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Building Chords - Part 1Building Chords - from the Ground UpAlthough this website is about making things easy to learn, it's just as important that you understand music and your guitar. The better you can speak a language, the better you can converse with people. The same goes for music - the better you understand fundamental theory and the guitar neck, the better you'll be able to play. The pages on building chords isn't about how to play basic chord shapes. You can get that from other pages on this site, all over the internet and any basic guitar book. This lesson is aimed at showing you how chords are constructed to give you the tools, idea and know-how to work out any chord you want on the guitar - from basic to advanced. So let's get stuck into it! Today we're going to take a look at building chords from the ground up. What I mean by saying from the ground up is that we're going to build our chords from the foundation of the chord, which is the Root note of each chord. The best way to learn this on the guitar is to use the E Major scale. The reason why I say its the best way to learn to build chords is because you can play the full E Major scale on the 6th (low E) string and then use each of these notes as the Root note to build a chord off each degree (or fret) of the Major scale. Doing it this way will set everything out logical on the guitar neck which will also help you to understand chord/scale relationships. And as most guitar players soon come to realize - E is the most popular key for guitar players to play in. Unless of course you're from Nashville, then you are most likely going to be playing in the key of A and wear cowboy boots and necktie. Let's start by playing the E Major scale on the 6th string. The E Major Scale
Under the guitar tab above I've added four rows of additional information on the notes. The Fret Number (in red) is the same as the guitar tab (also in red). The Note Name is the name of the note on that fret. The Note Number is the number of the note in the Major Scale. The Chord Number is also the number (or degree) of the note in the Major Scale however it's shown in Roman Numerals. We use numbers to represent scale tones and Roman Numerals to represent chords. You can see from the above that if you are playing the note at the 5th fret then you are playing the A note which is the 4th degree of the E Major Scale. If you then play a chord using this note as the Root note then you will be playing a IV chord (say it as: 'four chord'). Similarly, if you are playing the note at the 9th fret then you are playing the C# note which is the 6th degree of the E Major Scale. If you then play a chord using this note as the Root note then you will be playing a iv chord (say it as: 'six chord'). The chords that have the Roman Numerals in upper case are Major chords. This means that if you are playing the 3rd note of the chord then the interval will be a Major 3rd. The Major chords are the I, IV and V chords. I, IV and V Major chords sound great and are the most common chords used. Especially in pop, rock and blues music. This is where the term a 'I-IV- V progression' (one-four-five progression) comes from. A I-IV-V progression is a progression that uses any combination of these chords. The majority of the songs on the radio use I-IV-V progressions. Interesting fact number 1: 67.5% of ALL songs ever recorded on record use a I-IV-V progression. Interesting fact number 2: I made the above 'fact' up. But it's probably not too far from the truth! Exercise 1: Your job is to make sure you are able to play the E Major scale using only the notes on the 6th string. You also need to learn these notes by name and scale degree. Note that when you get to the 12th fret you are back to the Root note of the E scale. You should also play the scale past the 12th fret - the pattern and note names simply repeat themselves from the Octave below. So learn to play the E Major scale (and the note names) as far up the neck as your guitar will allow. When you play the scale say the note names out loud AND then play the scale saying the note number (or degree of the scale) out loud.
It's the note number that you are going to end up thinking about most often so make sure you get real comfortable with this concept.
The reason I say that the note numbers are what you'll end up using/thinking in terms of the most is that when you go to play in other keys you can simply use the Note Numbers and not have to learn every Note Name for all 12 of the Major Scales. You can just learn this one pattern, call it by number and repeat the pattern calling it by the same number for each of the 12 keys. This is one of the greatest things about playing guitar. Along with being able to throw the guitar high into the air and set fire to it. Root + 5th ChordsOk - now we've got all the fundamental theory out of the way we can starting building chords. We are going to learn to build chords using each degree of the E Major scale as a Root note. The first chord we're going to construct is a 2 note chord that uses just the Root and 5th notes of each chord. You are playing the notes of the E Major scale from above and adding the 5th note to each of those scale degrees. There are 7 notes in the E Major scale - so you are now going to learn to play 7 chords. Each chord is constructed using the Root note and the 5th degree of the scale. The 5th degree of the scale is RELATIVE to the root note that you are playing. We are basically breaking the E Major scale up and looking at chords off one note of the scale at a time. Each time you move to a new note of the E Major scale - that scale tone becomes a new Root note which you are going to build chords from. So here we go - chords using the notes from the E Major scale as the root note for each chord: Root + 5th chords built off each degree of the E Major Scale: Right Hand Technique Notice that you are going to need to use your fingers to play the above 2 note chords. You can't strum the chords. The chords are using only 2 strings, the 6th (low E) string and the 2nd (B string). You can play these two note chords in one of two ways. Using fingers only or using a pick and fingers. Using fingers only is called fingerstyle guitar. Using a pick and fingers is called hybrid picking. Like a hybrid car that uses gas and electricity - you're using two methods to get your motor running (or the notes sounding). If you are using fingers only then you should use your Thumb and ring finger to pick the notes on the 6th and 2nd strings. You can use any other finger to play the 2nd string however your ring finger will make the most sense when you start playing chords with other notes in them. Use this as a general rule for fingerstyle guitar: play notes on the 6th and 5th strings with your Thumb. Play notes on the 4th string with your index finger. Play notes on the 3rd string with your middle finger. Play notes on the 2nd string with your ring finger. Play notes on the 1st string with your little finger. I find the above is the most logical way to play when just using fingers. If you rest your right hand on the strings (if you are a right handed guitar player) then your fingers will naturally sit on these strings. Use this as a general rule for hybrid picking guitar: play notes on the 6th and 5th strings with your pick. Play notes on the 4th or 3rd string with your middle finger. Play notes on the 3rd or 2nd string with your ring finger. Play notes on the 2nd or 1st string with your little finger. Which finger you use for the 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings will depend on what chords and notes you are playing. There are no set rules for fingerstyle or hybrid picking techniques. The above are just guides to get you started. You need to work out what is best for you and the chord you are playing for each different chord. Left Hand Technique Play the chords using two different ways/fingers: 1. Use your index finger on the 6th string and middle finger on the 2nd string. 2. Use your middle finger on the 6th string and ring finger on the 2nd string. Things to Note Use Different Fingers The reason why you should learn to play the chords using two different ways/fingers is that you will have your spare fingers above the fret that the Root note is on using the 1st way (with your index finger on the Root) where as you will have your index finger spare below the fret that the Root note is on using the 2nd way. This is very important if you want to learn how to play a variety of chords other than just the standard shapes that everyone learns on guitar. If you do learn chord shapes other than just the standard ones then you'll be able to get more sounds from your guitar which will ultimately lead to you having your own voice on guitar. It will help distinguish your music from that of other guitar players. If you want to master this type of concept (taking chords further) buy Eric Johnson's instructional DVD: Total Electric Guitar. It's amazing - not just for chords but for lead and various guitar techniques (such as hybrid picking) as well. Make sure you are buying the DVD with the book if you get it. You'll need it! Root + 5 Chords - Power Chords As you can see playing the above chords - the 5th note on the 2nd (or B string) is in the same position for 6 of the 7 chords you are playing. Major chords, I, IV and V and minor chords ii, iii and vi all use the 5th note that is the same interval from the Root note of the chord you are playing. The only exception is when you play the chord from the Root note on the 7th degree of the Major scale - the vii chord. Here the interval is the b6 (flat 6) from the Root note. You're not even playing the Root + 5th note from the vii in the chord above. It's actually a b6th chord. If you want to play the Root + 5th then you need to play the #5th (sharp 5th) which is located on the 10th fret. Root + #5th and Root + b6th: The reason why I've said play the Root + b6th version of this chord is that when we build other notes onto the chord in the next and subsequent lessons, you'll find that using the b6th gives a much nicer sound than using the b5th. The vii chord isn't on that is played very often, particularly in popular music - it sounds too jazz like and is harder for other instruments and vocals to play/sing over. However - there are some nice chords you can construct from a chord off the 7th degree of the scale so we don't want to dismiss it. 6 of the 7 chords above all use the same interval from the Root to the 5th. Just using these 2 note chords give you an abundance of choices when constructing chord progressions or songs. The chords haven't been defined as Major or minor chords. The 3rd determines if a chord is Major or minor. The 3rd degree from the Root of a chord is an interval of either a Major or a minor 3rd. Both have distinct sounds. The 5th is neutral. It's called a Perfect 5th as the interval or a 5th is the same for both Major and minor chords. Chords that use ONLY the Root and 5th note are called Power Chords. We'll look at power chords in another lesson. We're going to wrap up Part I of Building Chords for now. In Summary: You need to ensure that you can play the E Major scale on the 6th string of the guitar. Make sure you can name the notes of the E Major scale and the Chord Number for each note. Add the 5th note to each degree of the E Major scale so you can play two note, Root + 5th chords off each degree of the E Major scale. When you can do the above - start making up simple chord progressions using only these 2 note chords. Try and make things sound musical. Unfortunately playing the chords above it will sound a bit like an exercise - but if you break it up into small progressions, like just using I, IV and V chords or I, ii, IV and V chords then you'll be able to create some basic progressions that sound more like songs than exercises. Building Chords Part 1 is all pretty easy - but soak it in cause in Building Chords Part 2 we are going to add the 3rd and then in Part 3 we will start playing around with extended chords. So we've taken Building Chords Part 1 from absolute beginner level and we will hit some intermediate to advanced chords and concepts in Building Chords Part 2. Jam on! Guitar Lessons - Home Page
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