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Guitar Chord Shapes - explanations and help
There are several possible reasons for this:
Unfortunately, many songbooks and internet transcriptions use chord names that are either amibiguous or just plain wrong. This causes problems when you are trying to find chord shapes for e.g "Amsus4" or "Gadd5". A few of the common mistakes are listed below - if you're looking for some of these chords (left part of the table below), use the correct name suggested on the right hand side (all examples given are for root note A).
| Ambiguous or incorrect name | Correct name |
| Amsus4 | Asus4 |
| Amsus2 | Asus2 |
| Am7sus4 | A7sus4 |
| Am7sus2 | A7sus2 |
| A2 | Asus2 or Aadd2 |
| Aadd5 | A |
Remember also that for "slash chords", the first part of the name gives the basic chord and the second part gives the bass note. Hence an Am chord with a G in the bass is written as Am/G. If you're looking for a chord such as "G/Am" the transcriber has got things the wrong way round.
For chords based on a chromatic root note (Bb, F# etc), the chords are always listed under the equivalent sharp note. This means that Bb chords are listed as A#. Use the table below if you're not sure of the equivalent notes.
| Flat note | Equivalent sharp note |
|---|
| Bb | A# |
| Db | C# |
| Eb | D# |
| Gb | F# |
| Ab | G# |
For altered and jazz chords, the chord names often contain symbols such as #, b, + and -, for example E7#9. When the symbols are immediately followed by a number (e.g "#5", "+9") then # is the same as + (E7#9 is the same as E7+9). Similarly, the symbols b and - can be used interchangeably (E7b9 is the same as E7-9).
Occasionally, the symbols aug and dim will be used in the same way (e.g E7aug9). In this context, # is the same as aug and b is the same as dim.
The chord name conventions used on these pages always use the symbols # and b, so if you're looking for chords that use +, -, aug or dim simply convert to # and b as appropriate.
Examples
- For E7+9 look up the chords under E7#9
- For E7-9 look up the chords under E7b9
- For E7aug5 look up the chords under E7#5
- For E7dim5 look up the chords under E7b5
Chord types
If you cannot find the chord you want on these pages, and you have already read the above sections on some of the common reasons why this might be, the chances are the chord type you are after isn't included in the list which is used to generate all the chord shapes.
I have tried to list all of the basic and less common chords in these lists, but if you can't find the one you want in the list below then let me know.
The starting point for the generation of these lists of guitar chords is a list of chord types. Examples of chord types are sus4, m7, add2, 7#9.
For each chord type, 12 chord names are created (one for each of the 12 semitones A, A#, B, C etc).
I have tried to include all basic guitar chords and as many of the less common altered/jazz chords as possible in the list of chord types used to generate this chord dictionary. I've also included some slash chords, i.e chords in which the lowest note in the chord is not the root note (D/F#, Am/G etc). The number of possible slash chords is immense - for each standard chord type, there are 11 slash variants. For this reason I've limited the slash chords to those based on the simple major and minor chords.
The list of chord types used to generate these lists is shown below.
Basic types:
(major)
m
sus2
sus4
add2
add9
add4
madd2
madd9
madd4
add2add4
madd2add4
aug
dim
5
6
m6
6/9
m6/9
6/7
m6/7
maj6/7
7
m7
maj7
7sus4
7sus2
7add4
m7add4
9
m9
maj9
9sus4
11
m11
maj11
13
m13
maj13
13sus4
mmaj7
mmaj9
7#9
7b9
7#5
7b5
m7#5
m7b5
maj7#5
maj7b5
9#5
9b5
In addition to the above chords, 11 slash chords are included for the major and minor types (e.g A/A#, A/B, A/C, ..., Am/A#, Am/B, Am/C, ...).
The name of the chord is given at the top of each list, followed by the chord spelling. For example:
A7
===
Spelling: 1, 3, (5), b7
|
The chord spelling is a listing of the notes of the major scale that are used to build the chord. For example, a major chord is made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th of the major scale, hence the spelling is: 1, 3, 5.
The chord spelling is given at the top of each list of shapes. Optional notes are given in brackets. For example, in a 7th chord the 5th is usually considered to be optional, and so the spelling is: 1, 3, (5), 7.
Chord groups
The chord shapes in each list are organised into three groups:
- Bar chords
- Other moveable chords
- Chords using open strings
Chord shape
Each chord is described by the fret numbers where you need to place your fingers. For example, an E major chord shape might be written as:
The six numbers give you the fret positions needed for each string. The number at the left is for the bottom E string, the number at the right for the top E. The above shape means use the open bottom E, B and top E strings, and fret notes at the 2nd fret A string, 2nd fret D string and 1st fret G string.
Muted strings are indicated by an x in the chord shape, for example a D major chord:
For any given chord name, there are many different chord shapes that can be used on the guitar. The list of shapes is grouped first into three categories:
- Bar chord shapes
- Other moveable shapes
- Open string shapes
Within each of these groups, the chords are ordered so that the shapes that are easiest to play should appear first. If a number of chord shapes are judged to have the same level of difficulty, other criteria are used to determine the ordering. These include:
- the number of muted strings (smallest number first)
- the position of the chord shape on the neck (lowest first)
- the number of fingers needed to play the chord (lowest first)
I've done my best to order each list of chords so that it is quick and easy for users to find suitable chord shapes. If you think this aspect of the chord generator program can be improved, feedback is welcomed.
Last updated February 2004