One of the first things we learn as guitar players are chords. You know…..here is a G…..here is a C and so on. But what are chords? Chords are harmonies. The notes in the chord come from the scale they are derived from. If we take the C chord, it comes from the C major scale. You spell that scale C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C…...easy, no sharps or flats. If we take the first, third and fifth notes of that scale, that is how we come up with the notes in a C major chord. Major is the “default” setting for chords. If it just has a letter in the chord description, it is a major. You can have a sharp or flat added but unless it is designated something else it is major.
So how does this information help you? Well, unless you like only playing the same chords over and over again, knowing this is freedom. The chains are lifted. Once again, chords are harmonies. The guitar is like a choir in many ways. Each string represents a voice. Six strings, six potential voices. I say potential because you don’t need to play six note chords all that often. You only need three notes to make a chord. We have six string, but you can do so much with the D, G and B strings alone. These keep you much in the same are that the right hand of the piano would occupy. The bass guitar represents the left hand of the piano. This is not the only approach, but it is so versatile to use this ideology.
A good mental exercise is to take three adjacent strings and find all the major voicings on those strings. Three note chords are called triads. Let’s start on the bottom three strings, E. A and D. Find the lowest voicing you can find on the neck with the three notes of a C chord. The notes are the 1, 3 and 5 of the C major scale or C, E and G. Try this. The first voicing you should find is G on the third fret of the E, C on the third fret of the A and E on the second fret of the D. That is a C major chord.
One thing you may have noticed is that C is not the lowest voice in the chord. So far most of the chords you have learned have the root on the bottom of the chord. The root is the note the chord and/or chord are built from. There are three versions of a triad. Root position is the root on the bottom, in this case it is C. First inversion is the third on the bottom, in this case it is E. Second inversion has G on the bottom, which is the fifth. Find all three version on the bottom three strings.
That was not too hard, right? Now you want to take the fifth note of the scale and do the same. This means you take G and do the same thing with a G major triad. The same rule applies. You use the 1, 3 and 5 of the G major scale. How do you know what those notes are? Scales are just notes going up a ladder. You “scale” a ladder. It is imply climbing one note at a time, letter by letter. There are only seven notes in the musical alphabet, and when you get to G you start over back at A. the trick is that you need to know what scales have sharps or flats. I mentioned the circle of fifths in my last article. There are many images on line you can look at. Do a search for “circle of fifths image” and voila.
My next article will address the circle more directly, in the meantime, try this exercise on all four adjacent groups of three strings on the guitar. That is learning twelve voicings, after the twelfth fret everything repeats. Next article I will give you the key to unlock twelve times that since there are twelve keys. If you have any questions, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will help you understand. Peace, and I am going to try to get off my butt and start a YouTube channel giving more visual displays of what I mention. If you wanna drop a line to say hello, please do. Until next time, ciao, RR.
