The second way is to learn the individual notes that make up the chord on the fret board. This method of learning chords will expand your ability to play any chord anywhere on the fretboard.

Step 1: Learn and memorize the notes of a chord all over the fretboard. For example: the C Major Chord is made up of the notes C, E, and G. You can basically play those notes in any order and still call it a C chord. It turns out that the notes C, E, and G are found all over your fretboard: (click the graphic to enlarge)

Look for all the C, E, and G notes, memorize their location, and presto, you’ve now learned all the places on the fretboard that you can form the C Major Chord. One way to quickly memorize these chord shapes is to think about the C-A-G-E-D system. You should have the C, A, G, E, and D major chord shapes memorized (hopefully). Well, it turns out that on your fretboard, these 5 shapes can be “translated” into the chord in our diagram, the C major chord. Now you can play the C chord anywhere on your fretboard, and they all sound a little different. Try them out!

(There’s a LOT more to the CAGED system, but this will at the very least give you an idea of why it’s useful…)

Here is a quick reference guide for the notes that belong to major and minor chords:

C major: C-E-G
D major: D-F#-A
E major: E-G#-B
F major: F-A-C
G major: G-B-D
A major: A-C#-E
B major: B-D#-F#

C minor: C-Eb-G
D minor: D-F-A
E minor: E-G-B
F minor: F-Ab-C
G minor: G-Bb-D
A minor: A-C-E
B minor: B-D-F#

Step 2: Start memorizing, and visualize the “C-A-G-E-D” shapes!

The Musician’s Toolbox

But the most commonly used chords are probably:

G, Em, C, D, Am, F, E, A, and Dm.

Start with those first and then fill in the blanks as you go along.

Of course, you should order the Learn Guitar Chords DVD to learn over 100 of the most commonly used guitar chords!

But, we’re biased.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

No, no, this article will give you the visual cues you need to understand something about the relationship of chords as it appears in the circle of fifths. You will start to realize what it means to play “in a key” like in Back To The Future, when Marty McFly tells the band, “Alright boys, this one’s a blues riff IN B, watch me for the changes, and try to keep up.” Good thing Marty took the time to learn guitar chords.

What does it mean to play, think, or otherwise understand the concept of playing “in a key?” The circle of fifths provides the answer:

Pizza.

Well, that’s how I see it anyways. The proverbial slice of musical pie.

Look at the image below, and what you will begin to see is the arrangement of chord relationships as a slice of pie. Any chord found within the slice of pie is “in the key” of the upper middle letter. The example below shows the chords “in the key” of C.

Again, since everything in the shaded area “surrounds” the letter C, we say that this is the key of C. You could play any of these chords in any order and it would sound pretty good. That’s because each chord belongs to the key of C. It’s like all of the words in a sentence being in the same language, they make sense.

For a great way to learn lots of guitar chords, try the Learn Guitar Chords DVD available on our website or Amazon.com.

Here’s a picture of the key of E. It’s the same concept, but “different language.” The musical sentence will still make sense, but you’ll be speaking the key of E.

This simple visualization has many practical uses, for example, let’s say you’re writing a song, but you’re stuck on the three chords you already wrote for the chorus. How can you easily choose a good sounding chord for the verse or the bridge?

1.) Find the main chord you’re using in your song in the circle of fifths chart
2.) Visualize the slice of musical pie around that chord
3.) Choose any of those chords you haven’t used and see if it sounds good

Here’s another example, if you’re into listening to music and want to understand more about it.
1.) Google any song with the keywords “chords lyrics” added to the song title.
2.) Click on one of the search results.
3.) Look at the chord symbols above the lyrics
4.) Find those symbols on the circle of fifths chart and see if you can find the slice of pie that the song belongs in.

Usually, a song will either begin or end on the chord of the key that the song is “in.” Furthermore, you’ll start to see that the majority of songs out there mostly stay “in” a certain key. Sometimes you might see some “foreign” chords in the song, but hey, music is a great way to celebrate our differences, right?

So there you go, a simple way to visualize the circle of fifths.

When you play the A major chord in it’s normal spot, notice all of your fingers are in the 2nd fret.

But if you keep your fingers on the same strings and slide them (holding the shape they’re in) to the 3rd fret, that’s the A# (Bb) chord. If you slide it again to the 4th fret, that’s the B chord. If you’re a beginner, you might not yet understand why this is true, but for now, just absorb the concept that as you move up the fretboard, you’re changing the name of the chord by changing frets.

As you slide the shape up the frets, you’re going forwards through the musical alphabet by half steps, (which is explained in THIS POST) and now all of the sudden that one shape can be shifted around to get new chords.

I should say that it’s not quite this easy, because when you shift to new frets, you can’t play the same open strings you would on the original chord because the sounds will clash. But again, suffice it to say that the 5 major chords C-A-G-E-D, are the main chord shapes you can use to get to any other chord on the fretboard. The next posts in this series will cover each shape and how to tackle them.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

1.) G
2.) D
3.) Em
4.) C
5.) Am
6.) F
7.) Dm

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

“Which finger will I put down first?”

It can be a daunting task to remember all of those shapes, but if you can remember, for example, that when you switch to the D chord “I’m going to put my middle finger down first,” it can help you to plant the chord faster in time for your next strum.

It’s simple, but effective.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

Often times when you are practicing, you’re concentrating on your strumming, or keeping a beat, but if you want your music to sound good, avoid those strings with the X’s.

This will build your confidence, not to mention your listening skills.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

Learn and memorize as many guitar chords as you can. You can do this by purchasing a guitar chords poster, or the “Learn Guitar Chords DVD” (shameless plug).

But for serious, here, this single act of memorizing as many chords as you can will improve not only your muscle memory and your dexterity, it will prepare you to play all kinds of different songs.

The internet is a goldmine when it comes to songs, lyrics, tabs, and lead sheets, but you won’t be able to utilize that information without having memorized many guitar chords.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox

There are a couple of things you can do to make this comfortable for your fingers:
1.) Make sure you’re sitting up straight and holding your guitar straight out.
2.) Try to use just enough pressure when pressing down your strings. Too much pressure and you’ll fatigue faster, and your fingers won’t cooperate.

You should be able to slip a pencil or pen through the curved part of your fingers. That’s a pretty good gauge of how much clearance you’ll need.

Finally, you know your chords sound good when all the strings are ringing out clearly and crisply, and there are no clunky, dull, muted sounds on any of the strings.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox