Two Things That Can Help Your Chord Playing Now

KNOW THE NAMES/ORDER OF NOTES

You don’t have to be a theory whizz to get by on Guitar, but it can seriously help with all aspects of your playing – learning new tunes, working out riffs, improvising and more. So, get to know your notes!

C C#/Db D D#/Eb E

F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A

A#/Bb B C

Starting from C the notes, move up and there are 12 notes before I reach the next C, which we call the octave. You’ll notice that every sharp also has a flat name. Confusing at first I understand! Broadly speaking we’ll use the sharp names when ascending and the flat names when descending at first. How do I apply this to guitar? Well, every fret is one of these notes.

For example, if you start with the 6th string (low E) the first fret would then be F. The second fret is F# (which can also be called Gb but remember, when we’re ascending we’ll call it the sharp name) and the third fret is G. You could then do the same with the other strings (5th string Open A, 4th string Open D etc). Yes, this seems like a lot of notes to remember at first and it is. But, the important thing is that you can actually work them out!

Barre Chords

Open chords are great. They’re used all the time for any level of player. But, to really start learning more material and have more chords up your sleeve, barre chords are the next step. Typically the first barre chord shapes you will learn are Major and Minor, the most important thing for these is to know the root note.

Major Minor

Figure 2 shows another two shapes that you might be familiar with. The difference with these (other than the actual shapes) is that the chord name/root note comes from the 5th string. So, the first fret is A# or Bb Major or Minor, the fifth fret would be D Major or Minor.

Major Minor

Figure 1 shows Major and Minor chords with the root on the 6th string. This means that we can take our knowledge of note names and then move these shapes up and down the neck. For example, move it to the 3rd fret and you’ll have G. Then just use either the Major or Minor shape to create G Major or G Minor. Move it to the 6th fret and it will be A# or Bb Major or Minor.

Just think how useful these will be! Playing a song with predominantly open chords and then a C#m pops up? No need to worry anymore – decide which root note shape is appropriate (5th or 6th string) and play a barre chord.

To take the next step with these concepts, you can then explore more voicings and chord qualities (7ths/9ths/13ths etc) and move them around the neck. You can also start creating chords using your knowledge of notes across all the strings.

BY NICK BROWN