Chord Patterns

Here are the shapes for these 6 basic chords on the first 3 strings. This should get you going for basic chords and should allow you to explore the world of triads. I have included the inversions also, so hopefully this is a helpful starting guide to triads.

*Please remember this is more of a guide than a lesson. Patterns are helpful, but it is important to know the theory behind chords (chord construction, formulas, etc.)

Major Chord Shapes (first 3 strings G-B-e)

 Root        1st          2nd        
|-5-|---|---||-R-|---|---||-3-|---|---|
|---|---|-3-||-5-|---|---||---|-R-|---|
|---|---|-R-||---|-3-|---||-5-|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|

Minor Chord Shapes (first 3 strings G-B-e)

 Root        1st          2nd
|-5-|---|---||---|-R-|---||-3-|---|---|
|---|-3-|---||---|-5-|---||---|---|-R-|
|---|---|-R-||---|-3-|---||---|-5-|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|

Augmented Chord Shapes (first 3 strings G-B-e)

 Root        1st          2nd 
|-5-|---|---||-R-|---|---||-3-|---|---|
|---|-3-|---||---|-5-|---||---|-R-|---|
|---|-R-|---||---|-3-|---||---|-5-|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|

Diminished Chord Shapes (first 3 strings G-B-e)

 Root            1st          2nd
|-5-|---|---|---||---|-R-|---||-3-|---|---|
|---|---|-3-|---||-5-|---|---||---|---|-R-|
|---|---|---|-R-||---|-3-|---||-5-|---|---|
|---|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|

SUS2 (first 3 strings G-B-e)

 Root            1st          2nd
|-5-|---|---||---|-R-|---||-2-|---|---|---|
|-2-|---|---||---|-5-|---||---|---|---|-R-|
|---|---|-R-||-2-|---|---||---|---|-5-|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|---|
|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|---|

SUS4 (first 3 strings G-B-e)

 Root            1st          2nd
|-5-|---|---|---||-R-|---|---||---|-4-|---|
|---|---|---|-4-||-5-|---|---||---|-R-|---|
|---|---|-R-|---||---|---|-4-||-5-|---|---|
|---|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|
|---|---|---|---||---|---|---||---|---|---|

Interval Chord Formulas:

Major- 1 3 5
Minor- 1 b3 5
Augmented- 1 3 #5
Diminished- 1 b3 b5
sus2- 1 2 5
sus4- 1 4 5

**Feel free to leave comments or your input to make this more helpful for others. I added the formula numbers in the shapes to help you identify which intervals are which. Their just labeled without their quality (b3, #5, etc).

Comments

[animesh_joshi]

very helpful. Nice lesson.

[Asif Zaman]

Nice lesson.

[mity88]

Dude,could u explain intervals to me please, i know what they are, but how do i apply them? otherwise.cool guide man!

[bass-man9712]

what do the R's mean

[fobster]

bass-man9712 wrote:

what do the R's mean

R means root i.e in a A major chord A-C#-E. A is the root.

Useful lesson, I made the initial mistake of taking the 3 aqnd 5 as frets 3 and 5 but realised it's in fact the 3rd and 5th intervals. Other people might make the same mistake. Thought I'd point it out.

[Clabbe]

This is really good !