Comprehensible Guitar Lessons: How to easily understand the guitar chords

Tutorial for Guitar Beginners

Let’s start learning the intervals and chord construction.

A B C D E F G, the first 7 letters of the alphabet indicate the 7 main notes and the 7 main chords. In the music they start  from C.

 

But in the music there are in total of 12 notes (the chromatic scale, starting, from C)  C – C# – D – D# – E – F – G – A – B – C… Easy to locate them in a piano keyboard:

To better understand # and b: The note between C and D is called C # (C sharp), or Db (D flat).
They have an exact sound. The different name comes from the fact that if you go up from C to D is used to call the intermediate note C sharp (C #). If you go from D to C is used to call the intermediate note D flat (Db)

On the guitar fretboard the sequence is the same, except for the black keys.

How to remember the meaning of “Chromatic”.

The term chromatic derives from the Greek word chroma, meaning color. Chromatic notes are traditionally understood as the main 7 notes (the colors) with they shades (semitones)

What you will see when looking at the diagram below is the “low E” string (the fattest one) on the bottom, and the “high E” (the thinnest one) on top.

For simplicity we show first only the notes on the 6th and 5th strings (E and A).

Between the notes are the “accidentals”: sharp, # (or flat, b).

The distance between two succeeding notes is a half-tone (1/2). Two half-tones build a whole-tone (T). On the guitar each fret is a half-tone.

If we leave the sharp notes apart, then we get all the 7 natural notes on the guitar fretboard, A B C D E F G

   

      e ||--F-|----|--G-|----|--A-|----|--B-|--C-|----|--D-|----|--E-|...
      B ||--C-|----|--D-|----|--E-|--F-|----|--G-|----|--A-|----|--B-|...
      G ||----|--A-|----|--B-|--C-|----|--D-|----|--E-|--F-|----|--G-|...
      D ||----|--E-|--F-|----|--G-|----|--A-|----|--B-|--C-|----|--D-|...
      A ||----|--B-|--C-|----|--D-|----|--E-|--F-|----|--G-|----|--A-|...
      E ||--F-|----|--G-|----|--A-|----|--B-|--C-|----|--D-|----|--E-|...
           1st       3rd       5th       7th       9th           12th fret

 

 

 

 

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