Tip on Finding Notes in Chord Shapes

[SunnyDee]

This is for pseudo-beginners who get that scales have degrees and what a third, fifth, and octave is and how minor chords are different from major ones, etc. This is about voicings, which are the order that the notes are played in within a chord. This tip was a revelation to me when I started learning theory, oh, way back last month.

Beginners often start learning chords with the "put your fingers here and strum like this" approach without really knowing what they are playing. For me, it was a just a mass of random confusion when I first started and I'm terrible at memorizing masses of disconnected info so I need to understand the system behind it. If you understand what the chord shapes are, you can understand how to make new chords, how majors relate to minors, what the heck sus chords are, the difference between C7 and Cmaj7, etc.

Here's the tip (discovered on LicknRiff video on youtube): In a standard tuned guitar, there are just 2 normal voicings (order the notes are played in) for chords. One for the G shape chords (G - the 3-finger one, C, and that little open F under the open C that you play before you can barre) and one for all the other shapes (E, A, D, barre based on them, etc.)

From the low string to the high one, G shapes chords are played in order 1, 3, 5, 8 (like on a piano). Root, 3rd, 5th, octave. The extra strings, if all strings are played, are 3, 8. So, a 6 string chord, G (the one with three fingers), is playing the notes in the order from low to high as 1,3,5,8,3,8 (GBDGBG). The 5-string C cuts off that last string to play 1,3,5,8,3. The 4-string little F is 1,3,5,8. Get it?

All the other chord shapes including the barres based on them are played 1, 5, 8, 3, (5, 8), with an octave between the 5th and 3rd so six string E is EBEGBE.

Play around with it and challenge yourself if it's new to you. If you didn't already know where the 3rds are, now can you see why Emajor removes that finger to make Em? Can you see the difference between that three fingered G and the four fingered one? How could you make a sus2 or sus4 chord without memorizing more shapes, etc. Good luck!

EDIT: I added pics below.

[EllaMom]

Thanks SD, for posting this. What I'm finding is that when instructions are written out entirely in narrative but no diagrams or video/live teacher to illustrate, I have a hard time grasping the concept entirely. That's just me. I'll have to go through it slowly, guitar in hand, to see if I can follow you thru to the end.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by EllaMom

Thanks SD, for posting this. What I'm finding is that when instructions are written out entirely in narrative but no diagrams or video/live teacher to illustrate, I have a hard time grasping the concept entirely. That's just me. I'll have to go through it slowly, guitar in hand, to see if I can follow you thru to the end.

Me, too. I know. I feel the same way.

With this, it's just that chords are either played with the notes in the order 1358 or in the order 1583. That's the important thing. That the notes aren't randomly distributed in the chord shapes.

The rest just makes it clearer and more specific.

[Earwitness]

Good post!

[Earwitness]

At this point, I may use this backward. That note you move between minor/major--that's the third, dummy!

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Earwitness

At this point, I may use this backward. That note you move between minor/major--that's the third, dummy!

Good thinking. Would you recognize when there's an extra 3rd higher, too?

[amyFB]

I like anything that has a pattern and I'm going to chew on this and see how it aligns with the 135 triads that I know and use a lot.

Edit: funny I never think of 8 as 8, but as 1 sitting either on the bottom, middle or on top of the chord shape.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by amyFB

I like anything that has a pattern and I'm going to chew on this and see how it aligns with the 135 triads that I know and use a lot.

Edit: funny I never think of 8 as 8, but as 1 sitting either on the bottom, middle or on top of the chord shape.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Same for me. In my line of work, I only had to count 0 or 1.

I will use 8 when showing somebody the major scale elements to show the octave, but as with many things in teaching, illustration and common practice are often two different things.

Tony

[Toby Walker]

The way I learned the notes on the fretboard was by making it all about having fun. I would first learn a great chord or lick that I could use in a particular key and play the bejeebers out of it until it became a part of my DNA. Because I also associated that lick with its root note, that note also became memorized... without me even having to put in any effort at all.

I still teach folks how to do it that way and trust me, they're having loads of fun doing it.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by amyFB

I like anything that has a pattern and I'm going to chew on this and see how it aligns with the 135 triads that I know and use a lot.

Edit: funny I never think of 8 as 8, but as 1 sitting either on the bottom, middle or on top of the chord shape.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Actually I don't either. I find it easier to remember this if I think of them as all 1s, but I wanted to be accurate as to the way the idea is usually presented.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

The way I learned the notes on the fretboard was by making it all about having fun. I would first learn a great chord or lick that I could use in a particular key and play the bejeebers out of it until it became a part of my DNA. Because I also associated that lick with its root note, that note also became memorized... without me even having to put in any effort at all.

I still teach folks how to do it that way and trust me, they're having loads of fun doing it.

I think that's a great way, though being a late beginner, I felt a needed shortcuts. Do you have some methods for teaching your students how chords are constructed, something that can lead them to understand how they might form a chord themselves beyond memorizing a new shape? I don't have a teacher, so I'd love to hear more methods.

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by SunnyDee

I think that's a great way, though being a late beginner, I felt a needed shortcuts. Do you have some methods for teaching your students how chords are constructed, something that can lead them to understand how they might form a chord themselves beyond memorizing a new shape? I don't have a teacher, so I'd love to hear more methods.

Absolutely. Take that open C chord for instance. Look at the first three strings. From the 3rd string to the 1st string the notes are G, C, and E.

Now take the 3rd string (G) and, using JUST that string, go up the fingerboard until you reach the next note in the sequence... a C. That will be at the 5th fret. Memorize where it is.

Next, go back to that open C chord. The note on the 2nd string is a C at the first fret. Isolating JUST that string, go up the fingerboard until you reach the next note in the sequence... an E. That will be at the 5th fret. Memorize where that is, taking note that it is directly underneath the C that you found on the 3rd string... both at the 5th fret.

Next, go back to that open C chord. The note on the 1st string is an open E. Isolating JUST that string, go up the fingerboard until you reach the next note in the sequence... a G. That will be at the 3rd fret.

Finally, if you put all of those notes that you just found together, you'll have another C chord - C on the third string, 5th fret; E on the 2nd string, 5th fret, and G on the 1st string, 3rd fret. Now you have two ways of playing a C chord.

If you use this same technique - from your 'new' chord' at that 3rd and 5th fret and move up the fingerboard, you'll discover the 3rd variation of the C chord.

Ok.. so here's a visual for you.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

Finally, if you put all of those notes that you just found together, you'll have another C chord - C on the third string, 5th fret; E on the 2nd string, 5th fret, and G on the 1st string, 3rd fret. Now you have two ways of playing a C chord.

If you use this same technique - from your 'new' chord' at that 3rd and 5th fret and move up the fingerboard, you'll discover the 3rd variation of the C chord.

Ok.. so here's a visual for you.

Toby, thanks so much for sharing that! That's awesome. It's cool that you chose this one because, this week, I've been really focusing on the first 3 strings. My goal is to get more comfortable with melody and it's often played there.

I've used a similar idea where, since I know how the guitar in standard tuning is laid out, I can find a major/minor 3rd from any note. Using this and the knowledge of how triads are formed from 3rds, I can find chords where the root starts on any of the first 3 strings and I've matched that to the shape of scales starting on any of the first strings.

For example, the shape of a major scale that starts on the high E is the same shape for a minor scale that starts on B, so the same finger shapes that make triads from any of those roots will be used for every single major or minor scale anywhere on the neck.

This has allowed me to see easily how the notes in the scales are related to each other, to play the diminished chord as easily as the others, and so many other things.

Additionally, there are only 2 other possible shapes for maj/min scales on those 3 strings. For all of these scales all up and down the fretboard, all of the maj/min triads can be made with only 6 finger shapes, add 3 more and you can play all diminished chords, too. It will easily adapt to other scales, blues, Hungarian, Persian, whatever.

My melodic vocabulary has just completely opened up, all from studying those first 3 strings, so what a great start you giving people with this idea.

[amyFB]

Originally Posted by SunnyDee

Toby, thanks so much for sharing that! That's awesome. It's cool that you chose this one because, this week, I've been really focusing on the first 3 strings. My goal is to get more comfortable with melody and it's often played there.

I've used a similar idea where, since I know how the guitar in standard tuning is laid out, I can find a major/minor 3rd from any note. Using this and the knowledge of how triads are formed from 3rds, I can find chords where the root starts on any of the first 3 strings and I've matched that to the shape of scales starting on any of the first strings.

For example, the shape of a major scale that starts on the high E is the same shape for a minor scale that starts on B, so the same finger shapes that make triads from any of those roots will be used for every single major or minor scale anywhere on the neck.

This has allowed me to see easily how the notes in the scales are related to each other, to play the diminished chord as easily as the others, and so many other things.

Additionally, there are only 2 other possible shapes for maj/min scales on those 3 strings. For all of these scales all up and down the fretboard, all of the maj/min triads can be made with only 6 finger shapes, add 3 more and you can play all diminished chords, too. It will easily adapt to other scales, blues, Hungarian, Persian, whatever.

My melodic vocabulary has just completely opened up, all from studying those first 3 strings, so what a great start you giving people with this idea.

here is a link to a cheatsheet i made for myself - it's all about moveable chords. https://www.dropbox.com/home/How%202...heetTriads.jpg

learn these shapes, memorize the root note position, learn the notes on the first four strings, and the entire neck is available for you to use.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by amyFB

here is a link to a cheatsheet i made for myself - it's all about moveable chords. https://www.dropbox.com/home/How%202...heetTriads.jpg

learn these shapes, memorize the root note position, learn the notes on the first four strings, and the entire neck is available for you to use.

Hey, dropbox says the folder doesn't exist. I'd love to see it.