A great image from the folks at http://www.12bar.de/.
This diagram helps to put staff notation, guitar tabulature, notes and pitches, piano keyboard and various other instrument ranges in perspective!
Click on picture to view full size image
Part 2 of the highly effective and helpful technique to memorize guitar chords. Remember not to “walk” the chords one at a time but “land” them all at once. It takes some practice but once you begin to utilize this technique regularly, you will begin to really see better results in memorizing and “grabbing” guitar chords however difficult they may be.
Let me know how it works for you, leave me a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!
This is an excellent video tutorial on soloing the blues in the style of BB King on the electric guitar. Blues soloing is comprised of various blues chords (which he demonstrates) and rhythms along with fills and solo licks made over those chords.
What I mean by “solo licks made over those chords” is positioning your hand as if you were to play a chord and then hitting notes which are a part of the pentatonic scale which makes up the chord. Put more simply, you just hit notes which sound appropriate to the chord (typically one or two frets up from the fret you are basing the bar of the chord on). This will take some practice to learn which notes sound right for the chord and which do not if you are unfamiliar with music theory.
Practice the different chord shapes and blues licks that he employs and then begin adding in some vibrato, hammer-ons, pull-offs and exaggerated bending. After you begin to feel more comfortable, start creating your own licks over chord patterns and see what you can come up with. This will help you to develop a more “improvisational” ear which is key to blues soloing.
Keep practicing and don’t forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!
When discussing chord translation between the Guitar and Piano, one key concept is the difference in inversions typically played on each instrument. An inversion is simply the arrangement of notes in a chord. To help smooth this out, and look at the Guitar from the perspective of a pianist, we’ll discuss how chord inversions can be easily understood (and played) on the Guitar:
First, the Piano is a lot more “loose” when it comes to standardizing simple chord inversions. There is no real de facto way to arrange the notes when playing chords on the Piano. Using the C Major chord as a simple example, a pianist can play it in the form of (first note-second note – third note) as C-E-G, C-G-E, G-C-E, and so on. Depending on the song and arrangement, a pianist may use many differing inversions when playing chords.
Guitar tends to be a lot more straightforward with chords usually being played in “root position”. First, let’s understand what a chord tonic is — a tonic is the first note of a musical scale. Using C Major as our example, we have C-D-E-F-G-A-B, so C is the tonic. Root position is when the tonic of the chord is the lowest (bass) note. Again, for C Major the tonic is C. If we play a C Major chord that does not begin with C, then it is not in root position and thus is called an inversion.
How to create an inversion:
There are three common inversions called first inversion, second inversion and third inversion. Notes following the tonic of the chord are labeled as 3rd, 5th and 7th in each of these inversions. For C Major (C-E-G), C is the tonic, E is the 3rd because it is the first note after the tonic and G is the 5th because it is the second note after the tonic.
As such, every Major triad chord (Major chord with only three tones) has a tonic, 3rd and 5th of a Major scale. Every Major Seventh chord is made up of a tonic, 3rd, 5th and 7th of a Major scale. See the table below for other common of chord structures beyond this.
Common Inversions Summary:
First inversion: The 3rd of the chord is the bass note.
Second inversion: The 5th of the chord is the bass note.
Third inversion: The 7th of the chord is the bass note.
Using these chord constructions, you can mimic an inversion played on the Piano, on the Guitar! Practice breaking down the chord, finding the tonic, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th and then piecing it back together to form whatever inversion is desirable. Depending on the inversion and the tones making up the chord, it may be difficult to position all of your fingers around the chord, but keep practicing and you may even discover some unique more piano-esque chordal arrangements to use in place of the same old root position chords.
| Guide to Forming Chords | |
| Type of Chord | Chord Structure |
| Major Triad | 1st (root) + 3rd + 5th notes of a major scale |
| Minor Triad | 1st (root) + 3rd + 5th notes of a minor scale |
| Diminished Triads | 1st (root) + flatted 3rd (b3) + flatted 5th (b5) notes of a major scale |
| Augmented Triads | 1st (root) + 3rd + sharped 5th (#5th) notes of a major scale. |
| Major 7th Chord | 1st (root) + 3rd + 5th + 7th notes of a major scale |
| Minor 7th Chord | 1st (root) + flatted 3rd (b3) + 5th + flatted 7th (b7) notes (derived from a major scale) |
| Dominant 7th Chord | 1st (root) + 3rd + 5th + flatted 7th (b7) notes of a major scale |
| Sixth Chord | 1st (root) + 3rd + 5th + 6th notes of a major or minor scale. |
| Dominant 9th Chord | add a ninth to a dominant 7th chord (1st + 3rd + 5th + flatted 7th + 9th) |
| Major 9th Chord | add a ninth to a major 7th chord (1st + 3rd + 5th + 7th + 9th) |
| Minor 9th Chord | add a ninth to a minor 7th chord (1st + 3rd + 5th + flatted 7th + 9th) |
| sus2 Chord | 1st (root) + 2nd + 5th notes of either a major or minor scale |
| sus4 Chord | 1st (root) + 4th + 5th notes of either a major or minor scale |
This video tutorial jumps right into fingerpicking for the beginning guitarist. It teaches you the terminology, notation and proper technique which first and foremost must be understood before you begin learning how to fingerpick.
Remember to start out keeping your hand steadily hovered over the strings and then naturally pluck each string with the finger directly above it without moving your right hand. After it begins to feel more natural, try speeding it up a bit while concentrating on keeping your right hand steady and making your fingers do the work.
Keep practicing and enjoy and don’t forget to leave a comment by clicking on the comment link or entering them in the form below!
The Random Chord Generator is ideal for displaying random chord sequences. These may be used for practice purposes to help with music instruction, or for stimulating creative ideas in songwriting and composition. Chords may be practiced on many instruments, including piano, guitar, bass, saxophone, trumpet. Choose Triads, 7th Chords or both. Although there are many more varieties of 7th chords, the four most common types are represented in the Random Chord Generator. Enharmonic alternates for each black note chord are included in the options (C# or Db). View online or print out. (If chords appear blank on printout, select “Print Preview” and then print from that window.) Special thanks to Christopher Felten for developing this nifty Random Chord Generator script.