Learning Guitar Chords

Learning guitar chords is something everyone who plays the instrument has to go through. You know that. You've probably dedicated hours to learning how to play them. But how much can you actually do with those chords?!

If your answer to that question is "not very much", or "what I play always sounds the same", chances are you have fallen into the trap of thinking of chords as fingering boxes.

Cigar Box Guitar Blues

I have nothing against fingering boxes, for learning guitar chords or for scales. But basing your study of fretboard harmony on these diagrams leads unavoidably to a dead end. Or a boxed end, if you will

Fingering boxes have their place: they are great to easily visualize fingering positions. And if you're learning simple songs, they are great as memory aids, too. What they suck at, though, is helping you understand. If you try to dive into the deep waters of Jazz harmony or Classical harmony using box chords, you'll wind up unavoidably depending on rote rather than understanding.

This leads naturally to the question, "Is there a better way of learning guitar chords?"

Understand basic music theory

There is no way to move beyond rote and box diagrams without understanding. So if you're serious about learning guitar chords, I suggest you get pretty serious about learning basic music theory, too! Understanding music theory in the abstract is not too useful. Go get a good ear-training course, and relate everything to the theory: that is the only real way of learning music theory.

Stop being lazy

Learning guitar chords properly is not as hard as it seems

You need to think about what you're doing on the fretboard, but not nearly as much as you fear you might. Music making hinges on habits: form the right ones at the onset, and you're set! So get into the habit of always being aware of the specific function of each note within any given chord.

An example of note functions when learning guitar chords

C major 7 (CM7 or CMaj7) is composed of 4 tones: C, E, G and B. Each of these tones plays a specific role within the chord. This is true regardless of what fingering or inversion you choose, and even which instrument you play it on. C is the root of the chord. E is the third of the chord (a major third in this case). G is the fifth of the chord (a perfect fifth). B is the seventh of the chord (a major seventh). So in any fingering (a drop 2 or a drop 3 voicing, for instance) the exercise would be to focus not only on finger placement, but also on the function of each of the notes.

If that chord then flows into a G7, the dominant in C major, you will have to play 4 new tones: G B D F. In this case, G is the root of the chord. B is the third of the chord (a major third). D is the fifth of the chord (a perfect fifth). F is the seventh of the chord (a minor seventh).

So even though G and B are both in both these chords, they have different functions in each.

Voice leading

This leads to some very cool possibilities. If two out of four notes in the 2 chords in the previous are the same, then why not be lazy and leave my fingers in the exact same spot? Great question. In fact, minimizing movement between chords will sound better most of the time. And it will also save you precious guitar-playing energy.

I'm not suggesting that you always play minimizing voice motion. How much would that suck?! The point here is to have choices. The deeper you go, the more choices you will have, and the more interesting your music will become. Voice leading is a really complex topic, and is beyond the scope of this article, but the simple fact is that you will never ever be able to play using interesting voice leading if you don't know the function of each note within the chords you use.