Easy Guide To Basic Guitar Chord Theory

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In this video, Steve Stine will show you how to build chords, chord progressions, and how chords can spice up your guitar solos.

When you're ready to dig deeper into music theory, check out GuitarZoom's Music Theory For Life Masterclass, which is a 12-week, interactive music theory masterclass taught by Steve Stine, Professor of Modern Guitar Studies at North Dakota State University.

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Closed Caption:

hi steve stine from guitar zoom here
I just want to say thank you thank you
so much for everybody that's been
responding to these music theory guitar
theory of videos
it's been awesome i'm so excited that
you guys are learning this stuff and
you're actually realizing how important
it is to learn fundamental theory it's
not a scary thing and it's not like I
got to go to six years of college to
learn this stuff
it's not all that and I'm glad that you
are now realizing that
so in the first video what we did was we
set up the scenario of the chromatic
scale understanding how all of these
notes in music actually work together we
applied it to the guitar
the second thing that we did was we
started learning how the major scale
works and how all the keys with the
major scalar actually the same structure
over and over and over
ok it's just as you move further and
further away from that pure key of c you
get more accidentals more sharps or
flats in your key and then we learn how
to apply that to our guitar
so now the next thing we need to do is
start learning some basic chord theory
ok now you probably know how to play AG
chord and a deep chord and AC chord and
things like that but you might not know
what's actually happening in there and
of course the question always is why do
I need to know
well you don't need to know anything i
suppose but the trick would be is is
knowing those things actually tell you
what notes are being emphasized within
each chord which can really come in
handy if you're a singer
if you're trying to write a solo or
you're trying to write a melody or
you're trying to improvise over the top
all kinds of different things can happen
there instead of just knowing shapes if
I know that this G :
is actually generating these notes sing
it can give my whole musical perspective
direction as opposed to just going oh
that's a G chord and this is the court
or the scale g and not really having any
relationship between the chords in the
scales so that's what I'm gonna show you
right now so if you look at my
whiteboard here I've got court three
basics
well we're going to do is we're going to
start off by learning what a chord
really is the the root of the chord that
the the strength of what a cord is the
first thing we need to learn is this
triad the term tried which obviously
means three
ok chords always start off as triads in
music theory accord needs to be a triad
and then we can expand into other things
we can make that cord bigger
we can alter that cord and again we're
gonna do all those kind of things in the
course but let's talk about that that
basic fundamental element which is the
route the third and the fifth
ok those three notes makeup every chord
that you play when you play a G or dr in
a minor in e minor or if of g7 or
whatever it might be everything from a
diminished to an Augmented to a demented
to a major minor chord it doesn't matter
what it is they all start off with this
essential core triad now we've got our
key of C here
ok these are ruts ok
these are roots right there so when
you're in the key of C we know we get
the notes c d e f g a and B and we know
that because the key of C has no sharps
and flats this seven note scale is going
to generate seven individual independent
chords every key will the beauty of this
was by the time we get done
you're going to know all the cords for
all the keys
it's pretty cool let's take a look at
this to begin with
ok we have to have a root a third and
the fifth and we're talking about the
distance from the the root itself so we
have a root which is see if we go up a
third
so we have one two three we add on the
note e
if we go up a fifth we go 1 2 3 4 5 si
is is itself its 1 1 2 3 4 5
okay look at the next chord we have D
will be 1 2 3 D F and a one two three
four five
the shortcut i have is that you just
count up every other note for the first
three notes so e f g a b and you have to
say it like that
e f g a b all spastically like that
e.g be that's why I used to do it in in
classes i would just sit there and go a
b c d e f g a b c d and it would give me
the notes i'm looking for so f ay SI f g
a b c root third fifth G B D G B D
remember C is C is C so you don't have
to cease its just c d e f g a b c d e f
g a b on and on and on
so your chords G B D ay C E and B D F
those are the notes so when you play
chords these are the notes that you're
playing now we're not done we have to
keep going here
alright so the next thing we need to do
is we need to talk about the intervals
or distances themselves for each one of
these chords
you gotta follow along and again if you
have a piece of paper and a pencil or if
you don't you know pause the video go
grab those and come on back because this
is going to be huge
ok so see to eat what we want to learn
ok are the distances between each one of
these the distance from C to e is a
third the distance from C to G is a
fifth
root third fifth but the truth is what
chords really are are stacked thirds CD
is a third EG is a third then we had
another third and we had another third
we got another third that's all cords
are created extending chords we just
keep stacking on another third over and
over and over
d to f is a third after a is a third and
so on
so let's look at the distances between
these thirds
c2e let's think in terms of whole steps
for now
ok and again we'll get far more in depth
in the the course but let me help you
with this
so C to e how many whole steps are half
steps is it from C to e and your answer
should be 2c 2d as a whole step and DD
is a whole step so this is two whole
steps
ok and again this gets far deeper but
where i'm going to try to show you that
that the basic overview of how this
works and then you can start using it in
your own plane and then EG let's look at
that distance what's the distance in
terms of whole steps and half steps from
eg and your answer should be one and a
half
so one of the half steps ok if we look
at the next chord D to F
what's the distance there d to e etf
what you think the answer is one and a
half and the next one here is too so
you'll see these two chords
the problem is they're different from
each other this first chord to over one
and a half is a major
that's the definition of a major chord
is two whole steps over one and a half
steps
ok the next one we see is one and a half
/ -
and that's the definition of a minor
chord
now when I say -
sorry about that I got to turn my marker
there when I say - I'm talking about
what we refer to as a major third
it is a third we just talked about how
these are stack thirds the bigger one is
called a major third one and a half then
as a course called a minor third
so what you're dealing with here is a
major chord is a major third over a
minor third a minor chord is a minor
third over a major chord or a major
third excuse me
so what's awesome about this is let me
just keep going and then again when
you've got some time and you want to
work on this a little bit
grab your piece of paper grab a pencil
or pen and take a look at this
and if you got one now you can keep
going with me EG is one and a half g to
be is too
that's a minor chord F to a is to a to c
is one and a half
that's a major chord to over one and a
half
here we've got two over one and a half
that's a major chord as well we take a
look at this one
that's one and a half a to c is one and
a half
CTE is too that's a minor chord
now check this one out ok do this one
for me take a look at this last one
what's the distance from B to D 1 and a
half
what's the distance from D to F so I
don't
tough its kind of weird so when you get
one and a half over one-and-a-half you
get what's called didn't look sorry
diminished
it's hard to write in an angle you get
diminished this Court has diminished now
this is the . this is the big picture
not that this is an important it's
incredibly important and we're going to
study that in detail in this course
let me show you this this is the best
part we know that the first chord is
major because it's two over one and a
half or a major third over a minor third
the second chord is minor
so I read it with a small Roman numeral
the third chord his minor the 4th chord
is major it's two over one and a half
the 5th chord is major it's two over one
and a half the six chord is minor it's
one and a half over 2 and the 7th chord
is its own little beastie
it's a7 chord that's diminished now the
truth is is in popular music whether
it's country rock blues pop metal to a
certain degree on you know all those
kind of things
the seven chord really isn't used that
often you use it a lot in jazz but in
popular music we just don't really use
it that often and when it does occur
a lot of times it it actually is used
incorrectly in terms of its theory
now again in the course i'm going to
talk about all those kind of things in
the theory course you know I talked
about all the things that that don't fit
theoretically as well which is what I
call real world playing on or
non-logical playing and we'll talk about
all those kind of things too but what I
want you to get out of this is that your
1445 is major or two in your three and
six are minor and then of course your 7
is diminished because you're half steps
and whole step configuration from the
last video is the same for every key
the outcome is the same for every key if
you're in the key of G your 145 is still
going to be major 4236 is still going to
be minor and your 7 is still going to be
diminished
ok that's what's awesome about it
because of this theory
you will learn all the cords for all
your keys
what you need of course is again it's
all about order and that's why I'm doing
these videos for you to watch them if
you understand the chromatic scale you
can create the major scale of the
diatonic scale which is what we did in
the first and second videos from there
we can create these chords
ok and we can create this chord
structure of understanding that the 145
is major and now we know why
and the two and three and six or minor
and of course again not now we know why
so if we knew that the key of G it gets
one sharp and F sharp
we just go G major a minor B minor C
major D major E minor F sharp diminished
if we knew that the key of D gets an F
sharp and C sharp and it does because of
the video we talked about last time
well then we got d major E minor F sharp
minor G major a major D minor C sharp
diminished
boom it's that easy
okay so it's not that it takes so much
time it's that you have to just take
things slow and think about it again if
we start with the whiteboard
if we start with understanding what it
is that we're trying to do we get our
brain wrapped around it then we can go
to our guitar and we can start applying
these things ok so the last thing I want
to do for you right now I can finally
get our pic there we go
I want to apply this idea to your guitar
so you could actually start using this
and move it to any key you want
so let's head up to the see here is
so we've got c d e f g a b c and when we
talked about that last time
ok see you have G a B and C
well from each one of those notes we're
going to put a cordon to that now we
need to know our bar chords
ok so that's going to be important I'm
just going to be playing major and minor
Barre chords to show you this but you
can play this anywhere in your fretboard
so on this seek or on the note C i'm
going to play AC major chord
and the major bar chord of course is
done by pressing on all strings with my
first finger across the 8th fret
and then I add my middle finger on the
3rd string 9th fret and I add my ring
finger on the fifth string 10 friends
and I had my pinky on the fourth string
10
that's a major barking on see
now the next 1 i've got is a d minor so
i'm going to move up a whole step 2 d
and i'm going to make this minor by
taking the middle finger on
this is pretty cool think about this the
major was to over one and a half the
minor was one and a half over all over
to the note that changes is the third if
I had a C chord right here which I do
see II and jeep now
pay careful attention to this this is
pretty cool so theory tip which I have
all kinds of those in the the course as
well
this is to over one and a half so right
now I'm playing this sequence right here
that's what I'm playing ceng
if I wanted this court to be minor all I
would have to do is take this
II and move it back to E flat which
would make this one and a half and this
-
and the way we do that on our guitars we
just take that finger out it's not right
here is the e
that
makes any flat
so if you ever have a major chord you
want to make it minor all you do is flat
this middle note you lower it one he
becomes e flat
here's another major chord a would
become a flat here's another major court
be would become be flat and of course on
the guitar how we do that this middle
note this middle finger i should say
excuse me is the note that's the third
this is that note that we're talking
about so i take that off
mediums minor pretty cool huh so again
there's lots of Revelations in this
course there's lots of different cool
things that we're going to talk about in
detail
so you don't question your fretboard
anymore so let's get going we got C
major
we have D minor
I'm going to move up two whole steps or
sees me a whole step higher going to go
E minor
C major D minor E minor on the fifth
string we're going to do an f-major 5th
string bored so i'm borrowing over the
bottom 5 i'm using my third finger to
press on the 2nd 3rd and 4th strings
at the 10th fret that's major I'm going
to move up to my five chord which is
also meeting
and in my six court which is minor
so we have seen mg and major minor in my
nature nature and then when i move up to
a mite her around mmm yeah
a minor here come in this key ok i'm
borrowing over the again the bottom five
strings and I'm gonna put my ring finger
on the fourteenth fret of the 4th string
my pinky on the fourteenth fret of the
3rd string and my middle finger on the
the second string thirteenth fret sorry
but then there's my minor
ok so the awesome part about this is if
you know your bar chords
I've got myself major major major
there's my 145 right there
my two three and six are sitting right
there minor minor minor so here's one
your mom they're all major and then
you're a liar
ok and then I've got my little
diminished chord over here which is done
by playing fourteenth fret of the 5th
string 15 fret of the 4th strength 14
fret of the 3rd string 15th fret of the
second series play diminished chord
radio
ok now again I'm not worried about the
diminished it's the other six I want you
to really think about
so I've got major minor minor major
major like because now i can head down
to the key of G
and I have major minor minor major
change your mind
think about how easy that would be with
that knowledge to be able to transpose
in any key or somebody says we're going
to do this song is in the key of d and
you're like uh no big deal you find d
you set yourself up you put all six
chords and you're ready to go now there
are changes right there are fluctuations
there's alter alterations that happen in
music and we're going to discuss all of
those kind of things in this course but
this is a great place for you to start
to begin building all of this so I
please remember again thank you for all
the responses we've been getting on the
facebook community page
you know any time that we can discuss
these things and make it make sense to
you
please do so we're here to help you
that's the whole point
so if you go to Facebook you find the
guitar zoom community page you sign up
for it
you know just join it and we can talk
about any of these things at any point
in time so i encourage you to do so you
know don't feel like you know I
shouldn't ask that question because
people should already know that people
should already know anything that's how
you learn you gotta ask those questions
so in the next video we're going to
learn how to take the major scale and
we're going to convert that major scale
into minor and see the foreshadowing of
how modes work
so good luck with our cord theory and
i'll see you soon