Beginner Guitar Lessons

When a song is specified in a specific key, it basically means the chords in that song are all built off of the scale in that key.
For example, when you learn how to play guitar chords in the key of G (it is assumed that a key of a song is major key unless a different mode, such as G minor, is specified), all the chords are built off of the different scale steps of the G major scale.

Each note of the major scale is assigned a number, and in more serious music terminology, a name. With the G major scale the number, notes and names are:

1. G tonic
2. A super tonic
3. B mediant
4. C subdominant
5. D dominant
6. E submediant
7. F# Leading Tone
1. G tonic (again)

It takes three...

Simple chords consist of three notes, simply called triads. The formula for creating triads is to take one of the scale tones, and building upon it with two additional notes but skipping every other note. So, a triad (chord) built off of the first scale step would be: G B D. (Notice that the in between notes... the A and C...were skipped).


Typically on a guitar when you learn how to play guitar chords using all six strings, some the notes of a triad are repeated an octave or two apart. Meaning, the chords in your beginner guitar lessons that have you playing all six strings really only have you playing three different notes. In the standard first position G chord, from low to high, the notes are: G, B, D, G, B, G.


Creating triads off of the other notes in the major scale follows the same "every other note" formula. A triad built off of the seconds scale step in the key of G is: A C E, which is an A minor chord

Because of the intervals between notes in a major scale, the chords built off of the different scale tones will be either be a major chord, a minor chord, or in the case of the leading tone, a diminished chord.

Pattern recognition

The following is the major, minor and diminished chords you'll use when you learn to play guitar in the key of G major:

1. G major
2. A minor
3. B minor
4. C major
5. D major
6. E minor
7. F# diminished
1. G major

And this pattern for chords built off of a major scale: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished...holds true regardless of what of what key your in.

For example, switching to the key of A major, the chords would be:

1. A major
2. B minor
3. C# minor
4. D major
5. E major
6. F# minor
7. G# diminished
1. A major

When you learn how to play guitar chords and start jamming with a band, it is not uncommon for a song to be called "a one-four-five song", meaning the main chords in that song are the 1 (tonic), 4 (subdominant) and the 5 (dominant). Using the G chart and the A chart above, we can see that the chords that we'd use in this song would be:

Key of G: (1) G major, (4) C major & (5) D major
Key of A: (1) A major, (4) D major & (5) E major

And knowing the relationship between chords when you learn to play guitar, you could transpose a progression into any key.

Key of C: (1) C major, (4) F major, (5) G major
Key of F: (1) F major, (4) Bb Major, (5) C major

Learning by the numbers

The Nashville Number System is a chord chart that uses number instead of actual chord names that allows the musicians to quickly transpose songs in the studio to facilitate singers who often need the song "moved" to suit their range.


And if you're a jazz cat learning how to play electric guitar, you'll find that many jazz charts are written using Roman numerals in place of the standard (Arabic) numbers that we used in above examples.


If you can grasp this simple note relation concept when first starting your beginner guitar lessons, you'll be able to take all the songs you learn and be able to accommodate any singer or band you play with by be able to quickly and efficiently changing keys.