Guitar chord

There are separate chord-forms for chords having their root note on the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth strings.

For a six-string guitar in standard tuning, it may be necessary to drop or omit one or more tones from the chord; this is typically the root or fifth.

For example, the typical twelve-bar blues uses only three chords, each of which can be played (in every open tuning) by fretting six strings with one finger.

The perfect-fifth interval is highly consonant, which means that the successive playing of the two notes from the perfect fifth sounds harmonious.

An explanation of human perception of harmony relates the mechanics of a vibrating string to the musical acoustics of sound waves using the harmonic analysis of Fourier series.

With a triad, affairs stand a good chance of getting severely out of hand.The perfect-fifth interval is featured in guitar playing and in sequences of chords.

The sequence of fifth intervals built on the C-major scale is used in the construction of triads, which is discussed below.

The perfect-fifth interval is called a power chord by guitarists, who play them especially in blues and rock music.

These basic chords arise in chord-triples that are conventional in Western music, triples that are called three-chord progressions.

The basic guitar-chords can be constructed by "stacking thirds", that is, by concatenating two or three third-intervals, where all of the lowest notes come from the scale.

When played sequentially (in any order), the chords from a three-chord progression sound harmonious ("good together").

In each key, three chords are designated with the Roman numerals (of musical notation): The tonic (I), the subdominant (IV), and the dominant (V).

[f][18] In the 1950s the I–IV–V chord progression was used in "Hound Dog" (Elvis Presley) and in "Chantilly Lace" (The Big Bopper).

[21] For example, stacking the C-major scale with thirds creates a chord progression, which is traditionally enumerated with the Roman numerals I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio; its sub-progression C–F–G (I–IV–V) is used in popular music,[22] as already discussed.

[29][30] An A-major I–IV–V7 chord progression A–D–E7 was used by Paul McCartney in the song "3 Legs" on his album Ram.

For example, in the guitar (like other stringed instruments but unlike the piano), open-string notes are not fretted and so require less hand-motion.

When providing harmony in accompanying a melody, guitarists may play chords all-at-once or as arpeggios.

Arpeggiation was the traditional method of playing chords for guitarists for example in the time of Mozart.

[7] In standard tuning, the following fingerings are conventional: Triads are usually played with doubled notes,[48] as the following examples illustrate.

[60] Open tunings are common in blues and folk music,[59] and they are used in the playing of slide and lap-slide ("Hawaiian") guitars.

[59] Open tunings improve the intonation of major chords by reducing the error of third intervals in equal temperaments.

The thirds of equal temperament have audible deviations from the thirds of just intonation: Equal temperament is used in modern music because it facilitates music in all keys, while (on a piano and other instruments) just intonation provided better-sounding major-third intervals for only a subset of keys.

[65] "Sonny Landreth, Keith Richards and other open-G masters often lower the second string slightly so the major third is in tune with the overtone series.

[j] After major and minor triads are learned, intermediate guitarists play seventh chords.

[81] As already stated, While absent from the tertian harmonization of the major scale, Besides these five types there are many more seventh-chords, which are less used in the tonal harmony of the common-practice period.

[k] Only two or three frets are needed for the guitar chords—major, minor, and dominant sevenths—which are emphasized in introductions to guitar-playing and to the fundamentals of music.

[99] Extended chords appear in many musical genres, including jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, and progressive rock/progressive metal.

Quartal and quintal harmonies are used by guitarists who play jazz, folk, and rock music.

Quartal harmony has been used in jazz by guitarists such as Jim Hall (especially on Sonny Rollins's The Bridge), George Benson ("Skydive"), Kenny Burrell ("So What"), and Wes Montgomery ("Little Sunflower").

[107] Professors at the Department of Guitar at the Berklee College of Music wrote the following books, which like their colleagues' Chapman (2000) and Willmott (1994) are Berklee-course textbooks:

Ry Cooder plays slide guitar
Ry Cooder plays slide guitar using an open tuning that allows major chords to be played by barring the strings anywhere along their length.
The chromatic circle lists the twelve notes of the octave, which differ by exactly one semitone.
One-octave C major scale
C major scale
One octave played up and down in the c major scale on the piano
Problems playing this file? See media help .
Initial eight harmonics on C, namely (C,C,G,C,E,G,B ♭ ,C)
Play simultaneously
Play simultaneously
The Who's Peter Townshend often used a theatrical "windmill" strum to play "power chords"—a root, fifth, and octave.
Stacking the C-major scale with thirds creates a chord progression, traditionally enumerated with the Roman numerals I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii o . Its major-key sub-progression C–F–G (I–IV–V) is conventional in popular music. In this progression, the minor triads ii–iii–vi appear in the relative minor key (Am)'s corresponding chord progression.
An A-minor scale has the same pitches as the C major scale, because the C major and A minor keys are relative major and minor keys.
Major and minor keys that share the same key signature are paired as relative-minor and relative-major keys.
The previously noted chord progression with a dominant seventh Play ⓘ . The dominant seventh (V7) chord G7=(G,B,D,F) increases the tension with the tonic (I) chord C.
Paul McCartney used an A-major I–IV–V7 chord progression in "3 Legs", which is also an example of the twelve-bar blues.
Johnny Marr is known for providing harmony by playing arpeggiated chords.
A fretboard with line segments connecting the successive open-string notes of the standard tuning
In the standard guitar tuning, one major third interval is interjected amid four perfect fourth intervals.
C major chord in open position
A barre chord ("E Major shape"), with the index finger used to bar the strings
In standard tuning, the C7 chord has notes on frets 3–8. Covering six frets is difficult, and so C7 is rarely played. Instead, an "alternative voicing" is substituted.
Minor, major, and seventh chords (C, D, G) in major-thirds tuning
Chords have consistent shapes everywhere on the fretboard for each regular tuning, for example, major-thirds (M3) tuning.
The C major chord (C,E,G) on the bass (4–6) and tenor (1–3) strings of M3 tuning, on frets. The C note and the E note have been raised 3 strings on the same fret.
Major-thirds tuning repeats its notes after three strings.
The C major chord and its first and second inversions. In the first inversion, the C note has been raised 3 strings on the same fret. In the second inversion, both the C note and the E note have been raised 3 strings on the same fret.
In major-thirds tuning, chords are inverted by raising notes by three strings on the same frets. The inversions of a C major chord are shown. [ 76 ]
Types of triads : I ⓘ , i ⓘ , i o ⓘ , I + ⓘ
Sevenths chords are constructed by stacking third intervals on the C-major scale. Fretboard diagrams for major-thirds tuning are shown. Sevenths via tertian harmonization of major scale on C.mid ⓘ
An approximate "ranking by frequency of the seventh chords in major". [ 82 ]
V 7 ⓘ (dominant), ii 7 ⓘ (minor), vii ø 7 ⓘ (half-diminished), IVM 7 ⓘ (major), vi 7 ⓘ , IM 7 ⓘ , or iii 7 ⓘ
Sevenths chords arising in the tertian harmonization of the C-major scale, arranged by the circle of perfect fifths (perfect fourths). Fretboard diagrams for major-thirds tuning are shown. FifthsC.mid ⓘ
Disliking the sound of thirds (in equal-temperament tuning), Robert Fripp builds chords with perfect intervals in his new standard tuning.