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Chord Theory

Chord Theory 6: Omitting Notes

So far we’ve learned about the basic chord types (major, minor, diminished and augmented), and taken a cursory look at each of the possible sixth, seventh, 69, and extended chords that can be developed on top of these basic triads. However guitarists only have four fingers and six strings to play with, while these chords have as many as 7 notes. Its not realistic (or always musical) to play every note in these complex chords. Instead, we can omit notes which aren’t considered to be important to the sound of the chord.

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Chord Theory

Chord Theory 5: Triads with Added Notes

The previous chord theory post looked at extending chords past the seventh by adding ‘tensions’. Tensions are the more ‘colourful’ notes of the chord and add interest to the basic chord’s sound. Adding tensions to triads is a way of adding more colour to triads, without needing to include the seventh.

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Chord Theory

Chord Theory 4: Sus Chords

Unlike all of the chords we have learned about so far, suspended chords are not major nor minor, and are not built in thirds.

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Chord Theory Chords Theory

Chord Theory 3: Extended Chords

In the previous chords post we learned about seventh chords. Today we are going to add even more notes on top to create extended chords.

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Chord Theory Chords Theory

Chord Theory 2: Seventh Chords

In the last chord families post we looked at every possible three note combination of stacked major and minor thirds. Today we’re going to look at each of the four note combinations.

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Chord Theory Chords Theory

Chord Theory 1: Basic Triads

Many guitar students know a few open chords and the ‘basic’ barre chord shapes, but get discouraged from furthering their chord vocabulary due to off-putting nomenclature (Gb7#9b13 anybody?) and immense (not to mention mostly useless) chord dictionaries with ‘10,000 Chords You Must Know’ – just where is the student supposed to start? And what is a ‘sus’ chord, an ‘augmented’ or a ‘diminished’ chord, anyway?