Figuring out chord shapes
Basic chord structures
I remember when I was just 13 years old, starting guitar lessons in 1976 - and in the back of my “Alfred’s Basic Guitar Method” book was an entire page filled with chords. As a beginner, I had no idea what all of these chords were used for. All I knew, were the basic beginner chords that my teacher showed me. Why does a diminished-seventh chord sound so weird? What is a minor-six chord used for? I only understood the chords I played in the songs I liked, but I did not understand why anyone would use those other strange kinds of chords. Why did they even exist? What were the used for? What I didn’t know at the time was that these oddly named chords were used as transition chords in the context of chord progressions songs. I would later find out that there were these other, even stranger chords called, “Extended” or “Jazz” chords. Whoa! This was way beyond my learning curve. Or was it?
Would you believe that there “mathematically exists” somewhere around 22,000 chords on the guitar? Yikes!
I would spend many years dismissing the use of these kinds of chords. This was way before I started teaching beginner guitar lessons. The main reason for this dismissal was because I played bass guitar in all of the bands I was ever in. I really didn’t see a reason to build my chord vocabulary on guitar, especially if I’m playing bass guitar in bands. This was my own selective ignorance shining brightly on my arrogant youth.
I moved to Florida and began playing with real players, pro and semi-professional musicians who knew theory and jazz because they had gone to music schools. When I started teaching guitar lessons, I quickly began to realize that what I knew on my guitar, I couldn’t necessarily prove to my students when they would ask me questions about basic music theory. So, I had to buy books and study them. I read the same books over and over until I knew them cold. The more I read, the more theory I understood. It made perfect sense to me.
My purpose as a music instructor is to teach my students basic music theory that they can actually use. One of the most popular questions I get asked is: “Why is this chord called a ____?” Honestly, music theory can invoke a significant amount of intimidation to many of my beginner students. I mean, I get it. It intimidated me when I was taking lessons as a kid.
In the diagrams below, you will see both the 6th and 5th string root layouts for the guitar fret board. You will need to study the outlines of these structures in order to understand how to figure out just about any possible chord on your guitar. You can find a list of chord structures at these links:
Numerical analysis of chords 1
Numerical analysis of chords 2
Numerical analysis of chords 3
6th-string root structures (Roman Numerical)
6th-string root structures (Basic Numerical)
5th-string root structures (Roman Numerical)
5th-string root structures (Basic Numerical)
