Guitar Chord Building - EON

A 3 tone guitar chord is called a triad.

In this lesson, we will build the triads in C Major.

First let's review what we've covered so far...

The Major Scale pattern is 221-2221 (dial up the major scale).

2 = whole step & 1 = half step. On guitar, a whole step = 2 frets & one half step = 1 fret.

Here are some more points to remember about the major scale...

We can build a LINEAR C Major Scale by starting on the C tone located on the 5th string, 3rd fret. Practice improvising with this scale.

Now that we are certain about the tones in the KEY of C Major, we build chords. Chords are created by selecting a ROOT (a tone to build something from), and then selecting Every Other Note (EON).

There are 7 tones in a Major scale; therefore, there are 7 triads (each tone becomes a root).

Upper Case Roman Numerals = Major chords [I, IV, V]

Lower Case Roman Numerals = minor chords [ii, iii, vi]

Lower Case Roman Numerals with a Degree sign [o] = diminished chords [viio]

Go to Guitar Chord Charts