Guitar chord facts for kids

Ry Cooder plays slide guitar using an open tuning that allows major chords to be played by barring the strings anywhere along their length.

A guitar chord is made up of two or more notes, played on a guitar at one time. Chord voicings, that is the choice of individual notes in the chord, can be changed for many different purposes and playing styles.

The guitar is very capable and useful for playing chords; but it does have some differences with other instruments. Most guitars only have six strings. This means that for the very largest of chord-voicings it is often necessary to not use one or more tones from the chord. The layout of notes on the fretboard sometimes means that the notes in a chord are not played in tonal order, or make possible a chord that is composed of more than one note of the same pitch. Many chords can be played with the same notes in more than one place on the fretboard.

Guitars can vary both in the number of strings they have. They can also be tuned differently. Most guitars used in popular music have six-strings and are tuned : E-A-D-G-B-E. Usually the string with the highest pitch (the thinnest) is called the first string, and the string having the lowest pitch (the thickest) is called the sixth.

Images for kids

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  The Who's Peter Townshend often used a theatrical "windmill" strum to play "power chords"—a root, fifth, and octave.

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  The previously noted chord progression with a dominant seventh . The dominant seventh (V7) chord G7=(G,B,D,F) increases the tension with the tonic (I) chord C.

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  Paul McCartney used an A-major I–IV–V7 chord progression in "3 Legs", which is also an example of the twelve-bar blues.

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  Johnny Marr is known for providing harmony by playing arpeggiated chords.

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  A barre chord ("E Major shape"), with the index finger used to bar the strings

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  Chords have consistent shapes everywhere on the fretboard for each regular tuning, for example, major-thirds (M3) tuning.

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  Disliking the sound of thirds (in equal-temperament tuning), Robert Fripp builds chords with perfect intervals in his new standard tuning.

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  E5

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  G5

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  G5

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  A Major Chord

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  D Major Chord

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  E Major Chord

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  G Major Chord

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  B Major Chord

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  F Major Chord

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  F Major Chord

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  F Minor Chord