Lesson 6: Chord Construction

This lesson was my first step into looking at how guitar chords are put toegher.

It was lots of fun 'cause strangely enough it was making some sense!

Trying to make some sense of my notes from that lesson, one week later is, proving to be more difficult... OK so diving in without a safety net - here goes!

Short Story: 

Major chords: constructed from 3 notes (1st, 3rd, 5th) in the scale.

Minor chords: constructed from 3 notes (1st, flattened 3rd, 5th) in the scale. 

Long Story: 

Major chords are made up of 3 main notes, the 1st, 3rd and 5th note in the scale.

In the C Major scale:

1 = C

2 = D

3 = E

4 = F

5 = G

6 = A

7 = B

So C, E and G are the ones!

As a bar chord on the 8th fret: 

 

To make the Minor you flatten the 3rd note of the major scale. 

In the Cminor from the Major scale:

1 = C

2 = D

flattened 3 = Eb

4 = F

5 = G

6 = A

7 = B

C minor barred on the 8th fret:

Grokking that? 

Just remember that Major is 1,3,5 notes from the scale. 

To make a Minor from a Major chord you just flatten the 3rd note in the scale.

More next time in part 2 of chord making.