Guitar chords, Learn how to play guitar chords

Minor and major guitar chords, root 5 and root 6 bar chords.

I don't want to get to deep in theory right away, but I would like to explain some important information about the Am pentatonic scale and it's relation to the key of C major. The key of C major is made up of 7 different guitar chords. These guitar chords are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B dim.

The Am pentatonic scale comes from the key of C major and this will be explained in more detail later. We will be adding two notes to this scale which will allow us to play lead over all of the guitar chords in the key of C major using the Am pentatonic scale root note position. You will begin to see why it is important to learn every position of the Am pentatonic scale. We will eventually convert each of the positions into modes of the major key.

Since we will be covering the key of C major, it would be a good idea now to learn the chords and notes of this C major key. The next page shows a few chords in more detail and also includes sound files for each of the chords.

Major chords are always shown by their name alone. Example, E, G, C, D, F and so on. Minor chords are always shown with the small (m). Example: (Am) = A minor (Em) = E minor and so on.

The guitar chords that I would like for you to learn first are listed below. C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B diminished. Don't worry about playing these chords, I just want to explain a little bit about them first.

The image below shows the Am pentatonic scale. The second illustration below, shows the same scale, but with two extra notes added. These two notes are the F and B. We have now added all of the notes of the key of C major. Once again the notes and chords of the C major scale are: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B diminished and C.

A minor penatonic and lead guitar

A Aeolian scale and lead guitar

By adding these two extra notes, we have formed or created a mode. This mode is the A Aeolian mode. Am pentatonic is formed directly from this mode. The Aeolian mode is a minor mode and the Am is the 6th note and chord in the key of C major. C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B diminished.

Guitar modes will be covered more in the C major modes lessons, but a brief explanation is needed here. Since we have added those two extra notes to the Am pentatonic scale, we can now use this scale or mode, to play over each and every chord of C major in this position. The chords of C major are as follows.

C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B dim and C. Just like the Am pentatonic scale, you can also play this mode in different positions. This will also be covered in the mode section. Although I've mentioned you could play over every chord in this position, it is really not all that practical. You will learn how to play lead over each chord and at different positions. This example is to open your eyes to the different possibilities.

A Aeolian scale and lead guitar

The guitar chords and notes in the key of C major are shown below. Notice how each of those notes are in the scale or mode above.

The notes of the C chord	C, E, G
The notes of the Dm	D, F, A
The notes of the Em	E, G, B
The notes of the F	F, A, C
The notes of the G	G, B, D
The notes of Am	A, C, E
The notes of B diminished	B, D, F