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
What a jerk you are, And you obviously have no vocabulary skills.And probably play death metal crap or wish yoo could. Grow up! Take a bath, brush you teeth and get a Job.
Hey man i agree that this dude is an ignorant dick, but death metal is not crap : )
Shut your mouth you stupid fuck, this kid is doing a wonderful job, I bet it is more of a job than what you do. Also, the only thing that is awful is your spelling. Little punk.
You took the time to watch it, and I know you learned more in the 3 minutes here, than you had known to date. Bitch.
are you fucking serious??
dude he has free lessons your made because you can’t learn anything
How dare you insult Master Savage! What gives you the right Mr. High and Mighty?
How rude! You’re not suppose to talk with something in your mouth, so put something in it and plug it up!
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
true
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.
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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.
There are 8 notes or chords to each key or scale. They are arranged by number.(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 or in the key of G), G A B C D E F G. Three chord songs use the numbers 1-4-5 of the key,although other numbers will sound pleasing to the ear. 1-4-5-are major 2-3-6 are minor all can be placed in song of any key. hope this helps! Other further explanations on you tube videos.
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 !!
Brothers is such a great album it’s great to see them get some main stream suporpt and blow their old sales records out of the water. I think my favorite part though, are the videos with the stuffed T-rex. Genius.
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?
Hello! I got a problem about the Gmajor chord, with this ”chord making technik” we get the notes G,B and D for this chord. But, the Gmajor shape is normally G,B and G. The second G is on the 3rd fret of the 1st(highE) string. How come the normal note of the G chord isn’t on the 3rd fret of the 2nd(B) string which would be a D? (I saw once a guy who even used those last 2 notes, so the Gmajor chord was made of the 4 notes G,B,D n G – 6th string_3rd fret + 5th st_2nd fr + 2nd st_3rd fr + 1st st_3rd fr)
Thank you!
nate that was helpful!
Generally I do not learn post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very compelled me to check out and do so! Your wriintg style has been surprised me. Thank you, very nice post.
Man, i’ve been reading alot about chord formation, but this article really went inside my brain.. I finally know how this shit works.!! I’m grateful.
And the person above who didn’t like this article…should be hanged naked, with his head shaved and ass painted black.
I understand nothing…
to understand all these stuff most know a little bit music theory…
Hello, these lessons have really helped up to this lesson I am not understanding any part of this lesson, I’m a beginner and I really don’t know much about guitar playing can you please explain this in a more simple way? Great lessons by the way. I would really appreciate it if you replied back as soon as possible. Thankyou.
Nate I am a 75 year old beginner, learning every bit of lessons I can by bouncing all over the Internet!! I was on Guitar Tricks, Jamorama, and now picking your brains for any knowledge and tips I can pick-up to help me learn how to play the Guitar! These other teaching outlets are good, but I feel you are more precise, down to the basics teaching your method of learning with the specifics of playing the Guitar. In my opinion, you have the knowledge and skills most of us wish we had! It took you a lot of practice time to learn, and if we are serious beginners, it will also be the same for us! Rome was not built in a day, and neither will the skill and knowledge be developed in one day! One tip I have for all your comment persons, from a great deal of research is, be patient with yourself, don’t get discouraged, don’t move on from one lesson to the other until you can play a lesson well, and the only way you can do that it by repeating the lesson time after time until “YOU” can play it well. Practice ever day at a minimum of 30 minutes, go slow and progress at your own speed! Enjoy your lessons as they were fun, not as a laborious task, when you accomplish progress and having fun doing it you will enjoy the lessons as much as playing a song as it has become a labor of love! Happy time is Lesson Time!
Lastly, when I become a good guitarist, I plan on giving back to the Guitar community what I have learned, hoping that it will help those who love to play the guitar in Earnest!
Thank you a lot Nate. I learned to play guitar few years ago, but now I know hot it was done. I think this is really the best „tutorial“ how to learn play guitar. I didn’t see anything so great in the internet. I can only say a BIG THANK YOU!
And sorry for my bad English
.
I’m missing something. If I make an A chord as described above in G, I get A, C and E, but if I ty to make an A chord as described above in the key of D I get A, C#, E. Another example: in G a C chord would be G, B, D but in F it would come out as G, Bb, D. Can someone explain this to me?
Ah, not to worry, I just got it I think. Minor chords. Cool.
OH MY WORD THAT IS SO EASY!!!! I have been playing since 95 and had a vague idea about it, but never realized it was this simple!!!!
Thank you for the free lessons! It is so nice for you to do this. I am a disabled veteran and I will never be able to afford one on one lessons. This is amazing that you are willing to give up your free time for those of us in the virtual world.
I salute you!
Hannah
I’m still having trouble knowing where to start. I think you’re an awesome teacher, I’m just a little lost
HELP! where do I start? is there a certain order?
Hey Nate. excellent lesson as usual, just a simple question, where do we use this? Doesn’t seem practical. Is it for building chords whose shape we do not know? Thanks