Tag Archives: chords

The Four Types of Chords on Guitar

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 over 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.