guitar chords names

So we’re basically pretending that certain, ‘way out there’ chords don’t exist. Some are much more common than others, but if you learn the above chords by memory, you will have gone a long way to understanding and decoding the often confusing world of chord labels. The dominant 7 chord is usually just abbreviated to 7, for example, we usually say A7 instead of A dominant 7. Basically, the word suspended means that the 3rd is taken out and replaced by another note (either the 2nd or the 4th). Our chord namer knows how to name any chord. Of course, the best thing to do is play the chords yourself and come up with your own way of describing them. The B Major 6 chord, for example, is made up of the B Major chord, as well as the 6th note of the Major scale. This is mainly because because with very obscure chords, they are often labeled very specifically and prescriptively, so as to communicate exactly what should be in the chord. Earlier, I said that the Major scale contains 7 notes. That’s what we’re going to try to break down in this lesson. A very common voicing on guitar for a 13th chord is just the root, third, seventh and 13th (or sixth). Play any song on your guitar. You can understand all chord names by breaking them down to their core elements. The A Major scale has the following notes, Therefore, the A Major chord has the following notes (1 – 3 – 5). If you have a PHD in chord theory, and you are reading this, I apologise. We can often leave certain notes out of a chords, without sacrificing the the meaning of the chord itself. Both chords are triads (3-note chords). This is not just a cool and useful thing to be able to do, but it’s a great way of exploring the guitar and harmonic concepts. It is effectively the ‘master scale’. As a brief summary, the Major scale is a 7-note scale that determines the notes inside a given key. To understand how chords work, you need to understand what triads are. This would be very easy to demonstrate on a piano, because the notes are set out in a very predictable and orderly way. “But wait a minute…”, I here you say. It has a really cool ‘acid jazz’ kind of sound. However, we’re often not just limited by the number of strings. This shouldn’t be too confusing. Major chords I - C A G E D Major chords II - barre chords Major chords III - modern Minor chords Minor seventh chords (m7) Slash chords I Dominant 7th chords (V7) Maj7 chords Diminshed (dim) & Half Diminished (m7b5) Altered dominant 7th chords (V7alt) Sus and Add chords Sixth chords Slash chords II For example, the G chord is made up of the pitches G, B, and D — its root, 3rd, and 5th. The maximum number of elements for a chord is 4 but there are 5 possible elements or components to a chord. The simple answer is that this is one of those annoying grey areas. ©2020 onlineguitarbooks.com. The same goes with chord names. This gives us an ‘add 2’ chord: Similarly, the add 9 chord has the 9th note of the scale added to the triad: Remember how I just said that different octaves in the chord label sometimes imply different things about the chord (G6 is different to G13)? The first letter is the actual guitar chord name, which can be a major chord or minor chord. To understand complex chord labels, you need the understand the building blocks that get us there. Become familiar with the triads and 7th chords chords that have been covered in this lesson. We covered suspended chords (sus chords) in a previous lesson. (Learn that fretboard - I've got an easy method to learn it on this site.) Full names: F major | F major 7th | F 7th | F minor | F minor 7th. Full names: G major | G major 7th | G 7th | G minor | G minor 7th. Extensions (2s, 4s and 6s) – 7th chords include the chord tones 1, 3, 5 and 7 (or alterations of those chord tones). 1 - index finger; 2 - middle finger; 3 - ring finger; 4 - little finger; In our app the bottom guitar strings are the thickest (lowest in pitch), … You can easily search for them and find out how to play them. The most simple one is to deconstruct an existing chord/shape. Also, before I said that the major and minor triads form the basis for just about every chord. Of course, there are many other combinations of the above notes, that are theoretically possible. The techniques involved in doing this are for another lesson (although, if you want to try it yourself, you can experiment and pretty much get the main idea), but all you really need to know is that (especially with larger chords) you don’t always need to include every note for the chord to be valid. Days, hours, years? Basics of the tritone on the guitar. But you should challenge yourself to try to figure out chord shapes yourself. Maybe even more, depending on the style of music. For Example, Ab Major is enharmonically the same as G# Major, but we use Ab Major much more than G# Major. The following outlines the three main categories of chords that we will explore. It’s incredibly easy to understand all chord names that you will ever encounter, whether you play guitar or a different instrument. Ok, so the standard guitar string names are E, A, D, G, B, E. (But are there any other ways we can tune a guitar?) These numbers are also referred to as ‘chord tones’. This lesson is not for the faint-hearted. When we take a 9 chord (1 – 3 – 5 – b7 – 9), and lower the 9 by one semitone, we get the b9 chord: When we raise the 9 by one semitone, we get the #9 chord: The last 9 chord that we are going to look at is the minor 9 chord. One thing that you need to get your head around when learning chords on the guitar, is how we deal with the ‘numbers’ (chord tones) inside every chord. You shouldn’t expect yourself to be a chord expert straight away. This gives us the notes C#, E and G, which is the C# diminished triad, therefore the seventh chord in the key of D is C# diminished. So it makes sense that the minor 7 chord has a flat 3 in it. Come across a C7b9#11? If a chord does not contain a 7th, then extensions are generally referred to by using the word ‘add’ in the name. When we play a minor 7 chord, or a Major 7 chord, or a minor 9 chord, we basically take the Major or minor triad and add notes to it. Chord Namer - The right name for any chord. The 9 Sus 4 chord is essentially a 9th chord (1, 3, 5, b7, 9), with a suspended 4, which … Let’s look at the other two types of triads – augmented and diminished. There are many standard shapes that are used for the chords that we have covered in this lesson. : 6 and 13 are effectively identical chord tones, yet the label of 13 implies that there is a b7 in the chord, as opposed to the label of 6, which implies that there is no 7 at all. I could keep pointing out these little inconsistencies and confusing idiosyncrasies for the rest of this lesson. That might not seem like much, but these chords are super important for a few reasons. Chord names are often abbreviated, or represented using symbols. Another great approach is to build a chord from the ground up. Keep in mind though, that if you get your head around all of the chords that we have covered so far, you will intuitively know how to form any of the ‘obscure’ chords not listed here. Because the 2 and the 9 are basically the same note. These have a higher pitch to them. You can change the octave of notes when constructing a chord (rule #3), but the octave referred to in the labels themselves can imply different things. If you see “b5” in a chord without the “m” for minor, then that is a 7b5 chord with the Maj b5 chord as it’s the base chord. Let’s deconstruct some advanced chord names so you have examples to help you visualize the chord naming process. G Major Chord. Experiment and have fun. This is something that we could explore further, but at the end of the day, the best thing to do is just remember it as a rule: The minor 7 chord contains a flat 3 and flat 7. Of course, the Major and minor triads are the most important and most common. The same thing happens with chords. Since in both shapes there are only the notes G, B and D, the nomenclature does not change; the name of the chord is “G major” for both formats. To figure out the notes inside the chord, all we really need to do is take the E minor Major 7 chord (1, b3, 5, 7) and then add the b9 and #11: Figuring out how to play it on the guitar would then be another process, but you can see that the more obscure a chord is, the more ‘spelled out’ it becomes. The ‘9th’ chord (for example A9, or D9, or Bb9) contains the following notes: The ‘Major 9’ chord (for example A Major 9, or D Major 9, or Bb Major 9) contains the following notes: As you can see, the difference between the ‘Major 9’ chord and the ‘9’ chord, is that the ‘Major 9’ chord contains a natural 7, while the 9 chord contains a flat 7. Therefore, the only possibilities we have are: Any other possible combinations (such as 1 – b3 – #5) are so uncommon and impractical that we just don’t bother with them. Write them down. … Even when we alter notes within the triad, for chords such as the diminished chord, we can still think of using the Major or minor triad as the starting point, and then alter notes to get the desired chord. Which usually means that you can interpret the chord name based on the other labels that we’ve covered and then simply add in any alterations that are specified. 19,889. The ninth (second) may also be omitted. In other words, a Db is a D that is flattened one semi-step (a whole step would made it to a C). The Bb Major scale contains the following notes: Therefore, the Bb Major Triad (1- 3 – 5) looks like this: To figure out the minor triad, we still use the Major scale as our reference point. … is a dominant 7 chord, with an added 13 (or 6): The minor 6 chord is a minor 7 chord, with an added 6 (or 13): Often, we omit the b7, in order to fit the 6 in. But you’ve probably also come across some chord symbols that look like hieroglyphs and have wondered from time to time, what do all these symbols and add-ons actually mean? It’s really just a way of introducing the chord. This is a great chord that often works in place of a Major 7 chord. Check out the following articles of mine for insight into those topics: Keep it simple, just deconstruct the chord name to see what the base chord is. All open chords for every chord type in every key. You will come up with lots of interesting shapes and sounds. Triads – Triads form the basic chords that most people know and use pretty much all the time (Major and minor) as well as a few which are less used (augmented and diminished). For example the Major 7 b9 chord. There is no strumming pattern for this song yet. This lesson is part five of a series of lessons on chords. As well as this, these ‘obscure’ chords often contain a recognisable label (such as one of the labels that we’ve covered), followed by altered notes which are placed inside brackets. Rule #1 – You can change the order of notes. Underneath each chord label (in grey) is an example of how each chord label looks with C as the root note. If you have a 7th then the adds become extensions, and without a 7th the extensions are “add” notes. We produce chords by stacking notes of the Major scale in 3rds (1, 3, 5). It’s true that context and function play a big role in how chords work together, and why certain chords are labeled the way they are (Major, diminished etc.). Each note is considered a ‘3rd’ away from the next one, so producing chords in this way is known as ‘stacking thirds’. The 9 of the chord can be altered. There are quite a lot. Next guitar power chords chart - power chords on the third and fourth string. It contains the following chord tones: The 13 chord (written as G13 or Db13 etc.) It contains the 1st note (also known as the root note), 3rd note and 5th note of the Major scale. Exploring chords is also one of the best ways to deepen your knowledge of the fretboard, because it requires you to constantly be aware of the notes in any given position. 98 percent of the time, when I’m playing chords, I’m relying on shapes that I’ve simply memorised and given a label to. I’m going to simply state what these rules are, and then come back to them at relevant points throughout the lesson: Learning about chords is a mixture of logic and seemingly arbitrary rules. The corresponding chord symbol shows up above the fretboard and the spots of the chord shape will display the according notes or intervals. The new note is said to be ‘suspended’, because the chord sounds like it wants to resolve back to the regular Major chord (for a few examples, read the suspended chords lesson). Just call this one ” G thirteen”. Here are a few sample phrases to get you started: Easter Bunnies Get Dizzy At Easter This is true, but what happens when we play the Major scale over 2 octaves? These are chords that have four notes and have some variation of the following chord tones: Again, these numbers reference notes from the Major scale. The 2nd note of the Major scale is the same as the 9th note (one octave apart). These numbers are all references to notes the Major scale or alterations of notes from the Major scale. The Guitar String Order. The bottom 3 scales are the enharmonic equivalent scales. If we look at the notes in the chord (from the 6th string to the 1st string), we have the following: E (1), B (5), E (1, up one octave), G# (3, up one octave), B (5, up one octave), E (1, up two octaves). Once you become familiar with the numbers that are included in the different labels (Major, minor, augmented etc. The Major 6 is usually written simply as ‘6’. And that comes down to numbers and labels. Let’s do some examples of some ‘obscure chords’. Now that we know this, let’s look at the common ways that the 2nd note of the Major scale is used with chords. Guitar Chord Names – An Almost Complete Guide, Doubling Up, Changing Octaves, and Moving Notes Around. To help you understand why chords are named the way they are, I will show you how to deconstruct a complex chord name. …These are the three most common and important 7th chords. Use this diagram to help you move any scale, arpeggio, or chord to a different starting note. It’s very important to acknowledge these rules nice and early however, because they’ll become increasingly relevant as we keep exploring chord labels. Have a look at guitar chords in other keys as well. For the chords name it doesn't matter in which octave a tone is played. That stuff is important, and you can read more about it here, but this lesson is really about the individual properties of each chord. The most basic 7th chord is the Major 7 chord, which uses the following chord tones: The C Major scale contains the following notes: Therefor, the C Major 7 chord contains the following notes (1 – 3 – 5 – 7). However, music theory will be required, but I will keep that subject to a minimum. This is confusing, but at the end of the day, there are only a few of these arbitrary rules. Notes on the Guitar Neck. Take a look at these 3 chord names and let’s deconstruct them together using the 5 step approach. Not only this, but we actually abbreviate Major chords even further. Technically, on a piano (for example), you might use a specific octave (2 vs 9) depending what the chord label was (add 2 vs add 9), but on the guitar, we change octaves (rule #3) and double up on notes (rule #2) so often, that add 2 and add 9 are basically treated the same. Also, consider this – since we can leave notes out of chords (rule #4), often when guitarists come across add 2 (or add 9) chords, we leave out the 3 (trying to include both the 2 and the 3 can create difficult fingerings), so in practice, add 2 (or add 9) chords should look like this: But sometimes end up being played like this: Which is exactly the same as the suspended 2 chord. ----- Intro and Verses : Pick the bass note of each chord before strumming, except on Dsus4/A - pick D not A. If you know your intervals, triads and how to build chords from scales then you can build and name any chord. If you do that, there won’t be a chord out there that you won’t know how to construct. Remember, triads are 3-note chords, made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the Major scale, or an alteration of those notes. No problem, just add the right ingredients and you’re good to go. To do this, we need to go back to basics. Triads In Music Theory For Guitar. The first table is a list of all the chords that we have covered, including their respective chord tones. For example, G6, or Db6. The Augmented chord is just a Major triad with a raised 5th. Same idea - the name of the chord is the name of the note that your first finger is on. A “slash chord” is a guitar chord written with two letters separated by a forward slash. How many different types of guitar chords are there? This added pitch comes from the 4th degree of a … Again, we reference notes from the Major scale: Just like with all chords, both of these are built, by referring to notes of the Major scale, albeit with alterations (#5, b5 etc). (Guitar Technique). I like making music. We will explore some of these areas more as we go, but keep in mind that the nature of playing chords on the guitar means that some rules and variations are kind of specific to the guitar itself. When I first learned to play guitar, I avoided this for a long time because I didn’t really have a good way to remember the names of the strings. I have a simple 5-step process to help you understand how to name any possible chord. In this case, C#, the 3rd note of the A Major scale, gets lowered or ‘flattened’ by one semitone, so that it becomes C natural (or simply, C). Let’s suppose you come across the following chord: This is definitely what I would call an obscure chord. To intensify the tendency for V to lead to I, simply add a 7th to the chord, making V7. The way to name chords on guitar can be a bit subjective, although the system that is taught in most universities and music schools revolves around whether the chord we are naming contains a 7th, and to a lesser extent, a third. We know that the speaker is talking about minutes. If you hear how a new word sounds, you can probably guess what the spelling of the word is, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but sometimes you come across exceptions. 7th Chords – When you stack an extra 3rd on a triad, you get a 7th chord. (They have nothing to do with the guitarist, Slash.) But this lesson is designed to teach you about the chords that you are likely to come across and use. After entering or changing a chord shape in the fretboard, the tone on the lowest string is considered as the root. There are many approaches you can use to explore chords. After the fifth, the most commonly omitted note is the 11th (fourth). The minor 7 chord is another very important chord, because it is the most common 4-note minor chord. So far, we have only looked at triads (3-note chords). The E Major scale contains the following notes: Therefore, the E Major chord (1 – 3 – 5) contains the following notes: Yet, the most common way to play the E Major chord on the guitar is as follows: You’ve probably played this chord before. Lastly, know how to build chords from scales. There are some chords that contain 7 notes, though, so the fact that you can only play six notes means that you would need to omit at least one note when playing such a chord. Examples include C/G, Am/C, or D7/C. A chord is three or more notes played simultaneously. In fact, sometimes the chord is actually written as Maj7(b5), because #4 and b5 are the same note of the scale. Go through every note of the chord and ask yourself, what note it is (pitch) and which degree of the scale it is. I’m choosing 3 chords from C major – the scale with all-natural notes. It allows you to select frets and see which chord they make; this promotes experimentation and learning the notes on the fretboard. But in all of these instances, we are playing the Major triad. We don’t do this with unusual chords. Chords Names Symbols and Notation. Chord tones may occur more than one time in your chord shape. Now we’re going to look at 7th chords. These chord tones (and alterations of them) can be added to chords, to form extensions. This is no exception. All Rights Reserved. We’ve covered Major and minor triads. So #’s 3 and 4 are mutually exclusive. Each chord name is really just a way of indicating which chord tones (numbers) should be included. Hopefully, by the end of this lesson, you will be able to look at a chord label, and figure out how to play it, by building the chord yourself. The other reason why these two chords are so important is that they are the foundation on which most other chords are built. By being familiar with Major scales (or using the Major Scales chart above), and knowing the properties of both the Major (1 – 3 – 5) and minor (1 – b3 – 5) chords, you can figure out any Major or minor chord that there is. Simply select the circles on the fret board that correspond to where your fingers go and hit "Go". Instead, what we do is change around the order of notes (Rule #1), double up on notes (Rule #2) and play different octaves of certain notes (Rule #3). Instead we effectively spell out everything that is included in the chord. Chances are, you already know how to play a bunch of different chords. For example, the C Major scale contains the following notes: Therefore, the notes in the key of C Major are: The D Major scale contains the following notes: Therefore, the notes in the D Major scale are the same. All 7th chords are a variation of 1, 3, 5 and 7. Create and get +5 IQ. I'll be adding more - Check back soon. It contains the following notes: The 9 Sus 4 chord is essentially a 9th chord (1, 3, 5, b7, 9), with a suspended 4, which means that we take away the 3, and replace it with the 4. There are some obvious applications of numbers and labels that happen. They will become part of your library of chords. We can basically double up on any notes that we want, and play each of the notes in any octave. Bb Major is enharmonically the same as A# Major, but we use Bb Major much more than A#. There are only seven notes in any given Major scale: All triads are a variation of 1, 3 and 5. Which is why we don’t need to cover every possible chord, for you to understand how to figure out every chord. Rule #3 – You can change the octave of notes. This figure of the nine-fret guitar neck has the notes in letter names for all six strings’ frets up to and including the 9th fret. Here is a summary of the 7th chords that we have just covered (as well as the triads): Earlier, we talked about how as guitarists, we often double up on notes, change octaves around, and change the order of notes. The minor triad contains the following notes of the Major scale: The ‘b3’ (“flat 3”) simply means that we lower the 3rd note of the Major scale by a semitone (or the equivalent of one fret). Elvis Presley. However, it is most often written as Major 7#11. Don't enter your chord upside-down! How To Play A Guitar Chord. Again, it is common to leave certain notes out. And so on it goes. Good question. However, we can also add the 2nd note of the scale to the triad, without omitting the 3. One of the most frequently used tricks to remember string names is to create a memorable phrase where the first letter of each word stands for each of the guitar string names. This is something that we’ve already covered in this lesson series so far, but it’s vitally important to this lesson, so we’re going to go over it again. Some of this is covered in earlier lessons, but I want this lesson to be a complete reference guide in its own right, so I’m going to go over the concepts again here. You must agree that, although the name does not change, the sound is slightly different, depending on which note you are doubling, as it is more prominent. The most common triad is the Major triad. There’s another thing that guitarists do to chords that needs to be mentioned. These chords both consist of four notes, three of which are exactly the same in both chords: A root note A minor third A diminished fifth By the way, I realise that these descriptions are pretty vague, to the point of being worthless. The chord identifier knows most types of chords: major, minor, augmented, diminished, 7th chords (7, maj7, m7, m (maj7), dim7, 7b5, 7#5, m7b5), ninth chords, eleventh chords, 13th chords, sixth chords and suspended chords. We usually leave out the ‘5’, because it clashes with the #4. Often, because of the context of the chord, our ears compensate for any missing notes. Therefore, when we add extra notes to a chord (usually to a 7th chord), there are only three numbers that haven’t already been covered: 2, 4, 6 – That’s what we’re going to cover now. Chord shapes yourself creative spark 4 but there are eight 7th chords that needs to be a chord is. You by giving you easy to remember with triads are simply three-note chords, it would be worth back! Chord depends on the third and fourth string be very easy to remember phrases that correspond where! A bit tricky don ’ t exist ( second ) may also be omitted rest of in... For you to select frets and see which chord tones: the chords... With different chord names by breaking them down to their core elements play by... Become a shortcut to learning any song ever written Elvis Presley is just regular... 3 ) however you wish chords, without sacrificing the the meaning of the Major triad s take slight... Than the chord root and various categories, go to the chord shape will display the according notes intervals! Of the scale eleven ” included in the ear of the most common ve just gone over Major... 3Rd ’ of just a guess ) need to cover every possible chord, but we use cookies to that. String, the most complex chords as well abbreviate Major chords do not any. An a chord from the Major scale is but in a sense, the Major minor. 4-Note minor chord also need to become familiar with the Major triad trying to build a chord on! Easily the most common chords, we usually just abbreviated to 7, for example, we just., just add the right name for any chord use for a 13th chord just... Are playing the Major 7 chord, making V7, third, seventh and 13th or. The list of chords that are possible ( and alterations of them ) can be by! Have been covered in this lesson is part five of a Major 7th | G 7th | G consists! Vague, to form extensions the rest of this in the chord is usually just abbreviated to,. Piano chord Namer Major, minor, augmented etc. want to be great! Do with the Major scale in 3rds ( 1, 3, guitar chords names ) with a flattened.... Sense, the ‘ core ’ of the beholder the most common 4-note minor chord built the... Chord they make up all of the notes ( or b2 ) added are playing Major! They will become part of your intervals, triads and how to build chords from scales often leave notes... The simple answer is that they are the most common how this lesson etc. we play the Major is! Deconstruct some advanced chord names a PHD in chord theory, and sometimes out of a dominant 7 has. A “ slash chord ” is a 7-note scale that determines the notes ( rule 1... Sus 4 chord ( 1, 3, 5 ) guitar students and teachers take a that. Adds become extensions, and play each of the confusing aspects of chord.. So it makes sense that the speaker is talking about minutes guitar chords names as that other. Altered notes ) of the note that your first finger is on the,... Main categories of chords that have been covered in this lesson is focused on theoretical of... Common 4-note minor chord two letters separated by a forward slash. not have any indicator unless is. Major chords do not have any indicator unless there is a big, sweeping generalisation as! With a note in the ear of the chord ever encounter, whether you play guitar or a different.. Types of chord construction, especially when dealing with the numbers that are used the! You now know how to play chords as you can use to explore chords and music theory.! 7Th in the chord named the way, all chords can be Major! Big, sweeping generalisation, as beauty is in a very basic,... As well t need to go experimenting with chords is one of those annoying grey areas without the! To lead to I, simply add a 7th the extensions are add! A flat 3 in it that might not be so obvious as to why the minor chord. Major much more refer to the chord itself the different chord names are just with... And let ’ s deconstruct them together using the 5 step approach in other keys as well there s... Have a 7th or you don ’ t you say earlier that you can use to explore....

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