Welcome to Guitar Chords Collective

This is your straight forward guide to all of the definitive chords that you’re going
to need for your guitar playing.
We’ve covered all of the keys you’re going to need and we’ve used
straightforward, playable shapes.

A few things to remember:

 Numbers next to frets mark positions. So if you see a number 4 to the left of
a chord chart. That means the shape starts in 4th position (fret 4)
 If there’s a circle above one of the strings. This indicates an open string. It is
to be played/strummed despite having no finger on that string
 If a string has zero finger markings on it and does not have the ‘open’
symbol above it – do not play/strum this string.
 Frets are marked with horizontal lines from left to right.
 Strings are marked with vertical lines from top to bottom.
 String 6 (low E) is on the left of each chord chart.
 String 1 (high E) is on the right of each chord chart.

Have fun, keep practicing and keep making music.
Tap any of the keys below to jump straight
to the right page:
Ab
A
Bb
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Db
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Eb
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F
F#
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Guitar Chord Progressions & Creating Songs

Easily

More Chords, Scales & Strumming Patterns

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 Guitar Chord Progressions
Creating songs easily with a few not-so-secret tips

So you’ve gone through the pain and pleasure of learning a few guitar chords. Your
fingers have bled and you can knock nails in with your fingertips yes? Good. You’re
now ready to get some structure to your music and create your very own songs.
With music there is complete freedom to do what you want and if it sounds good
then go for it. That’s great, and is the route I took when I started off playing.
Unfortunately I missed a trick. A very big and helpful trick. One that would have
saved me a lot of time in song writing, and taught me a few valuable and useful
musical formulas along the way. Now I personally hate music theory and the very
thought of sitting down and reading musical theory whilst staying awake is what
put me off. But as soon as I discovered how helpful a little knowledge can be, I was
blown away. I now look back at the songs I wrote - which took me an age to get
the chords right - and I see that without knowing, I was using a formula. If I’d have
known then what I’m about to show you, the songs would have fallen into place
with relative ease.
Sure, there’s nothing that adds restrictions to musical creation. Music is a
wonderful form of expression and as such you are free to do what you want. But
by learning some very basic musical theory it will give you a huge amount of
knowledge and guidance that you can dip into when song writing. You can
construct songs fully with this knowledge, or just dip into it when you hit a block. If
I can pick this up, then I assure you, anyone can.
So, what is this magic ‘knowledge’ I keep going on about? Numbers. Yep, I’m afraid
so - numbers.
OK, it’s time to get down and dirty with as little music theory as possible. I think
we’ve all heard someone sing the “Do-Re-Mi-So-Fa-La-Ti-Do” tune; well everything
I talk about will be based on that. If you aren’t familiar with the song and have a
stomach for 1960’s musicals then click here Bare with it,It will explain a lot.

Before we start, I’ll explain a few words that will be used.

 Root. A root note is the first note you play in a sequence of notes and the
foundation note of a chord which will always be the same note name as the
chord name. So the root note of a C major chord for example, will be the
note C and that will be the lowest note of the guitar chord.
 Octave. An octave is a note that is the same note, but higher in pitch. In
western music, there are 12 notes which on the guitar are represented by
frets. So if you fret any string on the 1st fret and count this as 1, then count
up until you get to 12, then that’s all the notes that are available. As soon as
you go up to the 13th fret, that is an octave higher than where you started.
Same note, just an octave higher. Pluck an open string, then fret it on the
12th fret…same note, octave higher. You could say it’s twice as high, which in
frequency terms it is. But these twelve little notes are really quite amazing;
every piece of music that you’ve ever heard, every opera, every Pink Floyd
song, every Elvis song, every David Ghuetta song only have 12 notes in. It’s
the combination of notes, tempo, rhythm, octaves and melody of these
same notes that makes a song unique.
 Progression. A progression is merely a posh word for pattern. So a
progression is a sequence of notes or chords within a key.

OK, I’m going to keep things simple in this article and concentrate on Major
keys, but will touch on minor keys later on. So let’s start off by looking at the
key of C major. In any key there is a scale of notes that just ‘sound right’
when used together in progressions (patterns). They start at the ‘root’ and
work up until they’re an octave higher and then repeat the same sequence
upwards as high as you want and that’s where “Do-Re-Mi-So-Fa-La-Ti-Do”
comes in. These notes are a progression that breaks down the 12 notes on a
fret board into only those notes that sound right to the key in question.
There’s a formula to this as well:

WWHWWWH

What the heck is that?? I hear you scream! I feel your pain so here’s the deal
and it’s not as bad as it looks:
W: is a whole note (2 frets)
H: is simply half of a whole note (1 fret)

Starting with any open string you can see this in action and join in the “Do-
Re-Mi…” song. Pluck an open string and call this Do, fret up the first ‘Whole
note’(W) and sing “Re”, fret up another ‘W’ and sing “Mi”, fret up the first
‘Half note’(H) and sing “Fa”, fret up another ‘W’ and sing “So”, another ‘W’
and sing “La” another ‘W’ and sing “Ti” and that’s it. The next ‘H’ in the
sequence will take you an octave higher than you started on and… “bring us
back to ‘Do’…” as the song in the link above says. So, seven unique notes
and then repeat.

Let’s be clear, I’m not here to tell you why this happens. Needless to say it
has a lot to do with maths and ancient Greece, but all we need to know is
how it works.

So let’s get back to the real world of the guitar and see how this looks and
works. In the picture below you will see that the red C (3rd fret, 5th string) is
where we start when we go across the strings playing the scale of C major.
This is the “Do” note. The D,E,F,G and A are the “Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti” notes
respectively and then back to C which is an octave higher and so it becomes
the “Do” again (1 octave higher) and so on…

Now, we’ve just revealed the first bit of magic without knowing. The
ingredients of this whole article are within the picture above.
So the pattern we’re following in that picture is the same WWHWWWH we
did before, only this time we’re moving across the fretboard to keep things
easier. But the notes you are playing are; C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and that octave
higher C again. So what does that tell you apart from how fed up you are of
hearing that stupid “Do-Re-Mi…” tune you can’t seem to get away from?
Take a look at the next picture and more will be revealed:
Major Scale

In that little chart above lay so many secrets of easy songwriting. It’s
fantastically simple, yet so very powerful so let me now explain.

In the previous section we discovered the major scale of C which was: C, D,

E, F, G, A, B. If you look at the chart you can see this very same pattern in the
first column reading from left to right from the C.
That’s all this chart is. We have the major chords in the first column, with
the notes of their scale reading across from left to right. But there’s more.
Much more…
At the top of the chart you can see some Roman numerals. Just when you
think you’re grasping a little theory, they go and throw pesky Roman
numerals at you, I mean really! This goes back to ancient Greece and the
birth of musical notation really and that’s why. I call it unnecessary
pretentiousness, what’s wrong with 1, 2, 3 etc. But who am I to say. Anyway,
this is what this article is all about and they do serve a massive purpose
here. Think of them as numbers 1 – 7 if you like but the letters do serve
another important role.

If we take the key of C major again and look at those notes of C, D, E, F, G,

A, B that are in the C major scale and that’s exactly what they are; notes.
Now let’s turn them into chords and have some fun. What the little Roman
numerals are actually telling us is simply that a capital letter is a major
chord, and lower case letters are minor chords. If you look at the second
row you can see what I mean. So, what this tells us is that within the C major
scale, the chords are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B-dim….(screech!) B-dim?
What the hell is that? For the purposes of this article, I’m not going to even
go there. Dim (Diminished) chords are a whole different level and in truth
play no part in what follows and so can be ignored.

So what we actually have now is a whole bunch of chords that, in certain

sequences, are the magic musical formulas I spoke about. So in the key of C
major we now have C, Dm, Em, F, G, and Am that we can play around with in
the knowledge that they fit together. As I said at the start, there are no
rules, just guidance really. You can break off here and go experiment armed
with your guitar and the chord chart above, but read on for a few formulas
that work really, really well.

Let’s finally dive in now and let me give you the first big example: 12 bar
blues. The staple of all good guitar playing. 12 bar is versatile, inspiring,
fantastic to jam to and played a massive role in most music of the 50’s and
60’s and still plays a huge role in music today. It’s also probably one of the
 first things you picked up for the guitar. So let’s see, what chords are there if
you were to play 12 bar blues in the key of C? Not sure? Wanna know? OK,
first formula:

 I, IV, V This is probably the most popular 3 chord sequence in music. In

the key of C, if you follow the chart above, that would mean C, F and G (all
major chords as the capital letters show), and that’s it. They’re your blues
chords for C major and they…just work. Play four bars on C, two on F, two
on C, one on G, one F and two on C (so there’s your 12 bars) and just repeat
until 4 in the morning. Try this same rule with any key. So 12 bar in E would
be E, A and B etc.

This pattern is not just restricted to 12 bar blues at all; in fact it’s really one
of the biggest building blocks of guitar based music - period.

Wild Thing, Like A Rolling Stone, La Bamba, Rock & Roll, Here I Go Again, Still
Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and so on and so on. All three chord
songs using the I, IV, V chord pattern. The list is of songs is truly
MASSIVE…google it! The trick to making this sequence your own is down to
tempo, rhythm and melody.

 I, V, VI Try a few of your own variations to the above chord progression

like this one for example. We know that these chords play well together, so
mix it up. Knocking On Heaven’s Door for example uses the I, V, VI variation.

Now we come to the most used chord progression in modern pop music,
and it’s a good one:

 I, V, vi, IV What can I say about this progression other than: “Hey look, it’s
got a minor chord in it!” Err…try watching this fantastic video here (check
out the hits!) This is a wonderful – and entertaining - example of how so
many songs can use the same chords and progressions yet have a
completely different feel.
 Pretty amazing huh? Again this shows just how many different songs can be
made using just 4 chords following a structured pattern. As I said right at the
start, if I’d have spent just a little time in the theory when I started out, my
songwriting skills would have developed much more quickly.
Now we’re into the 4 chords, try a few of these progressions:
 I, IV, V, IV
 I, IV, I, V
 I, IV, vi, V (note the minor chord in there)

So hopefully you now have a basic understanding of chord progressions within

any given major key. You have a direction to try and some structure you can
use to create your very own songs. Now all it takes is a little imagination and
time.
Remember, music isn’t always about following the rules. The things I’ve shown
you here are a starting point. A place to build from, but you can do whatever
you want. Follow the above progressions by all means, but try adding 7ths to
the chords, sus4’s etc. Try mixing up the progressions and repeating certain
patterns within them and try throwing in a few random chords. What makes a
song unique is you. So go explore…

Brief Introduction to the minor scale

OK, so here’s the minor scale chart:

 Minor Scale

Notice how this time the first chord is a minor (note the lower case used for
minor chords). So again we have a diminished chord which you can ignore
for now. The minor scale has a different feel to it. Perhaps more sad, but
also maybe a little easier to explore and be creative in. Here are a few
progressions to give you a taster. Again, remember than lower case
numerals are minor chords:

i,VI,VII
i, iv, v
i, VI, III, VII
i, VII, VI
So there you go. As I’ve already said (a few times now), this is a starting
point for you. Take some time to familiarise yourself with each key and it
will soon just sit inside your guitar brain and you can pull on it whenever you
want without referring to any chart. Sometimes, when writers block hits, use
this information as a starting point and see where it takes you. But I would
suggest you also look into the role of the diminished chord and how this can
be used to ‘resolve’ a chord back to the start. It’s a chord that adds tension
and demands a resolution. But hey, one step at a time. Now that you’re
armed with some solid musical tools, go have some fun!

Some More Lingo

Alright let me keep this super short and sweet. When it comes to chords and
keys you may have heard some other fancy words like Tonic, Dominant and
Sub-dominant etc.
These are just other names for the notes/degrees or chords of a scale.
Instead of using the Roman numerals like the charts above you can use
these fancy words.
For example a common chord progression is that of 12 bar blues that was
explained a couple of chapters ago. In case you’ve forgotten......

This equates to:

4 bars of chord I > 2 bars of chord IV > 2 bars of chord I > 1 bar of chord V > 1
bar of chord IV > 2 bars of chord I
In the key of C this would be:
4 bars of C > 2 bars of F> 2 bars of C > 1 bar of G > 1 bar of F > 2 bars of C
But it could also be explained as:
4 bars of the Tonic > 2 bars of the Subdominant > 2 bars of the Tonic > 1 bar
of the Dominant > 1 bar of the Subdominant > 2 bars of the Tonic.
If your brains not hurting too much you can probably work out the really
fancy names of the degrees of the scale and chords I, IV, V. If not I’ve listed
all of them below:
Chord I - Tonic
Chord ii – Supertonic
Chord iii - Mediant
Chord IV - Subdominant
Chord V - Dominant
Chord vi - Submediant
Chord vii – Leading note or Leading tone
Now whilst these terms are used in association with chords they are more
commonly used to discuss, describe and identify keys of music.
So if I give you a little example it might make more sense.....
Let’s say you’re playing a piece of music in C. The piece uses chords I, IV & V
– so you’re happily strumming away with C, F & G. But then some musical
boffin suggests that the music does or should change key! In all his wisdom
he states ‘now move to the dominant’. After a moment of panic just let your
brain kick in. All this means is you’re going to move to the key of G. That’s
because G is the fifth degree of the scale in C and it has that fancy name of
the Dominant. Therefore moving to the Dominant when you’re in C means
changing to the key of G. So now you have to stick with the same chord
progression of I, IV & V but of course now that equates to the chords G, C &
D.
If you don’t want to use these terms that’s fine – you can get by with the
letter names and the Roman numerals. But just in case you’re jamming with
friends and this lingo pops up you’ll be ready to go!
Another Super Top Tip – Playing By Ear!
Have you ever seen, watched or listened to someone that can listen to a
piece of music and then spend a few moments playing around and before
you know it they’re strumming back the exact chord progression to the song
they listened to?
Well with a bit of practice you can do that too.
It’s not all about playing by ear either – yes of course you have to use your
ears and listen to a piece of music carefully to work out the chord
progression, but with the theory you’ve learned above it will help you look
like a musical genius in front of anyone.
Let me take you back to this chart:

Remember some of the common chord progressions that are used in Pop
and Rock music such as I, V, vi, IV? Well keep those patterns firmly in your
mind when you’re working out a piece ‘by ear’.
For example students always ask me to work out the chords to a song
they’ve heard, so out comes their mobile phone and they play the track. I
spend a couple of seconds listening and I find a chord or 2. Let’s say I can
play and match up an A chord and an E chord.
Now there are just a couple of keys that have A and E in them so that
narrows things down a lot. Look at the chart above you’ll see which keys I’m
talking about.
From here I’d probably pick A major. I’ve already got chords I and V with the
A and E so now I know I’m going to get a chord IV and vi. So I test out a D
chord and an F# minor. 99 times out of 100 it works and it works because
modern day music so very often uses chords I, V, vi, IV.....or a variation of
this progression but with the same chords.
Sure I might get it wrong. The initial A and E chords I heard could be from E
major. So with a little tweak I quickly work out that these are chord I and IV
from that key. Now I just need to find chord V and vi which are B and C#
minor. Got it? Simple! Playing by ear becomes infinitely easier if you
understand a bit of theory – it saves you wondering around and testing out
every chord you can think of and getting in a musical mess.
NOTE: if you really struggle with finding any of the chords. Go to the end of
the song, it will probably finish on the Tonic or chord I. So if your piece
finishes on an F chord – you can assume the song is in F. If you have this info
then you can work out you’re going to be using the following chords
throughout the song F, Bb, C, Dm (I,IV,V,vi) – just hussle a little bit to find
out the progression and there’s only a few that are really popular in modern
Rock and Pop.
Persist: if working out chords and playing by ear is a skill you really want to
develop you must be persistent. The more you do this the quicker you’ll get
at working out the theory BUT your ear will improve vastly and before long
you’ll be recognising the sounds and tonality of individual chords. You might
not be able to explain why or how this happens, it just does – your ear is a
magical tool, especially when combined with an educated musical brain and
lots or practice.
Chords, Scales & Strumming Patterns

1
 Table of Contents Page

Explanation of Chord Diagrams .............................................................................. 3

Major Chords.............................................................................................................................. 4

Minor Chords ............................................................................................................................ 10

Seventh Chords ........................................................................................................................16

Common Guitar Scales.................................................................................................... 22

Explanation of Strumming Patterns ..................................................................... 43

Basic Strumming Patterns .............................................................................................44

Mixed Strumming Patterns .......................................................................................... 49

2
Explanation of Chord Diagrams

3
Major Chords

4
5
6
7
8
9
Minor Chords

10
11
12
13
14
15
Seventh Chords

16
17
18
19
20
21
Common Guitar Scales
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Explanation of Strumming Patterns

43
Basic Strumming Patterns

44
45
46
47
48
Mixed Strumming Patterns