The Guitar Player's Resource
You think about what you say, so... think about what you play. It's important to have the necessary vocabulary to make musical decisions as opposed to just grabbing the "reflex chord." This article will teach you to use different inversions of some of your favorite chords as well as constructing background harmonies to your original songs. It will also open your ears to new musical possibilities and therefore inspire new creativity.
I'm not going to go deep into theory. What I want to do right now is to provide specific examples that you can play, hear, and use today!
Let's start with the best invention ever created for the guitar. I'm sure you know how to play the "E" Major chord, but how many ways can you play it?
This is the "E" Major chord that we all know and love:
Ex. 1 E A D G B E
o o o
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| | | @ | |
1 |-|-|-|-|-|
| @ @ | | |
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3 |-|-|-|-|-|
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E B E G#B E
But today, let's work only with the essential notes that make up the "E" chord or triad. All the notes for the "E" chord examples used today will be found on the D, G, and B strings, or the fourth, third and second strings.
It takes three notes in the proper combination to construct a triad, or chord. You can have more notes, but first let's gain an understanding of the essential three, the "Mighty-Triad."
O.K., the triad (or three) tones of the "E" chord in the root position are played like this:
Ex. 2 E A D G B E
x x o x
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1 | | | @ | |
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| | @ | | |
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3 | | | | | |
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E G#B
You can see from examining example 1 that when you play the full "E" chord that you are used to, you don't really have more than the three-note triad, you are only doubling or in the case of the "E" note, tripling the triad notes of E, G#, and B.
O.K., we've covered the sound of the "E" chord you should be familiar with, and you've learned that inside that big chord lies the triad of E, G#, and B found on the D, G, and B strings.
Now let's cover the 1st inversion of the "E" major chord. Staying on the same strings as in example 2, move up the neck, string by string, until you've found the next possible note in the triad.
For example, move the "E" note up until you find the next possible note in the triad, which in this case is the "G#" note found on the "D" string on the 6th fret. You can find it here:
Ex. 3 E A D G B E
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1 | | | | | |
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| | @ | | | Slide note from 2nd fret to 6th fret
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | | |
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| | @ | | |
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G#
You'll also notice that unless you have an incredible stretch, the rest of your fingers have followed your hand up the fretboard. That's good! Your other fingers are in the perfect position to form the missing two notes in our first inversion "E" chord.
On the remaining two strings, follow the same logic that lead you from the "E" note on the "D" string to the "G#" on the 6th fret of the "D" string and you will derive:
Ex. 4 E A D G B E
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1 | | | @ | |
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| | | | | | Slide note from 1st fret to 4th fret
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | | |
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B
Ex. 5 E A D G B E
o
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1 | | | | | |
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| | | | | | Slide note from open to 5th fret
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | @ |
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E
Combine the three notes that we've moved up the fretboard and you get:
Ex. 6 E A D G B E
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1 | | | | | |
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | @ |
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G#B E
Play it! Doesn't that sound pretty? "So what?" you may be thinking. "I already know how to play two or three "E" chords what I learnt out my Roy Clark Big Note Songbook, and they sound just fine to me. Why do
I need to know about triads?" That's a valid question, and one that I will answer.
One application: Let's say you've written a great song and it's in the key of "E", the greatest guitar key in the world. The lead vocal sounds great. You've got no idea what notes you're singing for the melody, and you don't need to. It already sounds good without knowing how to write it. That's fine.
But then you decide that you would like to have some background vocals to really punctuate key words in the chorus. If you have a band, what do you tell them to sing? If you want to really punch the word "Hey!" in your chorus, you could tell the singing members of your band to just find a note, and if they're good singers, they probably can. They probably won't remember their note at the next practice, but for the moment, their "note" will work. What if they're pretty good singers but don't really have an ear for harmony? They can sing the note, but they can't find it on their own. Ah! But you, with your enormous knowledge of chord theory, cannot only find the note, you can write it down. Here's how:
Sing the main note of the melody, sustaining the note until you find it on the guitar, and write it down. With that information, combined with the knowledge of what chord you're playing, you can immediately find two other notes that will work very well with the main note. Sticking with our fabulous "E" chord, if you figured out that you were singing a G# on the word "Hey," you would instantly know that you could sing the remaining two notes Of the triad, the "E" and the "B," and have a great background harmony.
This also means that you can re-create the event at the next rehearsal, gig, or recording session. Now that's cool! In another case, you may be recording alone in your basement and the background singers are you, yourself, and...you. In that case, just as with your band, find the note you are singing, and you can use either one or both or the remaining notes of the triad to create great sounding, professional background harmonies instead of the drunken, everyone-singing-the-melody kind of backgrounds such as those on Garth Brooks', Friends in Low Places. It obviously worked for him on that tune, but it was a "choice" he made on "that" tune. You don't hear very many other of his tunes without harmonies. Used as an effect, instead of out of necessity, everyone singing the same note can work well, and it's a good tool to have in your little bag `o tricks.
This information may take awhile to digest, but how do you think the Beatles got their start? They lived and breathed this stuff, and they mastered it!
Now of course there are a many other notes that will work as harmonies besides the basic triad tones, like suspended fourths, major sixths, dominant sevenths, ninths and so on-- not to mention those wonderfully dissonant tones of the flat 5 and minor 2nds. But we need a firm foundation on which to build, and that foundation is the triad.
All right, let's finish off this "E" triad. We've got one more inversion before we begin to repeat ourselves. Let's continue with the same logic that we began with in example 3.
We had moved all the notes from the D, G, and B strings up from the root position "E" triad to the next possible position, which gave us the chord in example 6, the "E" 1st inversion triad. Now, let's move the notes up to their next highest position like this:
Ex. 7 E A D G B E
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5 | | | | | |
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| | @ | | | Slide note from 6th fret to 9th fret
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7 | | | | | |
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9 | | @ | | |
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B
Ex. 8 E A D G B E
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3 | | | | | |
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| | | @ | | Slide note from 4th fret to 9th fret
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5 | | | | | |
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7 | | | | | |
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| | | @ | |
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E
Ex. 9 E A D G B E
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5 | | | | @ |
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| | | | | | Slide note from 5th fret to 9th fret
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7 | | | | | |
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9 | | | | @ |
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G#
Ex. 10 E A D G B E
x x x
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5 | | | | | |
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| | | | | | The end result
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7 | | | | | |
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9 | | @ @ @ |
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B E G#
You are probably used to playing the barre chord "E" at the seventh fret like this:
Ex. 11 E A D G B E
o x
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5 | | | | | |
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7 | @ | | | |
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9 | | @ @ @ |
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B E G#
But today, we are transcending the barre. It has served us well in the past and will continue to do so, but as of now, we know a bit more about the components of this great chord and how to employ them.
At this point, it would be a good idea to recap examples 3 through 10 and make sure you understand what is happening. This is also a good time to say that there's no time limit on learning this stuff. You don't have to master it all in one day. If it takes you two weeks to learn the material in this article, that would be two weeks well spent. Don't pressure yourself to learn everything in one day.
When you played examples 3 through 10, did you notice how the notes of the triad played musical chairs with each other? Look at this:
Do you see the pattern? Do you see the relationships between the notes? There are several. And these relationships remain constant throughout all Western music and in all keys, forever. Once you've got it, you've got it.
Play these three inversions of "E" again. They're all made of the same notes, E, G#, and B, but do they all sound the same? Do they have the same weight, or lightness? Can you hear possible applications for different musical situations? I hope that you can, because that's your job. I'm just opening the door for you; you've got to walk through.
Here's some food for thought. Apply the same logic to these new chords I'm about to outline for you as you did in examples 3-5. These chords don't all begin in the root position, but at some point will pass through the root position as you move the inversions up the neck. I'll provide two inversions each and it's your job to figure out the third inversion. Sound fair? Here goes nothin':
Ex. 12 E A D G B E
x x x
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1 | | | | | |
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| | @ @ @ |
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | | |
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E A C#
Ex. 13 E A D G B E
x x x
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1 | | | | | |
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| | @ @ @ | Slide E up to A,
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3 | | | | | | slide A up to C#,
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| | | | | | slide C# up to E
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5 | | | | @ |
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| | | @ | |
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7 | | @ | | |
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A C#E
Ex. 14 E A D G B E
x x x
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1 | | | | | |
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | | |
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B D#F#
Ex. 15 E A D G B E
x x x
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1 | | | | | |
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| | | | | @ Slide B up to D#,
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3 | | | | | | slide D# up to F#,
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| | | @ @ | slide F# up to B
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5 | | | | | |
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7 | | | | @ @
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| | | @ | |
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D#F#B
Ex. 16 E A D G B E
x x x
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3 | | | | @ @
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5 | | | | | |
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7 | | | | | |
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B D G
Ex. 17 E A D G B E
x x x
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3 | | | | @ @ Slide B up to D,
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| | | @ | | slide D up to G,
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5 | | | | | | slide G up to B
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7 | | | @ | @
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| | | | @ |
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9 | | | | | |
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D G B
Ex. 18 E A D G B E
x x x o o
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1 | | | | @ |
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3 | | | | | |
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5 | | | | | |
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G C E
Ex. 19 E A D G B E
x x x o o
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1 | | | | @ |
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| | | | | | Slide open G up to C,
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3 | | | | | @ slide C up to E,
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| | | | | | slide open E up to G
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5 | | | @ @ |
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7 | | | | | |
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C E G
Ex. 20 E A D G B E
x x x
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1 | | | | | |
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| | | @ | @
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3 | | | | @ |
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5 | | | | | |
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A D F#
Ex. 21 E A D G B E
x x x
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1 | | | | | |
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| | | @ | @ Slide A up to D,
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3 | | | | @ | slide D up to F#,
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| | | | | | slide F# up to A
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5 | | | | | @
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7 | | | @ @ |
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D F#A
So what are you waiting for? Go forth and create something that is uniquely your own. And don't wait for mastery, just go for what you know right now. I'll bet you'll be happy with the results, and you can practice what you create to the point of mastery later. Right now, just listen and create.
Jeff Spencer toured the USA for over a decade making his living playing the guitar. He has 25 years of experience playing the guitar and finds something new to play every time he picks it up.
He is currently recording songs for a guitar/vocal CD scheduled for release in mid-1997.
