Each chord is made up using specific notes, the smallest chord is a power chord, that uses two notes. Chords have note intervals which is our way of forming a chord. A power chord will use the 1st & the 5th notes from a scale.

So in the C major scale C, D, E, F, G, A, B, the C Power Chord will use the 1st & 5th notes that is the C & the G notes.

Every chord has a chord template, (a list of note intervals).

The C Major chord is made using the chord template of the 1st, 3rd, & 5th notes. So the C Major Chord is made using a C, E, G.

Here is the C Major Scale & the interval names.

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

So here are a list of the common chord types.

M Means Major, but is written as, C, uses notes 1, 3, 5,

m Means minor, & is written as Cm uses notes 1, b3, 5,

5 Means that the chord uses the 1st & 5th notes, C5

6 Means a 6th chord written as C6, uses notes 1, 3, 5, 6,

7 Means 7th chord written as C7, uses, 1, 3, 5, b7,

9 Means 9th chords, written as C9, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, b7, 9,

11 Means 11th chord, written as C11, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, b7, 9, 11,

13 Means 13th chord, written as C13, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, b7, 9, 11, 13.

Notice that there are 7 notes... guitar have 6 strings so we drop the 11th note when playing C13.

M7 Means Major 7th, written as CM7, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, 7,

M9 Means Major 9th, written as CM9, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9,

M11 Means Major 11th, written as CM11, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11,

M13 Means Major 13th chord, written as CM13, uses notes, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13,

Again drop the 11th note, when playing this chord on a guitar.

dim Means a diminished chord, written as Cdim, uses notes, 1, b3, b5,

aug Means augmented chord, written as Caug, uses notes, 1, 3, #5,

sus4 Means suspended 4th note, this means that the 3rd is replaced by a 4th note, written as Csus4, uses notes, 1, 4, 5,

m7b5 Means minor 7th flat 5th chord, written as Cm7b5, uses notes, 1, b3, b5, b7,

Chords such as 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, & 13th, are built on the 1st, 3rd, & 5th notes.

But there is an important rule to note when thinking about the 9th, 11th & 13th chords.

Sometimes you will see that a song uses a C13 other times a song may use CM13. Chords such as 9, 11, & 13 are built on the 7th note & if the 7th note is a natural note (that is in the C major scale a B note), then the chords would be CM7 CM9, CM11, & CM13 chords.

If the C scale had a flattened 7th note (which is a Bb) then the chords produced would be C7, C9, C11, C13.

All will become at lot clearer in Lesson 4 Music Theory.

For now it's time to get to grips with the essential chords, that will help you be able to play hundreds of songs...

Practice forming & playing these basic chords.

You will find that each chord is presented in a guitar chord chart then in guitar tab for learning purposes, so it is highly recommended that both are studied...

Guitar tab is guitar music, so it is vital that you get to grips with it now. Guitar tab are numbers placed within 6 lines. The numbers are the frets played & the lines are the guitar strings where the top line is the thinnest string (string 1).

For example a C chord would look like this:

C
0--
1--
0--
2--
3--
---

0 = a string played open.

Free Guitar Chord Charts
Major & Minor Scales
In All Keys