| Lesson 2: Chords | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you start on note number: 1. Chord will be major 2. Chord will be minor 3. Chord will be minor 4. Chord will be major 5. Chord will be major 6. Chord will be minor 7. Chord will be diminished Major chords are written with just the letter of the first note (also called the root) and minor chords are written with the first note and a lower case m. C major is written as C. C minor is written as Cm. So, let's say you want a note based on C. Start with C, then skip D, next is E, skip F, and finally G completes your triad. According to the chart above, this chord is major: C E G is C major Now, what about starting with D? Skip E, next is F, skip G, last is A. This chord is minor: D F A is D minor If you do this with each note, you get the following triads: E G B is E minor F A C is F major G B D is G major A C E is A minor B D F is B diminished Now you need to figure out how to play these chords on the guitar. |
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| If you're here, you probably pretty much understand Lesson 1. Chords are three or more notes that harmonize together and make a nice (or unpleasant) sound. For this reason, chords are sometimes called a triad. In this lesson, we will talk about the basics of chords, and we will go into more depth in later lessons. Start with your major scale. Let's do C major: C D E F G A B C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Remember those numbers underneath the notes. In this section we will talk about two types of chords: Major chords and minor chords. We will also mention the diminished chords. A major chord sounds happy, a minor chord sounds sad, and a diminished chord sounds like crap. Follow these rules for building three note chords (triads): Start with any note in the scale, and build your triad with every other note, until you have three notes. Each chord will be either major, minor, or diminished, depending on which note you start on. |
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