There are three chord shapes that make up the basic guitar chords: the Important form, the Minor form and the dominant seventh form. All of these chord shapes are derived from the major scales. Once you learn these chord shapes, you’ll be able to figure out and play most rock songs.
You can begin to recognize the different chord shapes by the sound they make. There are some who even classify chord shape by the emotion a chord can evoke when you hear it.
For example, a major chord ‘sounds’ complete, as if no notes were missing. I’ve heard them called “happy” chords, because they sound full and alive. On the other hand, minor chords have a darker tone, almost a “sad” sound. Dominant seventh chords have a bluesy tone to them, sort of an unresolved sound, like you’ve lost something.
Regardless of chord shape, basic guitar chords are built from a set formula of three notes, also called triad. You have a root note, the third note and the fifth note. The root note is the first note in a scale, the third is, you got it, the third note, and the fifth is the fifth note.
So a major chord incorporates the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale. Since note 1 is the root note, it could be displayed as ‘R’ for root.
A minor chord consists of the root, a flat third note, and the fifth note, notated as follows: R, b3, 5
A dominant seventh chord simply adds a flattened seventh note to a major chord. It would look like this: R, 3, 5, b7
Since a musical scale is seven notes long (at least in Western music, which includes rock), we can begin to understand how to create these guitar chords.
To keep it simple, let’s look at the C major scale. This is the easiest to prove because every note in the C scale is a major note (the scale itself has no sharps or flats). Here are the notes in the C major scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si
Using the explanation above (notes R, 3 and 5 of the scale), a C major (C) chord would be the notes C, E and G. The AC minor (Cm) chord is the notes C, Eb (E flat) and G. The dominant seventh chord AC (C7) is C, E, G and Bb (B flat).
If this sounds like too much theory, don’t worry too much. Song tablature (tabs) generally show you where to place your fingers to form basic guitar chords. But the better you understandWhatThe more these chords are formed, the easier it will be to learn and play most guitar chords for rock songs.
