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The Four Types of Chords on Guitar

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Did you know that there are really just four basic types of chords on the guitar?

Here they are:

  • Major
  • Minor
  • Diminished
  • Augmented

In most songs, you won’t even come across the Diminished or Augmented chords, so it really boils down to Major and Minor as being the two most common chord types.

And there’s just a single difference between those two chords; the third.

Both chord types have three notes in them, the tonic or root note, the fifth, and a third.

In a major chord, the middle note is a major third which is four semi-tones from the root note.

In a minor chord, the middle note is a minor third, which is three semi-tones from the root note.

That’s it – that’s the only difference between a major chord and a minor chord (in their simplest forms, anyway!).

This is just one of the topics I cover in detail in Unlocking I IV V; in fact, you’ll learn how to build any chord you want using some very simple steps.

You can create your own versions of common chords all overĀ the fretboard, if you want to!

The Unlocking I IV V course is designed to give you a very good understanding of how music works in relation to your guitar… and how you can use theory to your advantage!

This is rubber-meets-the-road theory, stuff that will literally make you become a better guitar player.

Is Theory Just For Reading Music?

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One misconception that I come across from time to time is that music theory is only relevant if you want to learn how to read music.

Please… say it ain’t so!

I’ll let you in on a little secret, but don’t tell anyone ok?

I never read music for guitar.

Tab, occasionally yes, but not music gaming notation. Not that I can’t, but I simply don’t end up using it.

Hopefully we can still be friends. šŸ™‚

And… here’s the kicker:

I consider music theory an essential, ALWAYS-USED bit of knowledge that I end up using every single time I pickup the guitar.

Music theory gives me answers in situations like this one:

I pick up the guitar and strum a C chord, the first one that comes to mind. Great. Now what?

Well, with a touch of theory, I know immediately that F, G, Am, Dm and Em are going to be great choices to go with the C.

I also know that if I want to make a riff off that chord, I should use the A minor or C major scale – whatever is lol closest to where I’m playing the C.

Taking it a bit further, I know that I can use intervals in those scales, for instance inverted thirds, to walk my way up from the C chord to the F (barred at the 9th fret).

Theory related concepts can just keep on feeding me ideas at this point… which means I never get bored when I sit down to play – and I can improvise for an hour and not play the sameĀ  online game thing twice.

And I owe it all to knowing a bit of basic theory – and not a bit to being able to read music.

If that’s the kind of thing that turns your crank, I recommend checking out my Unlocking I IV V course.

I sometimes call it my Crash Course in Guitar Theory.