In this post I'm going to talk about one of the most important aspects of developing your skills as a rhythm guitarist, which is organizing your chords. With my private students I group the study of harmony and chord playing into six basic categories, which are the following:


1. "Basic Open Position Chords"
This category represents the "meat and potatoes" chord shapes that all guitarists begin with. Regardless of what style of music someone plays, all guitarists begin by learning these basic chord forms. (These are the chords that are taught in Lesson Pak One that comes included with the Fretlight Lesson Player). This category includes the most common Major, Minor, and 7th chord shapes including chords like E major, E Minor, E 7th, A Major, A Minor, A 7th, D Major, D Minor, D 7th, C Major, C 7th, G Major, G 7th, F Major and B 7th.


2. "Open Chord Variations"
This category includes variations that can be created from basic open position chords. These variations include "Suspended" or "Sus" chords along with Minor 7th and Major 7th chords, as well as "Add" chords and "Slash" chords. (Many of these variations are taught in Lesson Pak Three and are also included in the Fretlight Lesson Player's Chord and Scale Library). These chords types are still played in the open position, but go beyond just the basic Major, Minor and 7th chord categories.


3. "Power Chords / 5th Chords"
This category represents the essential "Rock" guitar chord sound, which is the "Power Chord" or "5th Chord". This category focuses on movable shapes that can be played up and down the strings in many different positions. (These chords are taught in the Rock Style Pak and are also included in the Fretlight Lesson Player's Chord and Scale Library).

 
4. "Barre Chords"
This category focuses on movable chord that are shapes that are created from open position Major, Minor and 7th chords. These forms can be moved up and down the neck and be played in many different positions. (These variations are taught in Lesson Pak Four and are also included in the Fretlight Lesson Player's Chord and Scale Library). The six most common movable Barre Chord shapes are the E Major Barre Form, the E Minor Barre Form, the E 7th Barre Form, the A Major Barre Form, the A Minor Barre Form, and the A 7th Barre Form.


5. "Triads"
This category focuses on three note/three string chord forms that can be played up and down the fretboard. (These chords are included in the Fretlight Lesson Player's Chord and Scale Library).The four categories of Triads are Major, Minor, Diminished, and Augmented. Each of these three note chord types can be played using several different string groups as well as different "Inversions".


6. "OTHER"
With my private students, I use this category for any chord shape or chord form that does not fall into one of the other five categories. I often refer to these as the "Jimi Hendrix" chords or the "Jimmy Page" chords because a lot of the guitar parts associated with those players include these more ‘out of the ordinary' chord types. I have found that even though these types of chords tend to be the more ‘exotic' sounding chords, they are also the ‘cool' sounding chords that really give chord progressions a very distinct or unique sound.


Now that I've outlined the basic categories for "Organizing Your Chords", in the next post I'm going to outline a whole bunch of different songs for you to work on that touch on each of these six different categories. Remember that it's important to recognize WHAT the different chord categories are, but it's even more important to take those ideas and apply them to real music, which is exactly what we're going to focus on in my next post. Until then, keep playing!

Nate