Guitar Lesson Eight
Building Chords
Once we understand about the scale note degrees we can start stacking notes into chords. The chord we’ll start with is a C major chord.
All major chords share the same characteristics. They have three notes, and those three notes are the 1, 3 and 5 degrees of the scale. So for instance, a C major chord has the notes C,E and G which are the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale. You can play that in the first position with your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the A string, your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the D string and the open G string.
The blank chord sheet pdf can be used for noting your chords. The heavy horizontal line at the top represents the “nut” and the vertical lines represent the strings, with the E6 string on the left and the E1 string on the right. It’s as if you were holding the neck of the guitar in front of you!
…and writing tabs
We can also start to write down our own tablature (or “tabs”) to help us remember what notes we want to play. Take a look at the video on this page and download the blank tab sheet.
Your challenge: write the C chord in one of the diagrams, and write “C” above it so you’ll easily see which chord it is. Do you know any other chords? Write them on some of the other diagrams on that page. Next, download the blank tab sheet and use that to note a simple melody line. The video will help you figure out how do that. Your melody line could be from a song you know or one you make up yourself!