Chords Archives - GUITARHABITS

How to Play and Build Maj7 Chords on Guitar

January 3, 2020 By Klaus Crow 5 Comments

Today we’re going to learn how to play Maj7 chords and how to build them from scratch.

The Major 7th chord is a mesmerising chord which is commonly found in jazz music, but also in pop music and world music it is regularly used to express a beautiful hypnotizing or dream-like sound.

We’re going to look at open Major 7th chords (open strings involved), moveable Maj7 chords (containing no open strings) with the root note located on different strings, starting at the Low E (6th string), A-string (5th string) and the D-string (4th string), and Maj7 bar / barre chords.

First things first, let’s take a look how to build a major 7 chord.

CHORD CONSTRUCTION / ANALYSIS
Major chords consist of the root, 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale (1 3 5). The major 7th chord (Maj7) consists of the root (1), 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the major scale (1 3 5 7). That means the 7th note of the major scale is added to the major chord.

For example, if you take the notes of the C major scale = C D E F G A B C
The Cmaj7 chord consists of the notes: C E G B (1 3 5 7)

If you take the D major scale = D E F# G A B C# D
The Dmaj7 chord consists of the notes: D F# A C# (1 3 5 7)

This way you can build or analyze any Maj7 chord:

Note: In the chord diagrams above: the black dots above the nut are open strings, and the letters in the dots indicate the note names.

Here are some popular songs that use the major 7 chord:
Old friends by Paul Simon starting with Fmaj7 and Cmaj7, capo on 4th fret.
Something by The Beatles: Amaj7 chord (second chord of the verse)
Maybe tomorrow by Stereophonics: Ebmaj7 chord (first chord of the song) Under the bridge by the Red hot chili peppers: Emaj7 chord (at the end of each verse).

How to Play, Locate, Memorize and Practice Bar Chords

September 20, 2019 By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

Once you know how to play bar chords, the next step is to learn how to instantly find, recognize and play every bar chord type all over the neck.

For that to happen you first have to locate, memorize and practice the four essential bar chord shapes (E major, E minor, A major and A minor) all over the fretboard in the most effective way.

The E major shape bar chord indicates a barre (first finger) with an E major (shape) chord played with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger.
The E minor shape bar chord indicates a barre with an E minor (shape) chord played with your 3rd and 4th finger.
The A major shape bar chord indicates a barre with an A major (shape) chord played with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger.
The A minor shape bar chord indicates a barre with an A minor(shape) chord played with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger. See diagrams below:

E major shape – E minor shape – A major shape – A minor shape bar chords

Major Bar Chords (E Major shape)
To find and recognize the names for all the E major shape bar chords you only have to memorize the natural notes on the low E-string, so no sharps (#) or flats (b). (See the neck diagram below).

Memorize the frets and their natural notes:
|1st fret = F | 3rd fr = G | 5 fr = A | 7 fr = B | 8 fr = C |10 fr = D |12 fr = E |

These are 7 natural notes and on each fret starts a bar chord with the same name. For example, when you play an E shape bar chord starting on the 3rd fret where the G note is located on the Low E-string, your chord also is called G major. When you play the E shape bar chord on the 8th fret you’re chord is now called a C major chord and so on. See diagrams below (The chord shape moves up and the chord name changes with it).

Move the entire chord shape up to any fret to change keys.

15 Easy Beginner Jazz Guitar Chords

May 4, 2019 By Klaus Crow 4 Comments

So why do you want to learn jazz chords? Well, jazz chords will spice up and enrich your playing. It doesn’t even matter if you want to play jazz or not, the chords are perfectly suited for/and regularly used in pop, blues, country, flamenco, and other styles of music.

It’s a good collection of chord types and flavors to add to your chord vocabulary, and expand your skill set. You will come across these chords one way or another in the songs you always wanted to learn. So, if you don’t have these chords under your belt yet, now is the time.

If you do want to step up your playing and learn jazz, these chords are a great start and a solid foundation. There are an endless amount of chords used in jazz, but you can already come a long way with just these 15 easy and popular beginner jazz chords.

How to Play Captivating Diminished 7th Chords

September 15, 2018 By Klaus Crow Leave a Comment

The diminished 7th chord is used a lot in jazz music but also in pop music you keep bumping into them. Songs like “Michelle” by the Beatles, “Who says” by John Mayer, “Friends in low places” by Garth Brooks, “Road trippin'” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “My sweet lord” by George Harrison and “God only knows” by The Beach Boys are just a few of many popular compositions using diminished chords.

Diminished chords are considered “dissonant” because of their tonal instability. They create a sense of tension and drama, and have a strong drive toward tonal resolution, meaning that, they want to move to a more final and stable sound (consonance). This is why they are often used in music, they can make a song more captivating, stirring, and charismatic.

The Dim Chords
There are different types of diminished chords: There is the diminished (dim) chord, the half diminished chord (m7♭5) and the diminished 7th chord (dim7). The diminished chord itself is not used very often, the half diminished and diminished 7th chord are more commonly used.

Dim Chord Analysis
Compared to a minor chord (1 – ♭3 – 5), the diminished chord has a flat 5th (♭5), the half diminished chord adds a flatted 7th (♭7) on top of that, and the diminished 7th chord adds a double flatted 7th (♭♭7).

Here are the chord formulas:
Major chord = 1 – 3 – 5
Minor chord = 1 – ♭3 – 5
Diminished chord = 1 -♭3 -♭5
Half diminished chord = 1 -♭3 -♭5 -♭7
Diminished 7th chord = 1 -♭3 -♭5 -♭♭7

Let’s take C as the root for example:
C major = C – E – G
C minor = C – E♭ – G
C dim = C – E♭ – G♭
Cm7♭5 (half dim) = C – E♭ – G♭ – B♭
C dim7 = C – E♭ – G♭ – B♭♭ (or simply “A”)

How to Play Diminished 7th Chords
The diminished 7th chord is made up of minor third intervals. That means all the notes are three semitones (3 frets) away from each other. This specific feature of the chord makes it possible to move the chord 3 frets up the fretboard each time and the chord will remain the same.

We start with a dim7 chord shape played on highest four strings. As you can see below from left to right, we move the diminished chord shape 3 frets up each time. Start the chord shape on the 1st fret, then move up to the 4th fret, the 7th fret and finally the 10th fret. Of course, you can move it up as far as you like. Continue Reading