Introduction to Chords

If you have read the lesson on Basic Musical Theory, you should have an understanding of how modern music is based on the principle of playing related notes from a scale in sequence to create a melody (often performed by a vocalist). Other instruments (such as the guitar) usually contribute to the harmony. A harmony has the characteristic that several notes from a scale are played simultaneously to create a particular sound. When several notes are played at the same time it is called a chord.

When learning the guitar, most people start with chords, and this is one of the most important aspects of playing the instrument to learn. Even if you want to be a lead player hammering out big solos, do not dismiss chords - some of the most infamous guitar riffs are made up of powerful chordal progressions (think 'Smoke on the Water' or 'Smells Like Teen Spirit').

It is not strictly necessary to know the theory behind chords in order to play your favourite song. Simply learn the shape of the chords in the song (i.e. where you should put your fingers) and then play them at the correct time. However looking through the theory section is probably a good idea as it will give you an understanding of how a chord works and should nicely round off the Basic Musical Theory lesson.

The Theory

A chord is made up of several individual notes played together. Because of this, chords can start on the same note but create entirely different sounds, depending on what the other notes that make up the chord are. Before we go into what notes make up each type of chord, you must already know a bit about scales - refer back to the Basic Musical Theory lesson if you need to.

Major Chords

A major chord is made up of three different notes which combine to give a happy, bright sound (as do the notes from the major scale). Remember in the Basic Musical Theory lesson we learned how to show relationships between scales using formulas? We can apply the same techniques to describe chords. If the notes of a major scale are numbered as follows:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Then the major chord uses notes:

1, 3, 5

i.e. it is formed by playing the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale at the same time. The major chord is named according to what is the 1st, or root, note.

An Example: The C Major Chord

To make the C major chord, let's first write down the notes of the C major scale. This is formed by following the pattern of tones and semitones illustrated in the Basic Musical Theory lesson and, conveniently, turns out to be all of the musical notes without any accidentals.

C, D, E, F, G, A, B

Now the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of this scale are:

C, E, G

and these notes, played simultaneously form the C major chord. So how do we play these notes? Different chords are played in different ways on the guitar. This is where the chord dictionary becomes useful. Type 'C major' into the electric-guitar.co.uk chord dictionary and you will find several different ways to play the chord. One way is illustrated on the chord diagram below.

Here you can see that the chord dictionary has given the name of the chord type: 'major triad' (a triad means the chord contains three distinct notes), and the notes which make it up: C E G. You should be familiar with this type of diagram following the lesson on notation but here's a quick recap. The horizontal lines represent frets and the vertical lines represent strings. The left-most vertical line represents the string nearest your shoulders as you play the guitar and the top-most horizontal line the nut of the instrument (i.e. fret 0). If a string does not have a black dot on it then a circle above the string indicates that string should be played open and if it has a cross above it then that string should not be played. If a black dot is present, place a finger on your left hand at the indicated fret.

In this circumstance:

• place the third finger of your left hand just behind the third fret of the 'A' string
• place the second finger of your left hand just behind the second fret of the 'D' string
• place the index finger of your left hand just behind the first fret of the 'B' string

and now play all the strings except the low 'E' string by running your plectrum from the 'A' string to the high 'E' string.

Minor Chords

By contrast with the major chord, minor chords sound sad. A minor chord uses notes:

1, b3, 5

from the major scale or equivalently notes 1, 3, 5 from a minor scale. To see this, recall that a natural minor scale has the formula 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7 in relation to the major scale. Therefore the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of a minor scale are equivalent to the 1st, flattened 3rd and 5th notes from the major scale.

The distinguishing characteristic of a minor chord as opposed to a major chord is therefore that it flattens the third note of the major scale (i.e. lowers it by a semitone).

An Example: The C Minor Chord

Let's start as before by writing out the C major scale:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B

Now the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes are C, E and G as we found previously. However we must lower the 3rd note (E) by a semitone in order to construct the minor chord. E lowered by a semitone is Eb. Therefore the chords which make up the C minor chord are:

C, Eb, G

The chord diagram below shows one way of playing the C minor chord.

This chord diagram instructs you to not play the low 'E' or 'A' strings and to place the fingers of your left hand behind the 5th, 5th, 4th and 3rd frets respectively on the remaining strings. To do this it is probably best to place your fingers as follows:

• third finger behind the 5th fret on the 'D' string
• fourth finger behind the 5th fret on the 'G' string
• second finger behind the 4th fret on the 'B' string
• index finger behind the 3rd fret on the high 'E' string

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