Guitar Chord Theory - The Crash Course (2024)

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This series of guitar chord theory lessons will give you a crash courseinhow chords are constructed.I've spent a lot of time refining and condensing this course so youonly learn what you really needto know.

The benefits of learning chord theory

Guitarists often learn chords by usingchord charts, which is fine for knowing where to put your fingers,but it's also beneficial to understand what's happening "behind thescenes", the mechanics of why chords sound the way they do. That way,you'll be able to get exactly the sound you want from your music.

However, in my opinion, the main practicalbenefit of learning chord theory is that you'll see aclearer connectionbetween scales and chords, as they're both madefrom thesame building blocks (intervals). You'll be able to hear a chord andknow exactly which notes to target in a soloing phrase.

That'swhy, when guitarists ask me "how do I apply scales over chords?", thefirst piece of advice I offer them is to "learn chord theory!".

The bottom line is, this course will cut your improvised "trial anderror"time in half, so you can focus more of your time on making music thatsounds good.

Note that guitar chord theory is notforbeginners! You need to at least have a basicunderstanding of intervals.

TheSeries at a Glance...

Major, MinorandSuspended Chords (on thispage,see below)

7thChords

ExtendedChords

AlternateChord Voicings (part i)

AlternateChord Voicings (part ii)

Chord construction basics

A chord is a type of musical structure,built from 3 or morenotes. For example, C major contains the notes C, E and G.

C, E and G are therefore the buildingblocks of the C major chord.

However, when learning chord construction,it's far more effective to think of these building blocks as intervals ratherthan notes.It means you only have to learn each chord once and simply move theformation of notes to a new fret to play a higher or lower soundingversion of that same chord. This will become clearer as we progress...

The chromatic scale

Just like scales, chords are built from aseries of intervals. As mentioned earlier, you ideally need abasic understanding of intervals before you take this course, but torecap, there are 12 intervals in total that make up what is known asthechromatic scale...

A chord can be built by first selectingthe 1note. This is called the root noteas it is the 1st note in the scale. You could see this as thefoundations of the chord structure.

We then select two or moreadditionalintervalsfrom the scale (e.g. the 3 and 5) and build them on the root note tocreate the chord (so in our example we'd have 1 3 5).

Click to hear 1 3 5 played as a chord- listen closely, I use threeroot notes - G, E and C#. Notice how each chord has exactly the samequality, we're just playing the 3 and 5 inrelation to different root notes.

The root(sometimes abbreviated as R)is always thereference note when writing a chord, so when you see Gmaj, Gm or G7,you'llknow the root note is G.

Emaj, Em or E7, you'll know the root is E.

C#maj, C#m or C#7, you'll know the rootis... yep, C#.

It's the different combinationsofintervals stackedabove that root note that give us the different chordtypes.We'll be looking at some of the most common chord types throughout theseries.

That, in a nutshell, is how chords areconstructed. Now, let's lift open the hood and get into the mechanicsbehind different types of chord you'll come across...

Major chord theory - major triads

A major triad consists of a major 3rd (3)and perfect 5th (5)above the root (1).These intervals make up amajor chordin its simplest form.

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Theroot (1)is always the note by which the chord is referenced (letters Athrough to G).

For example, G major is so-called because its root note lies on G.We can abbreviate this chord as Gor Gmaj. Emajor would be abbreviated Eor Emaj. C#major would be abbreviated C#or C#maj.

Here's how a majorchord would typically be mapped out on the fretboard...

As you can see, all the notes of the majortriad are included in thechord form. We could play from the low E 6th string, the A string (theroot doesn't have to be the lowest soundingnote in the chord!), D string or G string, basically any set of stringsthat include the 1 35 triad structure.

Again, let's create afamiliarR 3 5 major chordwith the bass root on the Astring,allowing us to play the same chord in a different position on thefretboard...

So again, we could play from the A string,D string or G string, aseach would include the major triad.

See the bigger picture

Don'tlimit yourselfto the E and A form barre chords justbecause they're the most commonly used. The below video shows you howyou can pull chord voicings (such as 1 3 5) right out ofa scale pattern. This is your first step in connecting chords andscales...

Minorchord theory - minor triads

So, welearned themajor triad wasmade up of the root,major 3rd and 5th.

The minortriad is made up of the root, minor3rd and 5th. The word "minor" in the context of a "minorchord" refersto the presence of the minor/flat 3rd.

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So technically it's that minor 3rdintervalabove the root which gives minor chords their sound. The 5th isneutral, which iswhy it's used in both major and minor chords. Think of it as addingmore meat to the chord.

All that we change from major triads is flattenthe 3rd a half step - in other words,move it down one fret.This gives us what is abbreviated as a ♭3 (a minor 3rdinterval).

If we use the same chord form as before,but with aminor 3rd, we getthis...

See how that 3rd has beenflattened/moved down 1fret fromits major 3rd interval?

Remember, the letter used whenwriting chordsis determined by the root note,so ifthe root was positioned on the note B,the chord would be Bminor (Bminor Bm forshort).

And withan Astring chord? We can see how it's the same as the major chord but withthe 3rdflattened one fret position (one semitone)...

Suspendedchord theory - sus4 and sus2 chords

Suspended(abbreviated as"sus") chordsrefer to any chord that doesnot contain a major or minor 3rd. Thismeans suspended chords are neither major nor minor, as the 3rd isresponsible for making a chord major or minor.

Beloware theelements of a suspended4th chord(e.g. Gsus4, Fsus4, Esus4)

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So basically, the 3rd is replaced bythe perfect 4thinterval.The 4th lies one half step/semitone higher than the major 3rd - theequivalent of one fret, as we can see in the E and A string forms fromearlier...

That's a suspended4thchord and would be written as Bsus4 if, for example, theroot note was B.

Whenplaying these chords, try and internalise theirsound.What mood do they convey?

You canalso have suspended2nd (e.g. Bsus2. Csus2) chords where the3rd is omitted and a major2nd interval is used instead.

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Justthink of"suspended" or"sus" as meaning "no 3rd". This means suspended chordsare neither major nor minor.

Inguitar chordtheory,whenever the 3rdis notpart of the chord, you effectively have a major/minor neutralsound. Incidentally, that means bothmajor and minor scales will workover them.

The below video looks at a few waysyou can usesuspended chords inyour playing...

You can learn more about suspended guitar chords here.

Timefor a break...

So we'vecoveredhow the basic major, minor and suspended chords are constructed. Youmay not realise, but countless hit songs exclusively use the threechord types we've studied on this page!

Go backand review this lesson if youneed before moving onto the next part.

And remember,learningguitarchord theory is so much easier once you knowthe fretboard.

Share your thoughts...

Have any questions, thoughts or ideas about this lesson? Let us know using the comments form below.

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