I’m going back to basics for the guitar playing songwriters amongst you. The more experienced guitar players won’t find much new in these articles, but for those of you who have been playing for a little while and know a few chord shapes, this should help to bring together the different shapes you’re using, help you draw connections between them, and show you how you can begin to create and understand some new chord shapes.

CAGED

There are essentially five chord shapes on the guitar:- C A G E and D (easy to remember, they spell the word ‘CAGED‘). This week we’re going to look at C.

The basic open C shape is one of the first we learn as guitarists. Like all chord shapes, this can be turned into a movable shape as the diagram below shows:-

This gives you another movable chord shape – with your fourth finger in the fifth fret it becomes a D major chord, at the seventh fret, E major.

There are also lots of changes you can make to this to create different chords. For example, by barring with your first finger and removing your second finger you can get this shape:

This is a major seventh chord.

How do I know? Well, in the major scale the seventh note is always a semitone (one fret) down from the octave. I know that the note the second finger usually plays is the octave (eg. it’s another D in a D chord) so I need the fret below to make the chord a major seventh.

Similarly, I know the sixth note in a major scale is two frets up from the fifth. The fifth note in this case is played by the first finger, so I can create a sxith chord by playing this shape (though I need to rearrange my fingers to do so)

Wether you’re up on the theory or not, creating new chord shapes (or at least, chord shapes that are new to you) can be a great way to add some new flavours to your songwriting. Here are a couple more C-based chord shapes. Let me know if you find any others that sound good!

Edit: The free ebook ‘How to Hamonize’ is now available. Click here!

How can I harmonise my melody?

You can harmonise any melody using just three chords.

Really? Great! Which three?

I, IV and V.

Erm… no, you’ve made a mistake, chords have letter names: A, C, F, G…

They do, but they can also be given numbers. Roman numerals are used to generalise.  Every major scale is different, but they all have the same structure, so they have the same kind of chords. Chord I is always a major, chord IV is a fourth up and major, chord V is a fifth up and major.

For example: in C major the three chords are C, (made up of CEG), F (FAC) and G (GBD).

The notes in this scale are C D E F G A B C. Every single note of the scale can be found in those three chords CEG, FAC, GBD.

But how does that help me add chords to a melody?

Okay, let’s take a look at a well known melody:

Oh when the saints, go marching in

C     E     F     G          C    E       F    G

Oh when the saints go marching in

C     E       F    G        E     C    E      D

Here’s just the melody: Download

If you have a good enough ear, you’ll be able to hear that most of those two lines fit with one chord. If you know enough about music theory you’ll be able to see that the vast majority of the notes used are from the C major chord: C, E and G.

The only notes that don’t fit with that chord are the Fs and the D at the end. Now the Fs don’t happen on important words, they fit with the word ‘the’ and because they fall on weak beats, we can pretty much discount them when choosing our chords.

The D on the other hand isn’t in in our C chord, and it falls on a strong beat, the first beat of a bar. Therefore we need to change. Which primary chord has a D in it? G major (GBD).

Here’s the melody with those chords added:Download

In the next post we’ll take a look at how to find chords for the rest of ‘Oh When the Saints’.

What is the root note of a C major chord?

C, of course!

What bass note should you use for a C chord?

C!… or E…. Or G?

Come again?

You get a choice. Often you’ll hear C in the bass of a C chord, but that isn’t the only option. An inversion or ‘slash’ chord is where you change the bass note. So a C chord could be in…

• The root inversion – C in the bass
• The first inversion – the 3rd, E in the bass
• The second inversion – the 5th, G in the bass
• The third inversion – The 7th, B (or possibly Bb) in the bass.

Here are some other good posts about chord inversions:

• www.guitarator.com
• www.guitar.about.com
• www.musiced.about.com

In music, a cadence is the very end of a musical phrase. They often consist of a consonant ‘home’ chord, and a tense, dissonant ‘away’ chord.

The Traditional Cadences

• Perfect – chord V to I, for example G to C. This sounds finished and ends lots of phrases.
• Imperfect – chord I to V, for example C to G. This sounds unfinished and leaves the listener wanting a conclusion.
• Plagal – chord Iv to I, for example F to C. This sounds finished and is heard as the ‘Amen’ at the end of lots of traditional Hymns.
• Interrupted – chord V to VI, for example G to Am. This sounds unfinished and gives you an unexpected leap into something new.

Alternatives

In general a cadence can consist of any two chords if one is consonant and one dissonant.

So in A minor you’d have a ‘finished’ cadence if you moved from G to Am at the end of a phrase. Am to G would sound unfinished.

Or, in E phrygian you might use Em, then F to create an unfinished cadence because the F wants to fall back to the Em.

Summary

Creating appropriate moments of tension and release is vital if your music is to hold the listener’s attention. What chord progression are you using? Are you ending ‘away’ when you need to come ‘home’?

Leave me a comment if you found this post useful