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Home > Guitar Music Theory

Chord Construction - 3 Note Chords - Part 3

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Converting basic 3 note
major chord shapes

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Remember that all we need to make a major, minor, augmented, diminished, sus2, or sus4 chord is 3 different notes. Below are some very common 3 note C major chord shapes. Take all of these and alter them into Cm, C+, Co, Csus2, and Csus4 chords. Since you only have 3 notes to deal with, these are actually much easier to convert. Once you learn the different chord shapes with the root of C, play them in different parts of the neck with different roots. I just used C major to make things easy.

 

 

 

3 note C major chord forms on the top 4 string.

 |-G-|---|---|---| 5
 |---|---|-E-|---| 3
 |---|---|-C-|---| 1
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
   |
  3rd fret

 |-C-|---|---|---| 1
 |-G-|---|---|---| 5
 |---|-E-|---|---| 3
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
   |
  8th fret

 |-E-|---|---|---| 3
 |---|-C-|---|---| 1
 |-G-|---|---|---| 5
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
   |
  12th fret

X|---|---|---|---|
 |---|---|-E-|---| 3
 |---|---|-C-|---| 1
 |---|---|-G-|---| 5
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
           |
          5th fret

X|---|---|---|---|
 |-G-|---|---|---| 5
 |---|-E-|---|---| 3
 |---|---|-C-|---| 1
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
   |
  8th fret

X|---|---|---|---|
 |---|-C-|---|---| 1
 |-G-|---|---|---| 5
 |---|---|-E-|---| 3
X|---|---|---|---|
X|---|---|---|---|
   |
  12th fret

If there is one thing that you have learned in this lesson, it is that things are not always nice and neat when applying music theory to the guitar. Not only do you have to find an answer that is theoretically correct, but one that you can physically play. Be sure that you go back an reread this lesson, and all 3 lessons in this series for that matter. Don't just read it once and say "I don't get it". Go back and work through each part, read and reread. As you start to understand this material more and more, you are going to find many doors will start to open up that were closed before.

Page 11, Converting basic major barre chords (root on the 5th string)

Page 1, Intro to altering basic chord forms



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