Learning Guitar - Major Chord Construction

There are four kinds of chords that encompass all others. These are Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished. The major chord is a very common chord structure in music. Before we can talk about how these chords are constructed, we need to know a little something about scales. A scale is a set of notes defined by their distance from each other. This can be broken into half and whole steps, which create intervals. Here is a brief description of how this works. The C major scale has eight degrees. A degree in a scale is simply a note that makes up the scale. The C Major scale starts with C which is the root, and then goes D-E-F-G-A-B-C. This means that C is the first and eighth degree in this scale. D is the second degree, E is the third degree and so on. So if we look at this scale in terms of degrees it looks like this I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII-VII. All major western scales are structured like this, and the only change that occurs is which notes fill which degree.

The formula for a major chord is I-III-V. That means that a C major chord contains the notes C-E-G. A chord will always include the note it is named after, which will be the root of the chord. An A major scale looks like this: A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A. To construct an A major chord simply take the first, third, and fifth degrees of the scale or A-C#-E. Here is a breakdown of the major scales.

A: A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A
A # /Bb: A#-C-D-D#-F-G-A-A#
B: B-C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A#-B
C: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
C#/Db: C#-D#-F-F#-G#-A#-C-C#
D: D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
D #/Eb: D#-F-G-G#-A#-C-D-D#
E: E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E
F: F-G-A-A#-C-D-E-F
F#/Gb: F#-G#-A#-B-C#-D#-F-F#
G: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G
G #/Ab: G#-A#-C-C#-D#-F-G-G#

From the scales above, we can now create many different major chords. Many guitarists will memorize finger position after finger position to learn chords. It is easier to simply pay attention to what notes you are playing for each chord. This will not only make it easier to remember chords, but will also improve your comprehension of the notes on the fretboard.