Chords for How To Find Guitar Chords In a Major Key | How to Know What Chords Are in a Key
Tempo:
99.7 bpm
Chords used:
E
Eb
Db
Ab
Gb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
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In order to know which chords belong in a key and therefore which chords [E] work
[N] songs, we first need to understand
scale.
this is a G note we
key of G.
1 2 3 4 5 6 & 7.
this scale we need to assign a specific type of chord.
the 2 chord is minor, the 3 chord is also minor, the 4 chord is
[N] songs, we first need to understand
scale.
this is a G note we
key of G.
1 2 3 4 5 6 & 7.
this scale we need to assign a specific type of chord.
the 2 chord is minor, the 3 chord is also minor, the 4 chord is
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E
Eb
Db
Ab
Gb
E
Eb
Db
_ _ _ _ In order to know which chords belong in a key and therefore which chords [E] work
together when writing chord progressions or [N] songs, we first need to understand
some basic principles.
The first being the major scale.
Let's start by learning
our major scale from the third fret of the low E string.
As this is a G note we
would call this a G major scale which would place us in the key of G.
Now let's
assign a number to each of the notes in this scale.
So 1 2 3 4 5 6 & 7.
Now for
every note of this scale we need to assign a specific type of chord.
The 1
chord is major, the 2 chord is minor, the 3 chord is also minor, the 4 chord is
major, the 5 chord is also major, the 6 chord is minor and the 7 chord would be
a diminished chord.
So all together that would be major minor minor major major
minor and diminished.
You may also see this depicted using Roman numerals
which would look like this.
I would advise you to memorize this as it will
form the basis for knowing all seven chords available in a major key and
therefore is an integral part of this lesson.
Something that may help with this
is knowing that the 1 4 & 5 chords are major, the 2 3 & 6 chords are minor,
which just leaves you with the 7 chord which is diminished.
Now let's put this
into practice.
Let's start with the 1 chord.
As our first note of the scale is
a G note and as we now know the chord type of our 1 chord is major we can now
say that the first chord in the key of G major is a G major chord or just G.
There
are many ways of playing a G chord on guitar and you might be tempted to play
a traditional open G chord at this stage which would work absolutely fine but I
would urge you to play a G bar chord starting from the first note or G note
in our scale for reasons that will become clear towards the end of this
lesson.
That would look like this.
_ Now let's move to our 2 chord.
As the second
note in our major scale is an A note and as we now know our 2 chord is minor we
would call the 2 chord A minor.
Once again a traditional open A minor chord
would be fine here but let's stick to an A minor bar chord starting from the
second note or A note in our scale which would look like this.
Now the 3 chord.
As the third note in our major scale is a B note and our 3 chord is minor we
would call our 3 chord B minor.
So let's play a B minor bar chord starting from
the third note or B note in the major scale which would look like this. _ _ _ _
As the
fourth note in our scale is a C note and the 4 chord is major we would call
the 4 chord C major or just C.
An open C chord is fine here but let's play a C
major bar chord starting from the fourth note or C note in the major
scale which would look like this.
_ Now for the 5 chord.
As the fifth note in our
major scale is a D note and our 5 chord is major we would call our 5 chord D
major or just D.
You could play an open D chord but once again [E] we will be using a
bar chord starting from the fifth note or D note in the major scale which would
look like this. _ _
_ _ As the sixth note in our major scale is an E note and the sixth
chord is minor we would name this chord E minor.
You could play this chord as an
[Db] open E minor but let me show you a way of playing this starting from the sixth
note or E note in our major scale which would look like this.
In essence you could
see this as what you might recognize as an open D minor chord shape that we've
simply moved up two frets and of course as the open D string is part of the D
minor chord this would also need to be shifted up two frets also.
This would now
give us the E minor chord starting from the sixth note of our major scale.
_ _ _ _ As the
seventh note in our major scale is an F sharp note and the 7 chord as mentioned
earlier is a diminished chord we would call this an F sharp diminished.
To play
this place your first finger on the seventh note or F sharp note in the
scale, your second finger on the B string fourth fret, your third finger on the G
string fifth fret and your fourth finger on the high E string fifth fret which
would look like this.
_ So all together we have seven chords in the key of G those
being G, A minor, B minor, C, D, E minor and F sharp diminished.
Because all these
chords belong in the same key you can technically play them in any order and
they will all sound good together.
[Eb] For example let's pick out 1, 5, 6 and 4
chords so that would be G, D, E minor and C or even 1, 3, 2, 5 which would be
G, B minor, A minor and D.
You just have to be careful when using the diminished
chord as it's much more difficult to make this work but that's for another
lesson.
Try this out yourself to begin writing your own chord progressions or
songs in a major key which is really the main point of this lesson but let's [Ab] move
on.
Now everything we've talked about so far has been in relation to the key of G
but what if we wanted to [E] change key or write the chord progression in a
different [Eb] key altogether?
This brings us to the reason I have told you to play
our seven chords starting from their place in the major scale as opposed to
open chord [Db] voicings.
To change key all you need to do is shift our major scale
to the new desired key.
For example if we wanted to know the chords in the key of
A we would simply play our major scale starting on the fifth fret of the low E
string which would be an A note.
From here all the previously learned steps
would remain the same so we would still have our one chord which would now be
called A major as our first note is an A.
Our second chord would be B minor, our
third chord is now C sharp minor, our fourth chord is D and our fifth chord
is E.
Our sixth chord would be F sharp minor and our seventh chord would be G
sharp diminished.
You could apply this to any key and it would work using the same
seven chord shapes.
This is also useful if you think in terms of numbers or
Roman numerals instead of chord names as if you wanted to for example play a 1 4 5
in the key of G so the first fourth and fifth chords in the key G C and D all
you would need to do to change key is move your starting position.
_ Once you've
figured out the chords in a key that you're working with to write a song or
chord progression feel free to then use whatever chord voicings you like
anywhere on the neck to play them including open chords.
This is simply [Eb] a
quick hands-on practical approach to identify the chords available to you in
any given key on the [Gb] guitar.
If you enjoyed this lesson and would like to
see more lessons like this then feel free to like below, subscribe
together when writing chord progressions or [N] songs, we first need to understand
some basic principles.
The first being the major scale.
Let's start by learning
our major scale from the third fret of the low E string.
As this is a G note we
would call this a G major scale which would place us in the key of G.
Now let's
assign a number to each of the notes in this scale.
So 1 2 3 4 5 6 & 7.
Now for
every note of this scale we need to assign a specific type of chord.
The 1
chord is major, the 2 chord is minor, the 3 chord is also minor, the 4 chord is
major, the 5 chord is also major, the 6 chord is minor and the 7 chord would be
a diminished chord.
So all together that would be major minor minor major major
minor and diminished.
You may also see this depicted using Roman numerals
which would look like this.
I would advise you to memorize this as it will
form the basis for knowing all seven chords available in a major key and
therefore is an integral part of this lesson.
Something that may help with this
is knowing that the 1 4 & 5 chords are major, the 2 3 & 6 chords are minor,
which just leaves you with the 7 chord which is diminished.
Now let's put this
into practice.
Let's start with the 1 chord.
As our first note of the scale is
a G note and as we now know the chord type of our 1 chord is major we can now
say that the first chord in the key of G major is a G major chord or just G.
There
are many ways of playing a G chord on guitar and you might be tempted to play
a traditional open G chord at this stage which would work absolutely fine but I
would urge you to play a G bar chord starting from the first note or G note
in our scale for reasons that will become clear towards the end of this
lesson.
That would look like this.
_ Now let's move to our 2 chord.
As the second
note in our major scale is an A note and as we now know our 2 chord is minor we
would call the 2 chord A minor.
Once again a traditional open A minor chord
would be fine here but let's stick to an A minor bar chord starting from the
second note or A note in our scale which would look like this.
Now the 3 chord.
As the third note in our major scale is a B note and our 3 chord is minor we
would call our 3 chord B minor.
So let's play a B minor bar chord starting from
the third note or B note in the major scale which would look like this. _ _ _ _
As the
fourth note in our scale is a C note and the 4 chord is major we would call
the 4 chord C major or just C.
An open C chord is fine here but let's play a C
major bar chord starting from the fourth note or C note in the major
scale which would look like this.
_ Now for the 5 chord.
As the fifth note in our
major scale is a D note and our 5 chord is major we would call our 5 chord D
major or just D.
You could play an open D chord but once again [E] we will be using a
bar chord starting from the fifth note or D note in the major scale which would
look like this. _ _
_ _ As the sixth note in our major scale is an E note and the sixth
chord is minor we would name this chord E minor.
You could play this chord as an
[Db] open E minor but let me show you a way of playing this starting from the sixth
note or E note in our major scale which would look like this.
In essence you could
see this as what you might recognize as an open D minor chord shape that we've
simply moved up two frets and of course as the open D string is part of the D
minor chord this would also need to be shifted up two frets also.
This would now
give us the E minor chord starting from the sixth note of our major scale.
_ _ _ _ As the
seventh note in our major scale is an F sharp note and the 7 chord as mentioned
earlier is a diminished chord we would call this an F sharp diminished.
To play
this place your first finger on the seventh note or F sharp note in the
scale, your second finger on the B string fourth fret, your third finger on the G
string fifth fret and your fourth finger on the high E string fifth fret which
would look like this.
_ So all together we have seven chords in the key of G those
being G, A minor, B minor, C, D, E minor and F sharp diminished.
Because all these
chords belong in the same key you can technically play them in any order and
they will all sound good together.
[Eb] For example let's pick out 1, 5, 6 and 4
chords so that would be G, D, E minor and C or even 1, 3, 2, 5 which would be
G, B minor, A minor and D.
You just have to be careful when using the diminished
chord as it's much more difficult to make this work but that's for another
lesson.
Try this out yourself to begin writing your own chord progressions or
songs in a major key which is really the main point of this lesson but let's [Ab] move
on.
Now everything we've talked about so far has been in relation to the key of G
but what if we wanted to [E] change key or write the chord progression in a
different [Eb] key altogether?
This brings us to the reason I have told you to play
our seven chords starting from their place in the major scale as opposed to
open chord [Db] voicings.
To change key all you need to do is shift our major scale
to the new desired key.
For example if we wanted to know the chords in the key of
A we would simply play our major scale starting on the fifth fret of the low E
string which would be an A note.
From here all the previously learned steps
would remain the same so we would still have our one chord which would now be
called A major as our first note is an A.
Our second chord would be B minor, our
third chord is now C sharp minor, our fourth chord is D and our fifth chord
is E.
Our sixth chord would be F sharp minor and our seventh chord would be G
sharp diminished.
You could apply this to any key and it would work using the same
seven chord shapes.
This is also useful if you think in terms of numbers or
Roman numerals instead of chord names as if you wanted to for example play a 1 4 5
in the key of G so the first fourth and fifth chords in the key G C and D all
you would need to do to change key is move your starting position.
_ Once you've
figured out the chords in a key that you're working with to write a song or
chord progression feel free to then use whatever chord voicings you like
anywhere on the neck to play them including open chords.
This is simply [Eb] a
quick hands-on practical approach to identify the chords available to you in
any given key on the [Gb] guitar.
If you enjoyed this lesson and would like to
see more lessons like this then feel free to like below, subscribe