Chord Construction Guide
Published by Justin Guitar Ltd
© 2009 - Justin Guitar Ltd
All rights reserved.
Written by Justin Sandercoe.
Version 4.1 (PDF version)
Please do not copy or distribute my work.
The web site gives away a lot for free so please don’t abuse it…
Chord Construction Guide - Contents
Part 1 - The Essential E and A Shapes
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Before You Begin
How To Use This Pack
All The Notes in C
Chords In The E Shape
Major Breakthrough with Minor Changes
E Shape 7th Chords - Major 7
E Shape 7th Chords - Dominant 7
E Shape 7th Chords - Minor 7
E Shape 7th Chords - Minor 7b5
Exploring The A Shape
A Shape Major to Minor and 7ths
A Shape min7b5
Sussing Out Sus Chords
Sus Chords in E Shape
Diminished Possibilities
Consolidation of E and A Shapes
Part 2 - Exploring the fingerboard
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
Exploring the D Shape
D Shape Triads
D Shape Quadads
Major 6 Chords
C Shape issues
Suspended C Shapes
C Shape Quadads
Minor 6 Chords
The G Shape Terror ;)
Major and mini minor?
Sussing out the G Shape
G Shape Maj7 and Dom7
G Shape Min7, Min7b5 and Dim 7
G Shape 6th Chords
Outro… where to go from here?
Part 3 - Reference: all chords shown in five positions
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
Major, Minor Grips
Sus2, Sus2 Grips
Maj7, Dom7, Min7 Grips
Min7b5, Dim7
Maj6, Min6
Page 3
Before You Begin
Before you start on this course I suggest that you go through Practical Music Theory - so
that you understand how chords are constructed and some understanding of keys. It will
also be a big help if you know where the notes are located on the guitar neck. Some
knowledge of the CAGED Major scale shapes would also be an advantage but you can learn
these as you go.
Please note that I use both the word “voicing” and “grip” to describe a particular way of
playing a chord. Both mean the same thing - a way of positioning your fingers to play a
certain chord. This term is important because there are many different “grips” for the same
chord - even within the same position.
The path we will take is looking at one CAGED position at a time - starting with the most
common shapes - the E and the A shape.
We will look at all of the notes that are contained in the major scale that fits around that
shape and working out what notes to add or change to make new chords.
Using this approach means that you don’t need to remember hundreds of chords, but just
the scale shapes and the knowledge needed to adapt those shapes into any chord you want
to play. This is a far better approach than the traditional “learn all the shapes by wrote” this way you will truly understand the make up of a chord, the many ways of playing that
chord and the relationships contained within it!
In each section we will look at a number of the most common chords types and the most
common ways of playing each. There are many options for playing every chord and I will
just present some of them, you get to explore on your own too!
I will give you all the chords shown in this pack in a reference guide at the back, but writing
them down yourself is a better idea. Make up your own chord book of common chords and
grips that you like - writing them out will help you remember them and I also believe that
writing things down in a logical way helps order the information in you mind and means
that you can access the information faster. Of course you will also come across other chords
not listed in my reference pages and you should include any new grips that you like in your
own chord book.
The method presented in these pages requires you to use logic. I do not think that spoon
feeding is the right way to learn - it is the course of your own discovery that will shape you
as a player and help you find your own voice on the instrument!
Remember if you get stuck to check out the forum on the web site for extra support and
advice. (www.justinguitarcommunity.com)
Good luck and take care
Justin
www.justinguitar.com
Page 4
How To Use This Pack
The aim of this book is to give you a thorough understanding of chord and scale
relationships. This information will enable you to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Understand chords (grips) that you are currently playing.
Make up your own chords.
Understand why a chord may be played a number of ways on the neck.
Understand the relationship between scales and chord shapes.
Consolidate your understanding of the CAGED system and its use.
Develop a good chord vocabulary.
Moveable Shapes
All the chords in this book are written in the key of C, but always remember the guitar rule:
ANY SCALE, CHORD OR ARPEGGIO THAT DOES NOT USE OPEN STRINGS CAN BE PLAYED
ANYWHERE ON THE NECK.
For this reason it is very important that you are always aware of which note is the root note
(also called the “tonic”) so that you can move the chord to any position of the neck and
know it’s name!
For example, the root note for a regular E Shape Major Chord is on the 6th string. Place the
root note on the 5th fret (on the note A) it will be an A chord. Place it on the 9th fret (the
note C#) and you will have a C# chord. It is really basic. For every moveable shape that
you learn (all the chords in this pack will be moveable) you will learn 12 new chords!
That makes this method very useful and means you no longer have to consult a chord book
to find out how to play F#min7 - just find a root note (in this case an F#) and then use a
min7 chord grip. It’s that easy :). Now all you have to do is physically be able to play the
grips, which just takes practice…
Chord Fingering
The fingers that you use to play a chord change in different styles and situations. I will give
you a suggested fingering for “general use” - but you are free to use whatever fingers feel
right for you. There are many great players who play very differently and that is all good there is no “one way” to play guitar or everyone would sound the same! There are no
fingerings shown on the reference pages, but you may wish to add your own.
Try to use logic in your choices though - don’t be lazy.
And don’t be scared to stretch out for a chord if it’s a really nice one. For beginners many
chords can seem almost impossible to start with but with a little work become very
achievable. Work on the finger stretching exercise on my web site if you really struggle.
Page 5
All the notes in C
Before we get into the first shape make sure that you are
familiar with all the notes on the fingerboard - shown here
in the key of C. We will often refer to these notes and the
sooner you can get them into your memory the better.
There are many exercises in RUGS1-PMT to help you
remember them. I will of course show you all the notes for
each example anyway but the better you know the notes
the more sense the shapes will make in your mind.
It is also very important that you know the notes so that
you can locate an appropriate root note quickly. You will
find that learning the chord shapes will be fairly easy, but if
you don’t know where to place them you will be a bit stuck.
I want you to be able to find any of the chords in this
ebook within a few seconds if not instantly. That should be
your aim!
Use The Dots
Be aware of the dot markers! They are extremely valuable
in the ‘real world’ where you need to find you chords easily
and quickly. If you play a classical guitar then make your
fret markers with sticky paper, or try using tip-ex
correction fluid (I use that on my classic guitar!).
Chords written in TAB (short hand)
Sometimes I will write a whole chord using another short
hand method if it seems clearer to do so. For this I will
always write TAB: and then 6 numbers or x’s.
The thickest string is the first number and the thinnest the
last (on the right). “x” means that string is not played. A
number refers to a fret to be played on the relative string.
“0” for an open string - though we will not be using many
of these in this course!
An open C chord using this method would be written:
(TAB: x 3 2 0 1 0)
Page 6
Chords In the “E Shape”
This first section will be the longest as there are many concepts to explain and things to
think about. Just take it slowly and make sure you understand each step that we go
through. Understanding the process is as important as learning the chords!
Major Scale Notes Around The E Shape
Lets start by looking the notes of the major scale - built
around and E shape Major chord. I hope this shape is familiar
to you. It is usually the first barre chord shape that is taught
and is based around the shape of an E open chord from
where it’s name is taken.
Notice of course that the C Major scale will always contain
the notes C D E F G A B C. You should know this from the
theory course.
I have added a grey background to the notes of the chord
shape so that hopefully you can see the relationship of the
notes of the scale and the notes selected from the scale to
for the chord.
HINT: When you practice scales try and always see the chord
shape within the scale. A good approach is to always play
chord - scale - chord to help you get familiar with the
relationship. As you progress you will see the shapes easily
and it is faster to find the chord shape than all the scale
notes!
Major Scale Degrees Around The E Shape
What we will now do is change the letter names to the scale
degree names.
That is C (R) D (2) E (3) F (4) G (5) A (6) B (7).
I will always use R (root) instead of 1 just to keep it very clear
to you which note is the root note. It is the key to being able to
use the chord in many ways - without knowing the root note
you will only know the chord in one position, but with it you will
know it in many!
Each time we look at a new shape I will show you the
relationship between the basic CAGED chord shape and the
related major scale - all chords can be found if you understand
the basic notes and the relationships as you will see.
Page 7
Major Breakthrough with Minor Changes
The fun begins :). We now start exploring why it is so useful to know the scale degrees of
the chord shape and how we can then change them into other chords…
Just The Chord Tones
To start we will strip away all the notes except the chord tones for our E Shape Major barre
shape. You can see clearly (I hope) that our E Shape Major grip is made up of only the
Root, 3rd and 5th degrees of the C Major Scale.
Once we know what the chord tones are it is easy to change our known chord shape into
some other chords.
Major to Minor
The most basic chord change we can make is to change a
major chord into a minor chord.
Hopefully you remember that a Major chord contains the scale
degrees 1 3 5 and the minor chord contains 1 b3 5.
To flatten a note all we must do is lower the
semitone (one fret). In this case it is very easy
the chord is only contained once in this grip.
diagram below and see that it now contains only
b3 and the 5th.
note by one
as the 3rd of
Look at the
the Root, the
HINT: Understanding how these chords are formed is an
important part of learning the guitar in a practical sense too.
This bit of knowledge explains why playing the 3rd string of
this E Shape minor chord clearly is so important - if you don’t
get that note to ring out you will not be able to hear that it is a
minor chord!
It is also the principle that I want you to understand, because
we are about to apply this concept to a whole heap more
chords and you need to understand the basic premise shown
here or it will be too complicated to follow the future lessons.
This concept applies to all 5 of the CAGED shapes (with varying
degrees of success as will be shown later as we will cover all
the positions and the pros and cons of each shape as the
course progresses.
Page 8
On To The E Shape 7th Chords
Major 7th Chords
Those of you that remember the Chord Theory from Practical
Music Theory will know that to construct a Major 7th chord you
add the 7th degree of the Major scale to the triad. In this case
that will be adding the note B.
C Maj 7 = 1 3 5 7
In the diagram I have included the notes from the E Shape
Major chord form and the additional 7th degree (Yes there is
another on the thickest string too but having the 7th degree in
the bass is not commonly used, and so I have ignored it for
now).
There are a few possible ways to play this chord. I am going to
show you the one that is the most common and is also the best
for demonstrating this “chord morphing” technique. It is shown
in the lower diagram.
Playing this chord requires you to either play finger style (using
the thumb to play the bass note and the fingers to pluck the
remaining chord tones) or to use the first finger to gently touch
the 5th and 1st string to mute them. This is the most common
grip for a Major 7th chord and it is recommended that this is the
one you use for normal playing. Using a barre is not
recommended for now…
Variations
The other common grip variation for this E Shape C Maj7 chord
is (TAB: x x 10 9 8 7). This is also a nice grip and sounds pretty
with the 7th degree on top. Those more adventurous among you
might like to come back to this grip and apply the following
principles to it and see what you come up with - it will be worth
it ;) you will find some well cool (if stretchy) grips.
Variations By Inspiration
There will be many variations of every chord that we look at. To include every one would
defeat the purpose of this book. I want to inspire you to explore the instrument and find
your own chord grips. I will of course give the information needed to guide you in the right
direction but I want you to become your own teacher.
Don’t be afraid to try new things. Experiment. Get creative. That is how the guitar greats
that we love so much came up with cool new ways to play. It may seem a little difficult just
now but I can assure you that with a little thought and bit of courage you can find some
pretty cool tricks all by yourself. You might have the next Jimi Hendrix living inside you,
just waiting to get out :)
Page 9
Dominant 7th Chords
Dominant 7th chords are very similar to Major 7th chords - in fact the only difference is that
the Dominant 7th (usually just written as 7) has a b7 scale degree. So the only thing to do
to our Major 7th chord is lower the 7th degree by 1 semitone (1 fret). Easy :).
The grip shown on the left is a classic jazz 7th chord grip
that would require you to either play it finger style
(plucking hand thumb plays the bass, the fingers the
chord, left hand uses a barre) or to use an odd left hand
fingering - Fingering from left to right would be 1 2 4 3.
This version is not the most common grip but it sounds
very cool. A strange thing about chord grips is that
sometimes the ones with less notes sound fatter and
cooler than those with lots of notes. Sometimes this chord
is played without the 5th included in the grip and that also
sounds really cool - chords often sound better with less
notes! (TAB: 8 x 8 9 x x).
Shown below is the more commonly found way of playing
the Dom 7th chord. It is fine in many applications - each
different grip is better in certain circumstances… This grip
that uses all 6 strings might be better for a finger picking
type arrangement or for singer songwriter style of
strumming, but really not cool in jazz! Let your ears guide
you and you can’t go wrong.
The bracketed note is another optional note that you can
add in or leave out - up to you. Have a listen and decide
when it might be good to use that little finger on the b7. It
really just a choice that you will make in the moment. One
is not better than the other.
Choices, Choices, Choices
So you want the good news or the bad? Well the good news is that in this course you are
going to learn a whole heap of ways to play the same chords. The bad news is that you will
have to choose between them!
The choice is completely subjective. In some circumstances one chord may sound better
than another. Only you can make that decision at that moment! You have to use your
judgement and experience to choose a particular grip over the others. You can always
change, even during the same song, or bar!
Eventually you will learn to “hear” the sound of a particular chord grip and be able to apply
it instantly, but this comes with a lot of practice and a lot of listening (and transcribing) so
for now - just experiment and explore the grips!
Page 10
Minor 7th Chords
Now we get to play with a little logic. Minor 7th… hmmm… minor means to flatten the 3rd,
and 7 means to add the flat 7 (don’t forget that the Maj 7 adds the regular 7th scale
degree, a 7 on it’s own ads the b7…)
So we have already changed a chord from Major to Minor,
and another chord from Maj7 to Dom7 so all we do is
combine these two moves together and we get the Minor 7th
shape :)
Minor 7 = R b3 5 b7
Any time you see a b3 in a chord it is a minor type chord.
Easy and very clear rule (unlike many other rules in chord
theory!).
This grip may look a little unfamiliar to you, it is one
commonly used in jazz and funk, like the Dom7 chord we
looked at last, sometimes leaving off some notes can make
it sound better!
The trick with the fingering with this grip is to play strings
2/3/4 with a barre using your 3rd finger and then to reach
over with your 2nd finger. It may seem a little awkward at
first but this grip is a good one, very useful for jazz and this
particular group of notes (voicing) has a very clear sound.
The “traditional” grip for this chord can sound a little
cluttered, mainly because of the 5th near the bass - but
again it depends on the context. Sometimes it will be the
perfect chord for a given situation! It can be a little tricky to
get the barre to hold down so many strings clearly at once especially on an acoustic guitar. Another good reason for
working on the top grip!
Comparisons
Compare this to the Dom7 and see that the only difference is the b3rd. Then compare it
back to the original E Shape Major grip back on page 6 - it is really important that you see
the similarities between the shapes.
It makes it a lot easier to remember them if you just have to remember one grip and then
what you have to do to that grip to make it into a host of other chords. Especially as we
work through all 5 positions with a number of different chords - you need to get these
basic 7th shapes clear in your mind (and the logic behind them).
Try and build a mental map of the “function” of every note in every chord that you play.
Page 11
The Minor 7b5
The minor7b5 appears naturally in the diatonic series of chords. (REVISION: it is chord VII
in a key - so in the Key of C it is Bm7b5).
It’s a good one to check out because you can start to see the logic in the names of chords.
It is simply a minor 7th chord but with the 5th degree of the chord flattened a semitone
(fret). It’s actually pretty easy and very logical when you get to grips with it all. And this
same theory goes for all other chords too, but there are varying degrees of complexity
depending on how many notes there are in the chord - as we will see later…
So compare this chord shape to the regular minor 7th chord. I
hope you can see clearly that it is the same but with the 5th
degree flattened by a semitone.
There is not a regular big barre chord version of this chord and the fingering for the grip shown is usually with finger 2
on the bass note, 6th string. Fingers 3 and 4 go on the next
two notes (4th and 3rd strings) and finger 1 on the 2nd string.
It is quite and interesting sounding chord, not used a lot in
pop and rock, but a lot in jazz and has some interesting blues
applications as a substitute chord… but that is another story,
and will be told another time :)
Comparing the Four 7th Chord Shapes
So far we have looked at Major 7, Dominant 7, Minor 7 and Minor 7b5 Chords. These are
the most basic forms of these chords and we will learn them in all 5 positions of the CAGED
System - and add some new funky chords along the way as we go further into the course.
But these are the basics.
The interesting thing about these chords is how closely they are related. By changing just
one note from the chord it becomes the next chord!
Major 7 =
Dominant 7 =
Minor 7 =
Minor 7b5=
1
1
1
1
3
3
b3
b3
5
5
5
b5
7
b7
b7
b7
(the b7)
(the b3 for minor)
(the b5)
You can see clearly by comparing the chord voices how closely they are all related and
knowing this it a lot makes it easier to remember all the different grips.
Don’t be in a hurry. If you are not sure about what we have just covered, re-read it a few
times and get it clear in your mind. Better to know a few things well and be able to use
them, than know a lot but play very little!
Page 12
Exploring The A Shape
The next shape on our list to explore is the A Shape. This is because it is a very common
barre chord shape, and one that most people learn after the E Shape. All the chord shapes
become pretty logical visually if you remember the rules discussed in the previous pages.
Lets start by finding all six chord types that we have
looked at so far:
Triads: Maj, Min.
Quadads: Maj7, Dom7, min7 and min7b5.
First lets look at the basic major shape with all the Major
scale notes surrounding it. You can see that now the root
note is found on the 5th string.
Notice that the root note is often not the lowest chord tone
available.
Before you ask - yes the note G on the 6th string could be
included in the basic major shape but it is better for these
examples to have the root notes as the lowest note. It
usually sounds better and is easier to learn this way. Leave
playing with “inversions” (when the lowest note is not the
root note) until you have all these ones down and you
know why you might want to play an inversion! Learn what
you need to…
Next we look at the chord and scale in relation to the scale
degrees as shown in the lower diagram. We will come back
to this scale overlay again as we check out our first 6
shapes.
Learning the 5 Major Scale Positions
If you have not got around to learning your 5 major scale positions - this lesson might help
you see another reason why they are important to learn - it’s not just all about playing lead
guitar! Even rhythm guitarists can benefit from learning scales and a little bit about how to
use them :). Make sure that you start by learning Positions 1 and 4 of the Major Scales and
practice them with the chord shapes we cover in this ebook. Or you might want to check
out my DVD, Master The Major Scale, which covers how to play and use all five positions!
REMINDER: A great way of doing it is to play the Major Chord Shape, followed by the scale,
and then the Chord again. This will help you cement in the relationship between the chord
shapes and the scale.
Page 13
Major To Minor In The A Shape
Lets start with the most basic transformation. On the left you can see the A Shape Major
chord (with all the excess notes removed) and on the right, the minor shape.
It is almost the same. We have
simply lowered the note that was
t h e 3rd o f t h e c h o r d b y o n e
semitone (one fret) to give us the
b3 degree- the characteristic note
that makes things minor!
Remember that in practice the
thinnest string is often left out in
the Major shape, and the 3 notes in
a line are played with a finger 3
barre, lifting enough to mute the
thinnest string. See the web site for
more technical details on playing
this chord.
7th Chords In The A Shape
Look back at the scale chord diagram on the previous page (bottom left) and you will see
that there is only one obvious 7th degree that we can add to the major shape to get our
Major 7 chord (the other is lower than the root note so not useful for us at the moment).
From the Major 7 we can build all the other 7th type chords.
As you can see above it is very easy to adapt the Major 7th chord (left) into the Dominant
7th (centre) and minor 7th (right) grips. They should all be relatively easy under the fingers
and if you have understood everything so far you should understand how we got to each
one. If not then please re-read the previous pages so that you can clearly see the
relationship between all the chords. That is what I want you to learn...
Page 14
Dropping a note
The remaining shape (min7b5) is a little tricky as the 5th degree of the scale appears twice
in the standard min7 grip. The version I recommend as a starting point is shown below the 5th degree that was found on the thinnest string is now removed completely and you
simply don’t play that string.
The other common way to play it that deserves a mention is
(Cmin7b5 - TAB: x 3 x 3 4 2) which sounds pretty cool. Both the
grip shown and the alternative are useful grips, as usual it is up to
you to decide which you might use when!
This shape is best not played with a barre - use all fingers - 1 3 2
4 from left to right). Most importantly - remember to mute the 6th
string with the tip of finger 1 and mute the 1st string with either
the underneath of finger 4 or the under side of finger 1.
This one shape has many different applications - and also many
different names depending on the note you decide to be the root
note. This Cmin7b5 could also be an Ab9 or an Eb6. But that is
another story and will be told another time ;)
Naming The Beasts
Naming chords can be a little confusing when you first approach it. It will become clearer
and you will understand the logic as your journey continues. The most important things
you can remember are that:
• There is often more than one solution to every problem.
• Music is about sounds, not theory.
As explained briefly above, many chord grips have different names, depending on what
else is happening around it, or how you decide it should be! This kind of understanding is
one that comes with time and perseverance, it uses logic the whole way, so just try and
battle out any naming problems that you have. The answer will be there and sometimes
the journey will teach you more than the destination!
Also keep it clear in your mind that music is the art of sound, not of theory. Sometimes
things that should not work in theory sound fantastic. If it sounds good do it - never mind
about the theory! Sometimes things that theory says should work sound terrible, in which
case don’t do it. You ear should always be the deciding factor as to whether something
works or not.
• Believe in your ears!
• If it sounds good, it is good.
Page 15
Sussing Out Some New Sounds
The next chord type we will look at are the Suspended chords. Some of you will know that
Suspended (or Sus) can be thought to mean “take away the 3rd and replace with…”. There
are two types of Sus chord: a sus4 and a sus2. Lets look at the chord formula for each…
Maj =
1
3
5
Sus4 =
1
4
5
Sus2 =
1
2
5
As you can see the 3rd of
degree. Because the 3rd is
chords are neither, and can
sound very cool and have a
the chord has been replaced with either the 4th or 2nd scale
the note that controls whether a chord is Major or minor, Sus
be used as a substitute for either, very useful indeed - and they
lot of space in them.
Playing Sus in A Shape
Starting by looking at the basic scale overlay for A Shape and
the chord shape within it. You can see that the 3rd of the chord
only appears once in the basic major shape so to remove it and
replace it with the 4th is no problem. You must try and
remember that the 4th scale degree is just one semitone above
the 3rd.
This chord is usually played without the 5th on the thinnest
string; it makes it easier to play and actually sounds better in
most circumstances (shown below).
You would play the standard A Shape Major chord using your
3rd finger for the barre on strings 2/3/4 and then add your little
finger on the 2nd string to add the Sus sound. The under side of
finger 3 or finger 4 need to mute the thinnest string so it does
not sound. That way it is easy to lift on and off too, which is a
common way of using the Sus sound - as an embellishment.
You can also play it using your first finger on the root note and
then fingers 2 3 4 (left to right) on the others but it is quite a
stretch with very little benefit.
A good exercise is to play just the standard major shape and
then add on the Sus4 for a few strums and then take it off
again. I’m sure you will recognise it - it forms the main riff in
many pop songs.
There are lessons on using the Sus sound in the beginners
course and also in the Chords are of my web site. Might be
worth a look if you are not sure how to use these cool sounds!
Page 16
Sus 2 in the A Shape
Playing the Sus2 sound in the A Shape is very common and
sounds fantastic. Many people use it when they cannot play the
barre properly with finger 3 and do this as a cheat. Look back at
the previous page with the chord and scale overlay and you will
see clearly that the 2nd degree of the scale is available under the
barre, so you can also include the 5th on the thinnest string
easily.
You might notice that it looks very similar to a 5th string root
Power Chord but with the barre down.
This really is a great sounding chord and can be used to replace
either major or minor chords - you have to use your ears to tell if
it is good or not - there is no “rule”.
Sus Chords In The E Shape
The Sus chords are a little awkward in the E Shape position. Shown below is
the scale and major shape and then the most common Sus chord grips for the
E Shape - Sus 4 in the centre and Sus 2 on the right.
They are a little awkward but can sound pretty cool and we should try and
learn all the shapes where we can. The Sus 2 is usually played with the bass
played with the thumb grab over the top of the neck, but many people find
this technique difficult, so the other option is to just leave off the bass note
Page 17
Diminished Possibilities
The last shape I would like to look at in this first section is the Diminished 7th chord. Often
wrongly referred to as just a diminished. A diminished chord is just a triad (R b3 b5) where
as a diminished 7 chord contains the 7th too (R b3 b5 bb7).
Notice the use of a bb7. This is a double flattened 7th, which in practice is the same as the
6th scale degree. The double flat is used to keep it aligned theoretically with other chords
and also to reflect its “natural” use in the harmonic minor scale (which we are not covering
in this book).
So staring with a min7b5, we need only flatten the 7th again to get our dim7 chord.
Shown on the left is the A shape
dim7 grip (you can tell by the 5th
string root), and on the right is the
E Shape dim7 grip. Go back and
compare them now to the related
min7b5 shapes.
Try and compare
step of the way.
just made the bb
fit them in, they
same!)
the chords every
Note that I have
a little smaller to
are the just the
Stacked Up Minor 3rds
There is a very interesting trick associated with diminished chords. Between the notes in
every diminished chord is a minor 3rd interval - they are called symmetrical chords because
of this. It means that in practice that every note of the chord can be considered a root
note! It’s kinda strange, but very cool, and means that it is easy to play cool sequences
with them.
Try it for yourself. Look at the first shape - the Cdim7 shown on the left. Putting the root
note on the 3rd fret (on the note C of course) you will have the notes C Gb Bbb (A) and Eb.
Now move the shape up 3 frets and see that the notes you are now playing are Eb, Bbb
(A), C and Gb. Cool huh :) Move it up another 3 frets and the same happens again. Get in
there and do it yourself now and check it out!
Once you have played a diminished chord a few times and moved it up and down 3 frets at
a time, you should start to recognise it quickly - it has a very distinctive sound.
Yet another reason to make sure that you know the notes on the fingerboard!
Page 18
Consolidate
It is worth noting at this point that a thorough understanding of all the chords so far is
pretty much essential to an improving guitar player. The chords that follow are fun, useful,
sound good and are part of the complete package - but it is the chords up to this point that
would constitute the basics.
Learning all your E Shape and A Shape chords should be the first thing on your agenda
before continuing on to the following sections. It might be fun to read through it and absorb
the information and concepts but for playing - make sure you can use the chord types
covered so far before learning more.
Better to know a few chords and how to use them than know hundreds and not be able to
play a thing because you spent all your time learning chords instead of songs!
A good way to start exploring all the chords covered so far is to look at a little bit of jazz some classic standard songs like “All Of Me”, “All The Things You Are”, “Polkadots And
Moonbeams” or “Autumn Leaves” would be good starters to get you exploring these grips.
Remember that you must memorise both the root note and the shape to have the chord
properly in your mind. And you must also know the notes on at least the bottom two strings
of the guitar if you are to place the chords at the right fret!
Lets just quickly revise what you have so far.
E Shape -
Major
Minor
Maj 7
Dom 7
Min 7
Min 7b5
Sus 4
Sus 2
Dim 7
A Shape -
Major
Minor
Maj 7
Dom 7
Min 7
Min 7b5
Sus 4
Sus 2
Dim 7
That is 9 chord grips in each shape, total 18 chords.
Remember that when you multiply that by 12 (every shape can be played on every fret so
you get all 12 chromatic root notes) that gives you a whopping 216 Chords!!
I hope you can see that by learning how the grips are connected it makes them easy to
remember and there for you can learn and have in your memory a whole lot of chords
pretty easily :)
So please take your time and learn all the chords so far and then when you are ready, start
the next section where we will check out the rest of the CAGED shapes, and some
interesting new chord types.
Page 19
Exploring the D Shape
Next on our agenda is the D Shape. It has some very useful chords contained in it but we
are getting away from “common” chord positions.
The biggest issue for most people trying to use these chord shapes is that the root note is
on the 4th string, and people are generally less familiar with the notes on it than on the 5th
and 6th strings. Don’t let that be you! Try and learn all the notes on the fingerboard as soon
as you can. It is not hard to do using the Six Key Tones and Octaves as shown in RUGS Part
1.
Let’s start as usual by exploring all 9 of the chord types that we have looked already and
then add in another :). Of course we start by looking at the scale chord relationships.
You can see clearly that the lowest root is on the 4th string, so we are going to be dealing
with quite small grips on the thinnest strings for now.
On the following pages you will find all of the chord types that we have covered so far.
There is nothing that you should not understand, but make sure that you look at all the
relationships - see the similarities between all the chord shapes and try and remember the
concept as well as the shape!
I have now divided the chords into triad (3 note) and Quadad (4 note) chords.
Page 20
D Shape Triad Grips
Major To Minor
The major shape can be a bit of a stretch but not a killer. The minor is pretty straight
forward I think. Try and mute the 5th string with the tip of your first finger for all these
shapes and try not to play the 6th string as you pluck or strum the strings.
Sus 4 and Sus 2
These ones are pretty straightforward to play, use a finger 4 barré on the top two strings
for the Sus4 and a finger 1 barré for the Sus2. Notice the 4th is just a fret higher than the
3rd and the 2nd is a tone (2 frets) lower than the 3rd.
Page 21
Quadad Chords
Make sure that you look at the relationships of the notes. They should be pretty obvious the grips are very clear and you should see quite quickly how the first shape morphs into
the new chords.
Fingering notes
The Maj7 is best played using a finger 3 barre. The Dom7 should be obvious. The Min7 can
be played using all 4 fingers or with a finger 2 barre (can be a little tricky when you first
try, but worth it). The Min7b5 is best played with a barre; use either finger 2 or 3. The
diminished is usually best played with all 4 fingers, not a barre, but sometimes a barre will
be preferred in jazz chord melody style.
I hope you can recognise the chords by the notes that are used. Write the chord names
above each grip.
Page 22
Major 6
The Major 6 chord is a very cool sound, used a lot in rockabilly and jazz. It is particularly
useful when the melody is playing the root note, as a Maj7 type chord will contain the 7th
degree of the scale, which will sometimes clash with the melody note (because they are a
semitone apart).
The Major 6 chord contains R 3 5 6, though sometimes the 5th is omitted, making it easier
to play and less dissonant.
Look at the scale chord relationship diagram for D Shape on
page 18 and notice that there is only one obvious place to put
the 6th degree.
It is easy to see that it is the same as the Dom7, but with the
7th degree moved down one semitone to the 6th.
This chord is usually played using a finger 1 barre and fingers
3 and 4 on the other notes.
Again I will stress the importance of understanding the
relationship or every chord to other chords. The names are
obvious when you understand what they mean!
Major 6 in E and A Shapes
There are a few ways of playing both these chord types in these positions. Shown here are
the two most common in my experience. The E Shape requires all fingers to be used
(incidentally a great exercise for finger movement is to change from Maj7 to Maj6
repeatedly as fast as possible).
The A Shape Maj6 shown is a great
ending chord in early rock ‘n’ roll
style. Just play it like you normally
would a regular Major type A Shape
barre but let your 3rd finger lie flat
down on all the strings. It’s a pretty
cool sounding chord.
See if you can figure out alternative
versions yourself. They will require a
little thinking, but it is worth
learning… you will get a lot of
knowledge by trying too - make
yourself think about the chords and
how they are made up. It’s not hard
to make your own chord shapes!
Page 23
C Shape Issues…
Ok then. Now we start to have a little fun. So far we have found all the chords quite simply
in each position, but with the C shape, things become a little more complex. Many of the
chords are hard to play, have multiple grips and fingerings that all seem about as hard as
the next. I will try and explain the pro’s and con’s with each as we go through them, but
the choice of which grip to use will often depend on the sound - so that is up to you.
As usual lets start by looking at
the chord and scale relationship.
The scale fits around this shape
very well and you should find this
relationship pretty easy to
remember… just some of the
chords are a bit strange ;)
I will explain the practical
examples in the key of F so as not
to be playing at the 12th fret...
remember they can move to any
fret you like!
Major To Minor
The major shape is pretty easy, requires all 4 fingers to be used and a half barre with your
first finger. The minor grip presents more challenges! There are a few options for this
chord. To play the suggested grip, do not play the bracketed root note. You will have to use
all 4 fingers. Another common grip is shown in the reference pages at the back that use the
root note, but it is quite awkward to get to in a hurry! (F min - TAB: x 8 6 5 6 x)
The one shown on this page is
more playable and the one in at
the back is more “in position”.
You choose which suits you ;)
The C Shape minor grip is not
used a lot compared with other
minor grips, but you should know
it and include it in your practice
routine so that you can use it
when you need to.
Page 24
Suspended C Shapes
The Sus chords in the C Shape are a little awkward but quite useable. They are usually
played with just 3 notes.
The Sus4 shape can be played with just the strings 5/4/3 as shown (leaving out the
bracketed root note on string 2) or leave off the lowest root note and include the bracketed
root note on string 2 (Fsus4 TAB: x x 8 5 6 x). Both ways of playing it sound pretty cool.
The second method described above is really nice when you resolve the 4th down a
semitone (one fret) to the 3rd.
The Sus2 has the same options as the Sus4 shown above: either strings 5/4/3 as shown on
the right or strings 4/3/2 (Fsus2 TAB: x x 5 5 6 x).
Both chords (particularly the string 4/3/2 grips) are used well to create atmospheric
textures. Experiment with some digital delay effects and playing the notes of the chords
one at a time, they have a very interesting “air” to them that create a lot of space. Bands
like U2 use this effect quite a lot.
Shown in the reference pages I have used ones that requires all 4 notes to be played quite a stretch, but sounds cool if you can manage it!
Page 25
C Shape Quadad Chords
The fun with the C Shape keeps getting better as we look at the 7th chord grips. The Major
7th shape is pretty straight forward, but you will see that adapting them to the other types
of 7th chords are not quite as straight forward as for the earlier chord shapes.
You can see by looking at the Major 7th that the 7th degree needs to move over to the 3rd
string when we flatten it for the Dom7. Also shown is the optional 5th, which is cool if you
leave off the root on the 5th string (it’s also shown to help with the transition to min7b5).
The change to the min 7th just flattens the 3rd as usual.
The next 3 shapes shown are the min7b5. I have shown the diminished grip again (it’s
same grip as the D Shape dim grip but with a different note as the root! Remember that
any note in a diminished 7th chord is the root!
The last shape (on the right) is the Maj6 shape, and is a very common way of playing this
chord, possibly the easiest and coolest way of playing a Maj6 chord.
Page 26
Minor 6 Chords
The minor 6 chord is a less commonly played than other we have looked at so far but is a
very sweet sounding chord and well worth having in your chord book :). It has the same
formula as the Major 6 but with a minor 3rd.
The formula for the min 6 is R b3 5 6. Again the 5th is sometimes omitted to keep
dissonance to a minimum.
Lets have a look at the C Shape min 6 first. It is usually
played using a finger 1 barre and fingers 2 and 3 on the
other notes.
You have to be a little careful where you put a min 6
chord. It is not as easy to use as some of the other
chords; it can sound very sour in the wrong place.
It really needs to be functioning as a II chord. The theory
behind this is a little out of the scope of this book, but
the basic gist of it is that the notes you can add to a
minor chord depend on the key and the function of the
chord (meaning a minor can be any one of the three
minor chords in a key… the II, III or VI).
The minor 6 in E, A and D Shapes
It would be worth comparing all your major 6 grips with these minor 6 ones and noting the
similarities and differences. The E Shape grip is a very tasty grip and sounds very cool
moving from the min7 to min6 for bossa style jazz. The A Shape in the centre is a little
different from the E Shape grip for Maj6 but sounds very hip. Maybe you should work out
the other version too? (hint;)) The last D Shape is pretty standard and is obviously derived
from the Maj6 grip.
Page 27
The G Shape terror ;)
The last shape that we look at now is the G Shape. This is probably the least used of all the
CAGED shapes. This is because many chords in this grip are either very awkward or just
impractical. Although they exist in theory, they are rarely, if ever, played.
I will show you all the basic forms that are commonly used and a few others that are not
really used in the “real world” but are worth looking at. These rare grips are just shown for
you to have a complete and solid understanding of the fingerboard and I feel that it would
be wrong not to include them.
I will show you which of the chords are used and how. Many of them are broken down into
smaller more useable shapes.
Lets start as usual by looking at the scale and chord relationship.
I have included two bracketed notes that are needed for some of the grips, they are the
same notes, but have just moved over a string so they might be easier to play as part of a
chord shape.
Remember that there are many ways of playing these scales, the ones I show you are the
ones that I feel work best in the majority of situations, but there are others.
Page 28
Major and mini minor?
The Major shape shown below is possible to play, but awkward and not often played in full.
To play it in full requires a full barre and stretching out fingers 2/3/4 to play the notes. But
usually you would just play some of the notes.
A common way of playing the chord is to use only strings
6/5/4/3 using a barre with finger 1 and using finger 3 and
4 to play the 5th and 6th strings. If playing this be sure not
to play the 1st string. TAB below shown in C.
TAB: 8 7 5 5 5 x
The other common alternative is to play only the thinner
strings. Note that there are two options on the 2nd string.
You can either play the 3rd or the 5th degree. I have
bracketed the 5th, as it is more common to play the 3rd
with the barre. The two TAB options are shown below in
C, the root note being on the thinnest string. Play the
notes on the 8th fret (either one or two notes) with finger
4 (as a small barre if playing 2 notes).
TAB: x x 5 5 5 8
TAB: x x 5 5 8 8
The minor grip of this chord is really only played using
the thicker strings 6/5/4/3 as shown, and even then it is
quite rare.
The problem with the thinner string grips is the position
of the 3rd. The 3rd degree of the chord (on the 2nd string)
when moved down a fret (the b3 for the minor) becomes
part of the A Shape and if the b3 is played on the 3rd
string becomes part of the E Shape.
Check it out, but expect not to use this grip a whole lot!
Page 29
Sussing out the G Shape
The Sus chords in the G Shape are used less than with the other shapes. They are quite
possible to play, but again only smaller grips are used, the full 6 strings grips are pretty
much physically impossible.
Shown below on the left is the Sus4 grip. The grip I would recommend is using the thinnest
four strings as shown, with the root note on the thinnest string. It sounds cool but lacks the
root note on the bass, which make the other grips so much more useable.
It is also possible to play the sus4 chord using strings 6/5/4/3 with a barre on strings 3 and
4 and a big stretch out with fingers 3 and 4 to play the thickest strings - the bracketed
notes (Csus4 TAB: 8 8 5 5 x x). It is quite physically difficult and not a particularly rich
sound, considering the amount of effort it requires.
On the right is the Sus2 grip, again with the root note on the thinnest string. Note that we
need to include the 5th of the chord (on the 2nd string) so as to eliminate the 3rd.
Like the Sus4 it is possible to play it using the thickest strings. There is only a tone
between the root and the 2nd degree of the scale, and when those notes are played on the
thick strings they tend to sound unclear. But sometimes you might want that sound...
(Csus2 TAB: 8 5 5 5 x x).
Page 30
G Shape Quadad Chords
So next up we have the Quadad chord grips :). Among these are some very useful grips
and some thoroughly useless ones!
As usual we start with the Major 7 grip (on the left) and then we start adapting it to find
the other grips. This Maj7 grip is very cool but quite dissonant because the 7 and the root
are only a semitone apart. It sounds very cool when you play the notes one at a time. It is
quite a stretch to play. Use a finger 1 barre on strings 2 and 3, finger 3 plays the low root,
finger 2 on the 5th string and little finger stretches up the 4th string. Tricky but sounds cool.
If we flatten the 7th degree, we get the dominant 7th chord shown in the centre. Use the
same fingering as for the Maj7 but slide the little finger back a fret. Another tricky stretchy
one! Remember not to play the thinnest string for either of these grips.
The last grip shown on the right is a very common Dom 7 grip, well worth learning. You
can play only the thinnest 4 strings (use a finger 1 barre) and 2nd or 3rd finger on the b7
degree. This is a very common grip for playing the blues, having the b7 as the highest note
makes it’s bluesy character stand out!
You can also reach over with your 3rd or 4th finger to the root note on the thickest string,
you will find that the 5th strings probably gets muted by the underneath of the finger
playing the root - which is desirable! I have shown this with a X on the 5th string. Make
sure that it gets muted if you are going to use this grip. Shown in the reference guide is
the “full” grip using all 6 strings. Hard but can be useful!
Page 31
G Shape Quadads (continued)
Now we are into some very sticky territory… The problem with our next 3 shapes, the Minor
7 and min7b5 and dim 7 is that the turn into the other shapes when we apply the usual
rules. But let have a look anyway…
The minor 7 chord, left, presents some challenges. Using the b3 on the 3rd string plunges us
into E Shape territory, and moving it back a fret (still on the 2nd string) puts us in A Shapes
grips. This leaves us with the way shown below. I don’t find this to be a very useful grip,
though I guess it must have its moment.
The min7b5 presents similar issues. The grip I have shown (the centre chord) is very
awkward and hard to get to, but has its occasional use!
As you can see the diminished 7th grip on the right is the same as the A Shape grip with a
different root note!
It would be worth you thinking about these chords to see if there are any other grips that
might have left out ;) There are some other grips that are not used very much but will help
your general understanding by thinking about it. Just let your curiosity roll and have a look
about…
Page 32
G Shape 6th chords
We’re down to our last couple of grips now. :)
The Major and Minor 6 chords in this grip are quite fun. The Maj6 shown is quite easy to
play and sounds pretty cool too, sounds very similar to the A Shape grip. Use a barre of
course and either fingers 3/4 or 2/3 to play the low notes, it’s dependent on your stretching
ability!
The min6 grip shown is quite awkward and not one that you would like to have to get to in
a hurry but has quite a hip sound.
G Shape Syndrome
Because there are few chords in the G Shape that are frequently used, many people brush
over them too quickly. By all means spend less time on playing them, but make sure you
understand them. Why? Because later they will form the basis for all your scale and
arpeggio shapes as you learn to apply scales and arpeggios to chord it is very useful to
have a full understanding of the CAGED system and not the CA?ED system!
So even though you may not use them as much in the real world, make sure that you learn
the basic shapes and understand where they came from!
Page 33
Outro…
Well here we are at the last page. Lets just re-cap on what you have learnt.
• A massive 55 Chord grips (11 in each position). Multiply that by the 12 chromatic
steps and you get a cool 660 chords!
• A solid understanding of how chords are constructed and the ability to make up
your own new grips.
• A clear picture of how the CAGED system allows you to position each chord all over
the fingerboard.
Where to now?
Well you have probably noticed that we have not yet covered 9 11 and 13 chords yet, or
chord with alterations (#5 £9 b5 or b9). These chords are more complex as they contain
more notes and the grip possibilities expand a great deal. They will be covered in a future
pack. But you should have enough of an understanding to go at them alone if you fancy a
challenge ;)
I would recommend that you take some time to properly master these chord grips. Get
them all into your memory. Use them. Don’t just learn them. Jazz is a great place to use
them and a basic understanding of jazz harmony makes a lot of other music make sense
too, especially in the areas of key changes and chord progressions. Something we will be
looking at very soon.
I would also recommend that you spend some time finding some other ways of playing
these chords. There are many more than those shown in this pack and in the following
reference guide. I hope that you will not use the reference pages often; I strongly advise
you get them into your head as soon as possible. You know the logic and how the chords
are related so it should not be too hard.
Start your own chord book of chords that you know. It will help you remember them if you
have them written down. It helps your mind keep them in a logical place. When you learn a
new grip check out how it relates to other grips that you already know. Link in new
information and you will remember it a lot easier.
Good luck
I hope you have enjoyed our little journey and feel a lot more confident with your chords.
Questions of course can be left in the forum at the address below. Thanks for your interest
and please let me know your thoughts on this pack, if it’s room for improvement, or if you
really liked it. Thanks for reading.
Take care, be safe and be kind ;)
Justin
www.justinguitar.com/forum
Page 34
Major Grips
R
Minor Grips
R
R
R
R
R
X
X
R
R
R
X
R
X
X
X
R
R
R
R
X
X
X
R
R
R
R
X
R
R
R
R
R
Page 35
X
Sus2 Grips
X
Sus4 Grips
X
R
R
R
R
R
X
X
R
R
R
X
R
X
X
X
R
R
R
X
R
X
X
X
R
R
R
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
R
Page 36
Maj 7 Grips
X
X
Dom 7 Grips
X
X
Min 7 Grips
X
R
R
R
X
X
X
R
R
X
X
X
R
X
X
X
R
R
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
X
R
X
X
R
R
R
R
X
R
R
Page 37
X
Min 7b5 Grips
X
Dim 7 Grips
X
X
R
R
X
X
X
R
X
X
X
R
X
X
R
X
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
Page 38
Maj 6 Grips
X
Min 6 Grips
X
X
R
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
X
X
X
X
R
R
X
R
R
R
Page 39