Guitar Chord Charts

There are lots of different chord types that you can play on the guitar. Throughout this site you will find guitar chord charts for all the popular guitar chords. Just look for the type of chord you want in the list below and then click on the link to find the associated chord diagrams.

Major Chords
Major chords use notes from the major scale but don’t flat or sharpen any of them. Major chords include the triad, Major 6, 7, 9, 11 and 13. Most major chords can be easily played on the guitar but some notes have to be omitted when the chord gets too large. Remember the guitar only has six strings and the hand and fingers have limited stretch. When the larger chords are played on guitar it is common to omit the fifth and sometimes even the root in order to get the most important notes sounding. Guitar chords can be impossible to play with all the intended notes but it usually doesn’t matter.

Minor Chords
Minor chords are the same as major chords but have their third scale degree of the associated major scale flattened for the triad. The extended minor chords like 7th, 9th and so on will all have a flat 3rd and a flat seventh. Just like the major chords, sometimes it’s necessary to omit certain notes because of string and finger limitations. To play minor chords on guitar it is common to leave out the fifth. The minor third and the seventh are probably the most important followed by ninth, eleventh and thirteenth if that chord type is in use.

Dominant Seventh Chords
Dominant chords are a cross between major and minor chords. They are most often referred to as just seventh chords or dom7. The seventh chord uses the notes from the major scale but flats the seventh scale degree. 7, 9, 11 and 13 chords are the same as the major chords but with the seventh flatted or could be looked at from the minor chord perspective without the third being flattened. Dominant chords are usually just labelled with their number I.e. E7 E9 E11 and E13 are all dominant chords. Dominant chords for guitar will sometimes leave out certain notes like the others. The third and seventh are quite important to leave in if possible for this guitar chord

Diminished Chords
Diminished chords are probably the most confusing of all chords. The problem is there are three types of diminished chord. They are all minor in character. The standard diminished chord is a triad and is built from the first, flat third and flat fifth of the major scale, 1 b3 b5.

Next is the half diminished which is more commonly called the minor seven flat five. This is an extended version of the one above but with the flat seventh scale degree added. The half diminished chord (min7-5) is therefore built on the 1st, b3rd, b5th and b7th scale degrees.

The last diminished is the diminished seventh. Some guitarists call this the full diminished, some say diminished 7 and some will just say diminished. You can see why this gets confusing. The diminished 7th is the same as the min7b5 (half diminished) but with a double flat 7 (bb7). It’s easily arguable that this is the same thing as 1 b3 b5 6 and indeed it is certainly the same notes, however from a theory point of view and for notation reasons it’s more sensible to name it a double flat.

Augmented Chords
An augmented chord is a major chord with a raised fifth, 1, 3, #5. It is often labelled with a + sign so the chord C+ for instance is the same thing as a C aug. Augmented chords are basically triads but you will often see chords such as seventh augmented which would mean a dominant seven chord with a raised fifth. Example, C7+5 is a C seventh augmented and is derived from the 1st, 3rd, #5th and b7th of the major scale.

Suspended Sus4 Chords
The suspended fourth chord is the same as the major triad but the third scale degree is replaced by the fourth. This gives the chord a feeling of suspense, whenever you play a sus 4 chord there is always a feeling that it wants to resolve back to the major third, and more often than not, this is what happens in a lot of music. The sus4 gets used as a kind of passing chord or temporary shift from the major triad to add some suspense. The scale degrees used in the suspended fourth chord are 1 4 5.

Suspended Sus2 Chords
Suspended second chords are built on the 1st, 2nd and 5th degrees of the major scale.
Suspended chords sometimes cause a bit of arguing amongst musicians because theoretically speaking, the sus2 chord (suspended 2nd) doesn’t really exist. The reason for this argument is because every sus2 chord can be considered a sus4 chord. For example, the notes in the Csus2 chord are C D G but this also the same notes you will find in the Gsus4 chord.. G C D. Whatever the argument, sus2 chords are so named and in widespread use so we may as well accept their existence.

Barre Chords
Barre chords (often spelled bar chord) is a term used for playing a chord on the guitar. A pianist wouldn’t use a bar chord for example. The barre chord is named as such because of the nature of the guitar fretboard and the way it’s easy to create a moveable chord by using the index finger as a “bar” and act as the guitar’s nut. Because no open strings are involved, this means it’s possible to learn just a few common barred shapes and then simply move that shape to start on any root note to give a different chord.

Barre chords are mostly five or six string chords and based on the common open chords. For instance the six string open E major chord can be moved up the neck by one fret to create an F major as long as the index finger is now barred on the first fret, just as you would with a capo. There are five main types of barre chord pattern for each five or six string type. Major, major seventh, minor, minor seventh, and seventh. Therefore learning just ten shapes means you can play all of the most common guitar chords anywhere on the neck as long as you can find the root notes quickly on the fifth and sixth strings.

Power Chords
Power chords are another term used mostly by guitarists. This is a very common method of playing chords in rock and heavy music. Power chords are also known as fifths and the reason is simple. They use only two notes, the 1st and fifth of the major scale. Sometimes the 1st or the fifth note is doubled so the chord is played with three strings but it will still only have two actual notes, one of them is just the octave.

Power chords like this played as fifths are neither major, minor or dominant. because they only contain the first and fifth scale degree this makes them kind of multipurpose. The key of a song played with power chords will be determined by what the melody or other instruments are playing around them.