How to play and use the major chord
By far, the major chord is the most used type of chords in popular music. They carry an upbeat, hopeful, full sound. They lack any hint of mystery, sadness, fear, funkiness or anything of the like.
If you haven't already, go to Lesson 5: Playing Chords and look at the open chord page there. It shows you some great pictures on how to play major chords.
We are able to figure out the position of every major chord based on our intervals and our root note. The root note is what defines the chord. So, a C chord will have C as the root, B chord has B and so on. Very simple.
The major chord family
The major chord family can consist of many chords. The main thing is that the chord has a major 3rd in it. This is what makes it a major chord. But as you will see below, there can be many, many chords that belong in the major category.
The major chord formula is:
1 - 3 - 5
So the root is 1, it tells you what chord letter to assign like A, B, C, D , E, F or G.
The 3 is a major third above that:
A = C#
B = D#
C = E
D = F#
E = G#
F = A
G = B
And the 5 is a perfect fifth above 1:
A = E
B = F#
C = G
D = A
E = B
F = C
G = D
A Major Chords
A Major Chords
B Major Chords
C Major Chords
D Major Chords
E Major Chords
F Major Chords
G Major Chords
So there you go, there are many positions for each of the major chords. Next we'll look at the minor chords and their, structure, feel and positions.
The chart below shows the pattern for all of the tonics (1) - the 3rds and the 5ths on the fretboard.
TAN= the tonic or 1
BLUE= the 3rd
RED= the fifth
If you can find the tonic you can find the distance from the 3rd and 5th. So any combination of these 3 notes on the fretboard creates a major chord for that tonic. Look at the chart and try to figure out as many possible fingerings for a major chord as you can. If you look at the chord charts above, you see them in the chart below.
