part0008

You’ve learned the notes and their values, tab reading system and music terms after our theoric lessons. Now, let’s have a look at the places of notes on the guitar and how basic chords are played. We are going to be learning with a basic narration by forming a sound basis.

Try to memorize the places of the notes both in musical notation and on the fretboard.

We can practically divide the chords in the guitar, depending upon their pressing methods, into 2: “open chords” and “bar chords”. In addition to this, the chords by type are divided into 2: “major chords” and “minor chords”. The concepts of major and minor are fairly connected. In this part, we’ll be handling open major and open minor chords.

Firstly, let’s have a look at how and from which notes the chords are formed. Basic chords are made out of 3 notes. You’ll hear much about the major’s relative minor and minor’s relative major in music. Major’s relative minor is found through lowering major by a whole and a half note , in a word lowering it by 1,5 notes. The opposite process is done to find minor’s relative major.

The note with which we start off is called the “root note”. For example, the root note of the key or the chord of C is the C note. The root note of the key or the chord of E is the E note. C major chord is written as “C” whilst A minor chord is written with an “m” right after.

■Do The relative minor of C major is A minor. (Note A is the note that’s found via lowering the C note by 1,5 notes)

F’s relative minor is Dm.

A’s relative minor is F#m.

■The relative major of E minor is G major. (Note G is the note that’s found via raising the E note by 1,5 notes)

Bm’s relative major is D.

Fm’s relative major is Ab.

2- When we take out the first, third and fifth notes of the key of C, we have the C major chord.

2- When we take out the first, third and fifth notes of the minor key, we have the A minor chord.

In that case, at first we write down our key in order to find out which notes the chords consist of. Afterwards, if we have any accidentals (sharps or flats) we add them next to the notes. When we take out the first, third and fifth notes from the key, those 3 notes give us the chord we’re in search of.

■C major(relative, Am) key doesn’t acquire any sharps or flats. The rest of the keys do acquire.

■As you can see the flat order is the exact opposite of the sharp order.

■Finding the tones with sharp: If your tone is minor, firstly find the relative major of it. Raise the minor tone by 1,5 notes to find its major relative. Go back to the previous note in the order, within the major tonality you’ve found. Find that note in the sharp order. It has all of the accidentals on the left side including that tone.

Example: D major: Tonalite Tonality is already given major. The note that you’ll find right before D is the note C in the order of notes. Let’s look at the sharp order and write down the ones on the left side, including note C . You’ll see the notes F and C . So, D major key acquires the accidentals of F# and C# .

Example 2: G major: The note that you’ll find right before G is the note F in the order of notes. Let’s look at the sharp order and write down the ones on the left side, including note F . Since F is the only note, G major key merely acquires the accidentals of F# .

■Finding the tones with flat: If your tone is minor, firstly find the relative major of it. Raise the minor tone by 1,5 notes to find its major relative. Find your note in the flat order. It’ll suffice to add the next flat accidental from the flat order to the right.

Example 1: Bb Major: Find the note B in the flat order. The next note after B is the note E . Namely, Bb major key acquires the accidentals of Bb and Eb .

Example 2: C minor: Let’s turn the minor tonality into major. Raise the note C by 1,5 notes. The relative major tone is the Db major. Let’s find the note D in the flat order and add the accidental of Gb which stand on the right side of D . C minor key acquires the accidentals of Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb ..

■In order to find the accidentals of a minor tone, turn it into a major tone. If you utilize this method, you won’t need to memorize the accidentals that all of the keys acquire. It’ll be enough to memorize the sharp order. You can form the chords by taking out the first, third and fifth notes of the keys that acquire accidentals.

Right now, we know how the chords are formed. Down below you’ll be learning, on which frets you have to press while studying. “X” indicates the open string which shouldn’t be played, and “O” indicates the open string which should be played.

Be attentive to use your right hand while playing chords. But, how can you set that up? It usually takes shape from the rhythm of the song you’re playing. Hit with your pick like sweeping from above and below without pressuring too much but making sure to get to all of the strings. You’ll see how smooth it gets through if you use your pick tilted.

Now let’s do an example according to 4/4 time signature. Apply the rhythm durations just like you did while doing the rhythmic notation readings. Make your picking moves in the arrow direction.

Practice the chord skipping exercises using 5 rhythm examples given in the previous lesson according to 4/4 time signature.