A couple of people have emailed to ask if I could go through my recent post about the C chord shape in a little more detail.

Happy to oblige.

Every major chord contains these notes:

• The Root Note
• The Major Third
• The Fifth

Guitar chord shapes often have the same note twice in different octaves. For example, the note I’ve labelled ‘Octave’ in this diagram is the same note as the root.

There are lots of common changes you can make to this chord shape to get other chords. In fact you can make the same changes to any chord shape.

Eg.

To create a minor chord, move the major third down a fret (this particular shape can be tricky to play)

To create a major seventh, move the octave down a fret

You can do the same with other shapes. For example, here’s the same with the A shape chord.

A shape

A minor shape – the major third moves down a fret.

A maj 7 shape- the octave moves down a fret

I hope that helps sort things out.

PS. Other ideas to try:

• Move the fifth down a fret to creat a b-5 chord
• Move the fifth up a fret to create an augmented chord
• move the octave 2 notes down in a major chord to create a seventh note, or in a minor chord to create a minor seventh.

Related posts:

1. Basics – The Five Guitar Chord Shapes.
2. Basics – Some questions about intervals
3. Basics – Some questions about chords
4. Basics – How to Harmonise a Melody Using Primary Chords
5. Basics: Chords in the major scale