Guitar Scales and Chord Triads Lesson
Written by Edward Cupler
When playing or writing a song most of your work will be done following a particular musical scale. Within the confines of that scale you will form your chords. If you refer back to the Guitar Scale Modes lessons on this site you will see that I based them on the C major scale. I will also base this lesson on the C major scale just to keep things simple.
Basic chords consist of three notes called a chord triad. The notes in each chord are (root note - third - fifth).
The root note is the same as the chord name, an A chord would have a root not of A , a C chord would have a root not of C, a G chord would have a root not of G etc.
The third would be the third note up the scale starting at the root note of the chord which would be #1. So using the C major scale notes (C D E F G A B) the third note for a C chord would be E, the third note for a D chord would be F, the third note for an A chord would be C etc.
The fifth would be the fifth note up the scale starting at the root note of the chord which would be #1. So using the C major scale notes (C D E F G A B) the fifth note for a C chord would be G, the fifth note for a D chord would be A, the fifth note for an A chord would be E etc.
Chord triads example 1
One important note about chord triads is that the third note is the note that determines if the chord is a major or minor chord. A simple way of knowing if a chord is major or minor is to determine if the third note from the root note is (one whole step and one half step) or (2 whole steps) from the root note of the chord. A half step being one fret and a whole step being 2 frets. If the third note from the root note is (one whole step and one half step) then it is a minor chord, however if the third note from the root note is (2 whole steps) it is a major chord. This method can also be applied to diminished chords by determining if the fifth note from the root is (3 whole steps from the root note of the chord) making it a diminished chord, or the fifth note from the root is (3 whole steps and one half step from the root note of the chord) making it a standard chord. Using this method and following the example below, the chords following the C major scale would be:
- C major
- D minor
- E minor
- F major
- G major
- A minor
- B minor diminished
Half step whole step intervals example