Understanding the fretboard - Part IV
Playing the same chords on different strings
Final round of this series! And this will be the most fun, because we're going more and more from theory to pracise.
The chords and triads you'll shift around here will be part of your daily business in the future and form the basis the more advanced stuff that's coming next.
Just like in the previous chapters you'll explore what happens to structures (here chord shapes), if you displace them to different strings. You'll recognize and understand that so many different-looking things are actually exactly the same, just with some shifts caused by that one single irregularity in the guitars tuning.
E major, A major, D major. 3 chords, 3 different things, right? Far from it!
With the ⓘ button you can display intervals instead of note names in the chord diagram.
By pressing the up button you can see that all three chords are build exactly the same, just being transposed a perfect 4th higher by going up one string. Because there's only a major 3rd from G-string to B-string, every time a spot jumps from G-string to B-string, that spot also has to slide up one fret to end up a perfect 4th higher.
From major chords to minor chords:
In all chords the major 3rd (3) has been reduced to a minor 3rd (m3) by sliding down one fret.
Major Triads
Now we take a major triad in the root position [root (1) + major third (3) + fifth (5)] with the root on the E string and we're watching how a major triad in the root position looks, when the root is located on a different string.
Like before we can see how the tones that are changing from G string to B string also have to move one fret to the right (or one fret to the left when being transposed down and changing from B string to G string)
Now the 1st inversion with the root on top:
major third (3) + fifth (5) + root (1)
Like always we can see how the tones that are changing from G string to B string also have to move one fret to the right (or one fret to the left when being transposed down and changing from B string to G string)
2nd inversion:
fifth (5) + root (1) + major third (3)
Like always we can see how the tones that are changing from G string to B string also have to move one fret to the right (or one fret to the left when being transposed down and changing from B string to G string)
Minor Triads
Now we take a major triad in the root position [root (1) + major third (3) + fifth (5)] with the root on the E string and we're watching how a major triad in the root position looks, when the root is located on a different string.
Like before we can see how the tones that are changing from G string to B string also have to move one fret to the right (or one fret to the left when being transposed down and changing from B string to G string)
Now the 1st inversion with the root on top:
major third (3) + fifth (5) + root (1)
Like always we can see how the tones that are changing from G string to B string also have to move one fret to the right (or one fret to the left when being transposed down and changing from B string to G string)
2nd inversion:
fifth (5) + root (1) + major third (3)
Like always we can see how the tones that are changing from G string to B string also have to move one fret to the right (or one fret to the left when being transposed down and changing from B string to G string)
...I Nearly Forgot To Deliver On My Promise!
In the previous part of this series I promised that after studying the this last part, you will know how to play ALL major and minor chords with at least 2 different chord shapes.
I feel you already know: yes, the chords we moved vertically before, we just move them horizontally now! You know that the structure and therefore the type of chord (the "chord quality", here major and minor) will stay the same.
Just step through the chords in the diagram. You can move up every shape the whole fretboard. It's just the space in the diagram that limits the number of chords here.
If you're not ready yet to play bar(re) chords, just play the lowest for strings of each shape. It's not always necessary to play all 6 strings.
What's next?
Of course you can go on with the theory lessonsm but I'd rather like to encourage you to take your guitar now and play some simple but common chord progressions through all 12 keys.
Here are 3 practise lessons where you can do this and play along with me: