These have an uncomfortable feeling which needs to be resolved by following them with certain chords. Notice that the only difference between a major and minor triad is that the third note is flattened by a semi-tone. Again the order of the notes isn’t really important so long as they are all there. So for a C minor chord we would take the first, third and fifth notes of a C minor scale and stack them up. To construct a minor chord we do the same thing but with a minor scale instead.

When talking about this chord you could call it either “G over B” or “G in the first inversion”. For example, G/B would be the notes of a G major chord (aka G, B and D) piled up with the B at the lowest pitch within the chord. The numerator tells you which chord should be played and the denominator tells you which of its notes should be in the lowest pitch. Inverted chords are commonly written like fractions. We call this “inverting the chord” so if you hear someone say a chord is “first inversion” they mean the third note or the scale is being played as the lowest pitch in the chord and second inversion is the fifth note being used as the lowest pitch in the chord. No matter what order you stack the notes in they will still make a C major chord, even if the root note (aka C) is not at the bottom of the chord. I have demonstrated chord constructions on a piano for this blog as it’s a lot easier to visualise notes on a piano than a guitar because the sharps and flats are thoughtfully coloured in. For example if we want to make a C major chord we go through the scale of c major (no sharps or flats) and pick out the first, third and fifth notes that we get to aka C, E and G. These will be notes 1, 3 and 5 of the relevant scale so to make a major triad you take notes 1, 3 and 5 of the major scale and stack them up together. The simplest type of chord is called a “triad” aka three notes stacked up on top of each other.

These are called “major”, “minor” and “dominant”. When you first discover the vast selection of chords with numbers in, it can seem like a giant, scary music theory melange… In this blog I am going to be explaining how chords are named and hopefully demystifying this confusing subject for beginner guitarists! I am often asked questions like “what’s the difference between a major and a dominant 7 chord” or “why is this an add 9 chord not a 9 chord”. Chord construction explained- 7, 9, 11, 13, major, minor, dominant etc

E flat major 7 guitar chord