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Chord Theory and Construction

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Chord Theory and Construction

Through learning guitar chords theory,

you will be able to understand how chords
on the guitar are constructed, and thus have
a better understanding of guitar theory in
general.

As a beginner guitarist, this is not that

relevant, but as you advance in your guitar
studies, you will want to do more than just
play chords, you’ll want to understand why
your favorite songs sound the way they do,
experiment with new chords, and with time,
write you own songs.

To be able to understand how guitar

chords are constructed, you’ll have to first
be familiar with the major scale and its
intervals. If you don’t know the major scale
on the guitar yet, I suggest you read about
it, otherwise chord theory will not be
understandable.

MAJOR CHORDS
(MAJOR TRIADS)
A guitar chord contains at least 3 notes.
These 3 note chords are called triads. A
major triad (major chord) uses 3 notes from
the major scale, the Root (1), the 3rd
degree note (3) and the 5th degree note
(5). These notes will make up all major
chords on the major scale, with the root
note defining the label of the chord (what its
called, for example, C major, G major, etc.).

Major Chord = I-III-V degree notes of

the major scale

Now, if you look on the "boxed" E string

major scale, the first occurance of the 3rd
and 5th lie on the same string, so to create
a chord where all 3 notes can ring out, we
need to use the higher 3rd on the G string.

To understand this, lets have a look at the

most well known major scale shape, rooting
on a G note on the low E string.

Remember the G major fingering?

As we just learned, the 1st, 3rd and 5th

degree notes make up a major chord. Since
our root note is the G, its 3rd degree will be
a B, and its 5th degree will be a D.

1W2W3H4W5W6W7H
8(1)

G W A W B H C W D W E W F#
HG
Now have a look at the scale shape again,
notice the fingering, and that even the open
D and G strings are in the triad, since the
1st and 5th degree notes at fret 5 of strings
A and D are the same as their neighboring
open strings.

If you were to use this same scale shape

and play the G major chord as a bar chord,
you would be using these notes from the
major scale, resulting in a higher voicing of
the G major chord:

This triad is of course applicable on all major

scale shapes, so if you were to use a shape
that roots on the A string, you would apply
the 1st 3rd and 5th degree notes and get
the major chord, as with this C chord:

Again, remember the C major fingering, and

recognize that’s it is the triad pattern in the
major scale. The open strings are triad notes
as well. If you take the same scale to a
higher voicing, you will arrive at the C major
bar chord.

MINOR CHORDS
Minor chords, or minor triads are
constructed the same way, the difference is
the minor sound, which is always a flat third
degree note in minor triads:

Minor Chord = I – b III - V degree notes

So minor chords are the root note, a

flattened third note (1 semitone below the
regular 3rd degree) and the fifth note of the
major scale.

As such, lets return to our original G major

chord example, and transform it into a G
minor chord. We have to flatten the 3rd
degree note, which brings us to a small
limitation of the G minor chord, since the
non-bar minor chord fingering is hard to
produce, so we mostly use the minor bar
chord fingering:

The same applies to the C, we simple use a

flattened third to sound a minor C chord:

SUSPENDED (SUS)
CHORDS
You have probably played suspended chords
already, not its time to find out how they are
built. With suspended, the 3rd degree note
is left out of the triad, and is replaced by the
note specified by the chord, which will be
either a 2nd or 4th degree note on the
major scale:

Sus4 Chord = I – IV - V degree notes

Sus2 Chord = I – II - V degree notes

Lets return to the G bar chord example

again, and transform the G major bar chord
into a Sus4 chord. We know that the interval
on the major scale between the 3rd and 4th
degree notes is 1 semitone (half-note), so if
we would be transforming a major chord
that uses third degree notes, we would have
to simply move up from the 3rd degree note
one semitone to the 4th degree note to
construct a Sus4 chord.

So to put it simply, we replaced the 3rd by

the 4th note in the major scale.

Try arpeggiating it, than play the major

chord. You’ll see that the sus4 chord will
sound unfinished by itself, but if you resolve
to the major, it’ll be just right.

Try this with other chords as well, for

example the D major and the Dsus4. Try
hammering onto the 4th degree and pulling
back onto the major triad 3rd degree.

AUGMENTED
CHORDS
Augmented chords are triads as well, which
means that they will contain 3 notes from
the major scale. Augmented chords are used
in jazz and blues very often, so if this is your
musical style, you’ll love these chords.

Augmented chords are similar to major

chords, with the exception that the 5th
degree is raised 1 semitone (half-note), so
it’s a sharp 5th note on the major scale.

Augmented Chord = I – III - #V degree

notes

Looking at the G chord again, the

augmented chord shape will look like this:

Notice that we leave the B and E strings out

of this chord shape. This is because it would
be too hard to finger, but since these notes
are already played in this voicing, there is no
problem if we omit them. If you wanted to
arpeggiate this chord, you could use the
omitted notes, since you won’t have to hold
down every string during an arpeggio. Try it
out!

Alternatively, if we wanted a higher voicing

of the G augmented chord, we could play
these notes instead:

So all you’ll need to remember, is that

augmented chords have a sharpened 5th
degree note, as compared to major chords.
And as always, you can use this anywhere
on the fretboard, as long as you stick to the
predefined intervals.

DIMINISHED CHORDS
Diminished chords are made up of 3 notes
as well, so they are triads. They resemble
minor chords, in that they have a flattened
3rd degree, the difference is that their 5th
degree note is flat as well.

Diminished Chord = I – bIII - bV degree

notes

Let's look at a diminished chord built around

the E-shape (E string root note)

Again, notice how we omit the notes on the

2 highest strings, simply because it would be
impossible to finger as a chord. But again,
as with the augmented chord, if you wanted
to play an arpeggio over this chord, you
could use the notes on the strings you would
otherwise omit from the chord fingering.

So all-in-all, a diminished chord is just a

minor chord with a flat 5th degree. This is
the easiest way to remember it, just like
with the augmented chord, which is a major
chord with a sharp 5th degree.

7TH CHORDS
We’ve been covering triads until now, but of
course there are chords that have more than
3 notes. The first set of chords we’ll look at
are 7th chords.

Why are they called 7th? Because the fourth

added note, will be the seventh degree note
on the major scale. Pretty simple!

7th chords have several variations, as did

the triads, lets have a look one-by-one.

Major 7 chords
Major 7 chords are pretty straight forward,
they are merely major chords with an added
7th note. These chords are used in jazz very
often.

Major 7 Chord = I – III – V – VII degree

notes

So if you know the major scale (and you

should already), constructing 7th chords are
simple. Lets look at the G example again:

So this is a G Major 7 or Gmaj7. Notice that

to add the 7th degree note to the otherwise
major chord shape, we moved 1 semitone
lower from fret 5 string D, which was a G
note. Of course, this is not a problem, since
it was a second root and there are still 2
other instances of the G note in the shape.

This is another aspect of building chords that

you’ll instinctively get familiar with, once you
know the major scale and the chord
“equations”, in that you’ll have to sacrifice
notes, that would otherwise still be in the
chord, since you need to replace them to
make room for notes you could otherwise
not add. You could get many-many voicings
of the same chord, just from playing around
with this.

Dominant 7 Chords
We’ll look at the dominant 7 chord next. The
only difference from the major 7 chord is
that the dominant 7 uses a flat 7th degree
note. You’ll come across dominant chords
often, so just remember that whenever a
chord is dominant, it will have a flat 7th
degree note.

Dominant 7 Chord = I – III – V – bVII

degree notes

Another important thing about dominant

chords, is their notation. When you see G7
for example, it means G dominant 7. There
is no added notation between the letter and
the number. So unless otherwise noted with
a “maj” prefix, if you just see 7 beside a root
note, it will mean a flattened 7th note.

Let’s look at our classic G chord example.

But no… we can’t, the fingering wouldn’t
work. Instead, we’ll revert to the open string
G chord, and turn it into a G7 by adding the
flattened seventh note from the major scale:

Minor 7 Chords
Minor 7 chords are similar to the dominant 7
chord above, the only difference is the
flattened 3rd degree note, transforming the
chord minor into a minor chord. Remember
that if a chord has a flat 3rd degree, it will
be a minor chord.

Minor 7 Chord = I – bIII – V – bVII

degree notes

We can return to the G bar chord again, it

would look like this:

The notation for minor 7th chords, with the

G as our example, will bes G minor 7 or
Gm7.

Again, if you would want to play an arpeggio

based on the notes of this chord, you could
use every note the chord uses, so the 1st,
flat 3rd, 5th and flat 7th notes along the
shape. Remember, as long as you stick to
the intervals as specified, you will play the
correct note.

Augmented 7 chords
Augmented 7th chords are similar to the
augmented triads we learned about earlier,
the only difference is that we’ll be adding a
fourth note, as with all 7th chords. Now if
you’ll remember, the augmented triad was
the 1st, 3rd and sharp 5th degree notes. To
turn this into an augmented 7 chord, we’ll
have to add a flat 7th degree note.

Augmented 7 Chord = I – III – #V –

bVII degree notes

We can’t demonstrate using the good old G,

so we’ll use string A fret 3, a C note as our
root, and build the chord from there.
Remember that its all about intervals. If you
have your root, just count the intervals
along the strings, and you’ll have the chord.

The above diagram is thus a C Augmented 7

(also written Caug7). It’s a bit tricky to
finger, since you have to hold a bar across
the third fret, try it out. Alternatively, as
with all our chords, you could arpeggiate the
notes of the chord.

So just remember, “augmented” refers to

the augmented triad, and the “7” refers to
the flat 7th note added to the triad.

Half Diminished Chords

Half diminished chords are 7th degree
chords, and include the root, flat 3rd and flat
5th just like a regular diminished triad, but
also adding a flat 7th note.

Half Diminished Chord = I – bIII – bV –

bVII degree notes

Sticking with the G, it would look like this:

The above is written as Gm7b5. Just

remember the denotation, its actually easier
to see what’s going on with this chord from
the written notation, since the “m” is short
for minor, meaning a flat 3rd, the “7” means
a flat 7th, and the “b5” means flat 5th.

Diminished 7 chords
Diminished 7th chords are based on the
diminished triad, as the first 3 notes are I,
bIII, bV, but you’ll also be adding a double
flat 7th note.

Diminished 7 Chord = I – bIII – bV –

bbVII degree notes

Yes, double flat! You flatten the 7th degree

note twice, so it would actually be a 6th
degree note, but most musicians use the
double flat notation, since it’s a 7th chord
and is easier to remember this way.

You may be thinking "well, that double

flatted 7th is now in the position of the 6th
note in the major scale" - well you're
absolutely right, but in this context with the
5th being flattened into a diminished
position, the rules of music take over to
highlight the context, a double-flatted 7th
note, a diminished 7th in relation to the
natural dominant 7th position (which was a
flat 7th to begin with!)

Lets look at an example, we’ll use the C

root, so this will be a C diminished 7
(Cdim7):

As you can see, neither of the E strings are

used in this fingering. If you were to play an
arpeggio over the notes of this chord, you
could use the relevant notes on the E strings
without problem.

EXTENDED CHORDS
Now that we’ve looked over triads, which
have 3 notes, and 7th chords, which have 4
notes, we will touch on chords that use even
more notes. These are called extended
notes. Extended chords are used to create
fuller sounding chords.

First of all, you’ll need to know the order of

chord tones. As you know, the musical
alphabet starts over 1 octave above the
root, so when we reach the 8th degree on
the major scale, we start the numbering
over, since the 8th degree will be the original
root note 1 octave higher, the 9th degree
would be the 2nd note, the 10th degree
would be the 3rd note, the 11th degree the
4th note, the 12th degree the 5th note, the
13th degree the 6th note…

So to make it short, the cycle looks like this:

Chord Tone Orde

1 3 5 7 9 11 13

Root 3rd 5th 7th 9th 11th 13th

(4th) (6th)

When you construct extended chords, you

can use the 9th, 11th (4th), and 13th (6th)
degree notes as well.

You’ll need to remember, that when you see

a notation for a chord, only the highest
degree is noted. So if you had to build a G9
chord, you would know that it contains every
degree up till the 9th note on the major
scale note, like this:

1 3 5 b7 9

Root 3rd 5th flat 7th 9th

ADD CHORDS
Contrary to the above, if we cannot add all
of the notes to a chord and have to leave
one out of the natural progression as per the
major scale, we call these chords add
chords.

For example, an add9 chord will have the

following interval pattern:

Add9 Chord = I – III – V – IX degree

notes

11th and 13th chords

Once we start pumping in more and more
notes, we will inevitably run into more and
more tones that we just cannot have in the
chord, if we want to play the higher degree
notes as well. What to do?

As a rule of thumb, you’ll usually want to

leave out the 5th degree note when this
happens.

The more notes you add, the more likely

that one of the notes will unharmonious
with the rest of the chord. Just leave that
note out. Remember, that if it sounds
good, it is good!

With 13th chords, we usually leave the

11th degree note out.

CHORD PROGRESSION
You can get really inventive with a bit of
strumming and chord progressions. The
following is a quick rundown, but I urge you
to learn some chord progression theory, it'll
take you far.

There are some very famous chord

progressions, such as the I-IV-V chord
progression, and it’s really easy to make up
your own progressions. All you need to do is
know the key you want to play in, and be
familiar with the modes of the major scale.

Example chord progressions:

Key of C, I-IV-V chord progression: I
= C, IV = F, V = G

Key of G, I-IV-V chord progression: I

= G, IV = C, V = D

Key of C, 1-III IV-V chord

progression: I = C, III = Em, IV = F, V
= G (Notice that III was an E minor
chord, since the III degree is minor)

Key of A, I-VI-IV-V chord

progression: I = A, VI = F#m, IV = D,
V = E (Again, notice that VI was an F#
minor chord, since the III degree is
minor)

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