How Guitar Chords Are Made
Learn How Guitar Chords Are Made In This Guitar Lesson!
In this guitar lesson I am going to show you how guitar chords in a given major key are made. Each note in every major scale has a chord associated with it. We will be in the key of G major for this lesson so we will be building a chord for every note in the G major scale. It is important for you as a guitar player to know what chords occur naturally in any given major key. Knowing what chords are in a specific major key will give you a great place to start when trying to figure out or write a song.
If you don’t remember how the G major scale is spelled I will write it out for you quickly. 1G 2A 3B 4C 5D 6E 7F#. Try writing the G major scale out seven times, once for each chord that you will be building. You might want to include the number of the scale degree next to each note like I did.
Let’s start on the 1st scale degree and build a G major chord. Go to the 1G note and circle it. Skip a note and circle the 3B note. Skip another note and circle the 5D. Those are the notes in a G major chord. Notice that we ended up with 1G 3B and 5D. Simple chords, like the ones that we are building in this lesson, will always be made up of 1, 3 and 5 if you think of the 1 as the starting note or root note of the chord that you are building.
Let’s try this again but this time start on the 2A. Circle the 2A. This will be our root or 1. Now skip a note and circle the 4C. Skip one more note and circle the 6E. A, C and E are the notes in an A minor chord. A is your root, C is the 3rd note from your root and E is the 5th note from your root. A, C and E work out to be the notes in an A minor chord.
Go through each of the other notes in the G major scale and circle the notes that make up each chord. You should know that the chords that start on the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees will be major chords and the chords that start on the 2nd, 3rd and 6th scale degrees will be minor chords. This will always be the case in any major key. The 7th scale degree is always what we call a diminished chord.
Try to finish all of the chords in the key of G major. Once you have this done try doing the exact same thing with a few other major keys. This will be a lot of work and it might be difficult for you at first but don’t worry, you will get it with some practice.
Salvijus, did you first look at his beginner lessons? Or did you just assume you were an intermediate player? I think his lessons are well put together. You know you can advance at your own pace? and hit “pause” at any time, right? Take your time, make sure you aren’t skimming or skipping, and you should get it. Don’t knock good, free guitar lessons!
so this is the stupidest fucking thing ever and the video quality is shit… give up you stupid fuck. your awful
dude, you need to just go on somewhere if youve got nothing good to say…
Dude you really need look at yourself. I am glad I am not your Momma I would be embarassed. You should be grateful.
you please stop THAT i am angry at you if you to make the video sharper press 360 to 720 I hate you dont you make fun of GuitarLessons.com your ugly short, stinky smelling never change underwear armpits smell BAD
hey,sumone is trying to help her..so,if u dont think its goog…then FUCK off….if u think hes awful.just dont see it…FUCK YOU….Nate,youre the best guitar teacher…U RULEEEE
hey,sumone is trying to help here..so,if u dont think its good…then FUCK off….if u think hes awful.just dont see it…FUCK YOU….Nate,youre the best guitar teacher…U RULEEEE
Hey nate hw kan i see d practical lessons i rily nid it to aid my learning.These kids are jus 2 ungrateful…….thanks a lot nate
john when you are in guitarlessons.com do not post or comment a word that is not pleasing you dont have a good character you put bad words
whats a scale degree???
ooooooooohhhhh! I get it now!! Thanks, this is really helpful !
Great, it finally makes sense!
Thank you Nate. I wrote the 1G 2A 3B 4C 5D 6E 7F# but, the 5D should be played on the 5th fret or 7th fret on the first string? I tuned my guitar but, it sounds off. I have an acoustic guitar that had only 12 frets. It is pretty short.
sorry, but this doesn’t make sense. nothing prior to this explains how keys and chords go together. as detailed as this has been so far this part should most of all be detailed.
Just mind BLOWING!!!
THANKS NATE
wait so G, A, B, C, D, E, F# are the chords tht can be used in the key of g and they wud sound perfetly fine? any other chords wud not fit the key?
You have to understand that the minor chords will sound a bit.. Sadder. And the Major ones will sound Happier, also the 7th Degree chord may sound a bit off. So no. They will not all sound perfectly fine at first, just check your fingers and check your tuning. Your ears will get used to the difference between major and minor.
Hi Nate, some people just dont deserve to get great help, what a stupid idiot, revering to aldfja;ldfk.
Thanks for the excellent lessons, you’re a champion!!!
I agree that person is a huge douche bag. I didn’t find this lesson as helpful as others but to bash Nate for giving free info is just immature and screams of ignorance. He’s really saying Mommy and Daddy don’t love me so I’m blaming it on your video. LOL Keep up the great work NAte!
You give great advice and your lessons are fun. So much free stuff too
I wish I was more systematic, then I would buy the whole set of your lessons and follow thorouglhy every step. Unfortunatelly I cannot picture myself playing a guitar ;-( Anyway, I though, I would share my thoughts that you are a great teacher. Good Luck!
Great lesson. I’ve always struggled with picking up theory and this seems like a great starting point. It’s making sense to me so much more. I’m working my way up all the major scales, writing them out, and making the chords in each scale. Very helpful!
This is so great for all us, no matter what other people say! Thanks!
Hey Nate,
Im having a hard time understanding what you mean by “how guitar chords are made”. Does this mean for G in The Major Scale that G,B,D are the notes to make that G chord? If so, are we supposed to strum all the strings or just those strings with the notes on them?
-Thaanx
viva il nate savage
Thanks Nate, I’m learning alot !!
OK, I’m following this with my guitar and my pen and paper, and I’m having a bit of a problem…
I managed to build all of the chords in the key of G, but the last one has me a little stumped… I got F# A C as the notes I need to build the F#diminished chord, but I can’t seem to find a way to play that chord as far as the note arrangement on the fret board goes…. any ideas?