also known as a half step). If we W to represent a Whole Tone or Whole Step (being two half tones or the step from a C to D) and H to represent a Half Tone or Half Step (the Step up from C to C#) we can create a Major Scale formula that looks like this:

Major Scale Formula: W-W-H-W-W-W-H

Here’s a chart to make it as clear as possible (note: we refer to first C in this scale as the ROOT):

The final thing that you need to know is that each note is represented in chord construction theory as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc or ROOT, 2,3,4,5,6,7. You’ll also need to know that when when we play the note as is ,without a flat or sharp, it will be accompanied by M or P, example M3 meaning the major third or P5 which is a perfect 5th). If a note is flat it will be represented as something like m3 - further examples will be included when it is pertinent do so.

With that information in hand you can start creating Chords on your own, with your instrument and without a chord chart. The best way to work through the knowledge would be with Keyboard or Piano.

I’ve done my best to keep all this information as simple as I can. Read through it a couple times and refer back to this post if required.