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This week, I’m going to take a break from scales and songs and jump into some guitar chords. This week, I’m going over the more standard chords you see in guitar music. This is going to be broken up simply due to how long this would be if I didn’t. I’ll cover some over the next few weeks. This week, I’ll go over major, minor, sus2, sus4, sus2sus4, augmented and diminished chords.
Chords are found in every type of music out there, from blues to metal. The real difference is the actual usage of the chord. Some genres use it in a shortened form for clarity purposes while others use more complex chords. What I’m going to do is keep to C chords. Since the C major scale where you derive chords from has no flats or sharps, it’ll be easy to see the differences in each chords in terms of the note changes.
I’m going to show you the formulas for the chords as well as inversions of each. By knowing the inversions, you can get a different tonal color simply by shifting the note you start on. It’s a good way to alter a chord to better fit in a progression.
One thing to note before I get started. Unless a chord is designated as a diminished, augmented, a 7b5, a major diminished chord, or any other chord that alters the 5th degree, the 5th is actually an added non essential chord degree. It’s added in for a more full sounding chord. For example, a major chord can be played as just the root and 3rd degrees and still be considered a chord. Same for a minor chord, a root and a b3 works as a chord too.
The reason for needing the rood and 3rd is simple: without the root you don’t have a note name for the chord and the 3rd designates the chord as major or minor. That is also why a power chord really isn’t a chord. It’s neither major or minor. It simply works the perfect 5th interval.
Here is the C Major scale for reference in the following chord examples:
C D E F G A B C
We’ll start with the most basic chord, the major chord. This chord consists of the root, 3rd, and 5th scale degrees. So for C we’re looking at C E G.
At it most basic, it looks like this
|---
|-1-
|-0-
|-2-
|-3-
|---
You can also play this chord differently by inverting it. What that means is that you move a note that isn’t the root to the bottom of the chord. A major chord has the root position, first inversion, and second inversion.
Looking at the first inversion of C major we’d see this:
|-3- |---
|-1- |-1-
|-0- |-0-
|-2- |-2-
|--- |-x-
|--- or another way would be this |-0-
The x notes a muted string, as a pick stroke is going to sound a muted note on that string.
For second inversion, we could see this:
|--- |-0- |-8-
|-1- |-1- |-5-
|-0- |-0- |-5-
|-2- |--- |-5-
|--- |--- |---
|-3- or possibly this |--- or even this |---
Those are mostly sticking with the first position chord, with the example of the last one.
Here are a few more places to play this chord.
|--8-|-3-|-12-|
|--8-|-5-|-13-|
|--9-|-5-|-12-|
|-10-|-5-|-10-|
|-10-|-3-|----|
|--8-|---|----|
Looking at the Cm chord, we have the notes C Eb G
The normal chord looks like this in it’s various positions
|-3-|--8-|-3-|-11-|
|-1-|--8-|-4-|-13-|
|-0-|--8-|-5-|-12-|
|-1-|-10-|-5-|-10-|
|-3-|-10-|-3-|----|
|---|--8-|---|----|
In first inversion in various positions, you’ll see examples like this:
|---|----|-11-|-3-|
|-5-|----|-13-|-1-|
|-5-|-12-|-12-|-0-|
|-5-|-10-|-13-|-1-|
|-6-|--x-|----|---|
|---|-11-|----|---|
In second inversion, we would see this:
|-11-|---|-3-|
|-13-|---|-4-|
|-12-|-0-|-5-|
|----|-1-|-5-|
|----|-3-|---|
|----|-3-|---|
Next up is a Csus2 chord. This chord substitutes a 2nd degree in place of a 3rd degree. This is why it’s noted as a suspended 2nd and from a theory standpoint, these chords aren’t major or minor without the 3rd degree.
A few Csus2 chords in various positions:
|-3-|-10-|---|---|
|-3-|-13-|-1-|-8-|
|-5-|-12-|-0-|-7-|
|-5-|-10-|-0-|-5-|
|-3-|----|-3-|-x-|
|---|----|---|-8-|
Now for first inversion positions.
|-15-|-3-|-8-|
|-13-|-1-|-8-|
|-12-|-0-|-7-|
|-12-|-0-|---|
|----|---|---|
|----|---|---|
And second inversion
|---|-8-|-10-|----
|-1-|-8-|-13-|----
|-0-|-7-|-12-|----
|-0-|-5-|----|-10-
|-x-|---|----|-10-
|-3-|---|----|-10-
The Csus4 chord follows that same idea of replacing the 3rd with a 4th scale degree. So we would have C F G
The normal layout in various positions
|---|-8-|--8-|-3-|-13-|
|-1-|-6-|--8-|-6-|-13-|
|-0-|-5-|-10-|-5-|-12-|
|-3-|-5-|-10-|-5-|-10-|
|-3-|---|----|-3-|----|
|---|---|----|---|----|
Switching to first inversion:
|---|-1-|---|
|---|-1-|---|
|-0-|-0-|-5-|
|-3-|-3-|-5-|
|-3-|---|-8-|
|-1-|---|---|
And second inversion:
|---|-8-|----|-1-|
|---|-6-|-13-|-1-|
|-0-|-5-|-10-|-0-|
|-3-|-5-|-10-|---|
|-3-|---|-10-|---|
|-3-|---|----|---|
This next chord is a bit odd. It’s called a Csus2sus4. This chord has the notes C D F G. Given that this chord has more notes, it has a 3rd inversion.
In a normal set up:
|-3-|-10-|-10-|
|-3-|--8-|-13-|
|-5-|-10-|-10-|
|-3-|-10-|-10-|
|-3-|--8-|----|
|---|--8-|----|
In first inversion
|-1-|---|-13-|----|
|-1-|-6-|-13-|----|
|-0-|-5-|-12-|-10-|
|-0-|-5-|-12-|-10-|
|---|-5-|----|-10-|
|---|---|----|-10-|
Second inversion
|---|-3-|-10-|
|---|-3-|--8-|
|-0-|-5-|-10-|
|-0-|-3-|-10-|
|-3-|---|--8-|
|-1-|---|----|
Third inversion
|---|-8-|-10-|
|---|-6-|--x-|
|-0-|-7-|-10-|
|-3-|-5-|-10-|
|-3-|---|-10-|
|-3-|---|----|
Augmented chords use a sharp 5th degree. So you would have C E G# for this chord.
In it’s normal version
|---|---|--8-|
|-1-|-5-|--9-|
|-1-|-5-|--9-|
|-2-|-6-|-10-|
|-3-|-7-|----|
|---|-8-|----|
First inversion:
|---|-0-|----|-12-|-8-|
|-1-|-1-|--9-|-13-|-9-|
|-1-|-1-|--9-|-13-|-9-|
|-2-|-2-|-10-|-14-|---|
|-3-|---|--7-|----|---|
|-0-|---|----|----|---|
Second inversion
|---|-4-|----|-4-|
|---|-5-|--9-|-1-|
|-1-|-5-|--9-|-1-|
|-2-|-6-|-10-|---|
|-3-|---|-11-|---|
|-4-|---|----|---|
I’ll end this lesson on the Cdim chord. The diminished chord uses a b3 and b5th degree for a very dissonant sound. The notes for a Cdim would be C Eb Gb.
Diminished chord in root position
|---|----|-11-|
|-4-|----|-13-|
|-5-|--8-|-11-|
|-4-|-10-|-10-|
|-3-|--9-|----|
|---|--8-|----|
First inversion:
|----|-11-|---|-2-|
|----|-13-|-4-|-1-|
|-11-|-11-|-5-|-x-|
|-10-|-13-|-5-|-1-|
|--x-|----|-6-|---|
|-11-|----|---|---|
Second inversion:
|-11-|---|-2-|----|
|-13-|---|-4-|----|
|-11-|---|-5-|-13-|
|----|-1-|-4-|-10-|
|----|-3-|---|--9-|
|----|-2-|---|----|
That wraps up this weeks look at chords. I didn’t list every last inversion, as you could add another note in that chord somewhere else fairly easily. I put in the most common ones I’ve seen. I by no means hit every single version of each chord, but hopefully it’s enough to get you started.
Next week, I’ll be looking at 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th,and add9. Those are also fairly common, but involve more degrees and have more inversions possible as well. I’ll get more into that next time.
Chord Lesson 2 (6th chords and 7th chords)
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