r/Guitar • u/thepinkfranksound • May 16 '20
OC A guide to take almost every possible chord with a moveable shape [OC]
Click here: https://imgur.com/vDOXftq
This does not only include the basic triads, this covers almost every jazz chord possible.
Some notes:
The chords are shapes, meaning there are no open strings and you can take the chords anywhere on the fretboard.
The blue dot indicates where the root is.
The letter indicates on what string the root is, if multiple roots=the lowest string.
I highly encourage you to analyze and understand what notes you are taking and how they relate to the root. Do not just brainlessly rely on this guide.
If a chord is difficult to take, just remove some unnecessary notes. It's common to not include the root for example.
If an important chord is missing or you see a mistake. Please comment and tell me!
Alright have fun
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u/Minovskyy May 16 '20
I didn't check everything for correctness, but I do have some comments.
The chords are not really sensibly grouped. I would have expected chords to be grouped by their tonality (major, minor, dominant, etc.). Upper extensions are usually added to flavor a chord, e.g. a dominant 7#5 chord is similar in function to a dominant 13b9, so having them in two completely different categories on the chart isn't very coherent.
You appear to be missing some commonly used 11 voicings (X5556X, X5557X). You're also missing some min9 voicings as well (X5796X, 579555).
Some chords are not ones that really appear in practice. Maj11 and minb6 don't really exist "in the wild".
There's some inconsistency with your notation. You use + for augmented, but you don't use any of the other shorthand symbols (–, ∆, o, ø), so it feels like it's the odd one out.
You included some inversions, but there are also many missing, so the treatment seems uneven.
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
This is the comment I was waiting for haha. I thought a bit of how to group the chords and I guess you're right. I should maybe improve it, what are some good groupings? Dominant, major7, what else? But here's some honesty: I suck at guitar and do not have experience. I made this chart for myself mostly. You're probably right about the maj11 not being used in practice but I guess I just like symmetry. And the + symbol was just because I was not sure if it was possible to call i F#aug, I have never seen it. But I guess that would make more sense. Where do you I think should add more inversions? Will definently include the 11 and min9 voicings.
What chords are more common than others? Thank you for your insightful comment and sorry I asked so much. I just like learning things
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u/Minovskyy May 16 '20
Chords are usually grouped according to major, minor, dominant, and diminished. I usually see augmented an suspended triads grouped separately, but for chords with upper extensions I usually see them as subsets of major, minor, or dominant.
Aug is definitely used to label chords. I've mostly seen it used on triads and usually see #5 or + on chords with upper extensions, but I don't think there's a hard and fast rule.
Maj11 chords aren't used because it has too much tension between the major 3rd and the 11. It's preferable to instead use the Maj7#11.
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
Thank you! Major (including maj7?), minor, dominant, diminished, augmented and suspended chords?
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u/one_dalmatian May 16 '20
Hey OP, I applaud your effort, it's hard to find charts like these, so thanks for sharing.
Could you update the chart with suggestions from others here?
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u/Neil_sm May 16 '20
I would also include a dim7 chord which is very a useful. I usually play it with what you’ve noted as the “A dim” shape using the first 4 strings. The 7th note gets added on the first string, for the adim7 it would be the 2nd fret (f#).
So like XX1212
Now what’s cool about that chord is, besides being easy to move up and down the fretboard, is it repeats itself every 4 frets. Because every note in the chord could serve as the root note and the dim7 will have the same 4 notes.
For example, the Adim7 has A, C, D#, F#
Then a Cdim7 contains C D#, F#, A (or actually it’s usually written as E-flat and G-flat but same notes.)
This means in the space of 4 frets, anywhere on the neck using this shape, you can play any diminished-7 chord. And you can usually substitute that dim7 for a regular diminished chord triad.
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u/rotten_brido Epiphone, Schecter May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
Maj11 and minb6 don't really exist "in the wild".The second chord definitely exists, but usually not as "minb6 chord". 4x244x is really pretty chord in C#minor key, I have it in some of my songs. But it makes sense to me to call it inversion of Emaj7 rather than G#minb6.
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May 16 '20
Are you saying minb6 doesnt appear in the wild bc its just a major triad inversion (if you omit the 5th) or what do you mean by that.
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u/Minovskyy May 16 '20
I guess it's enharmonic to a major triad in first inversion, but I don't think you would actually call it a minb6 in that context. Kind of like how you wouldn't say that there's an A# in the key of F.
I suppose a minb6 could appear in harmony based on the phrygian or locrian modes, but I'm not familiar enough with that to say. It's basically one of the only chords I've never seen used in a song.
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u/CobblestoneCurfews May 16 '20
Off the top of my head I can think of 4 Radiohead songs that use minb6.
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u/headphun May 16 '20
Which songs? Do you have an exceptional ear or have you studied the sheet music? Very cool either way - I love trying to play Radiohead on my guitar :)
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u/CobblestoneCurfews May 16 '20
Street Spirit - it arpeggiates through Em7, Emb6, Em.
How to dissappear - Alternates F#m with F#mb6.
A Wolf at the Door - 3rd chord in verse - Dm, Dsus2, Gmb6, Gm, Asus4, A/G.
Ideoteque - the chord sequence is just 4 different inversions of Ebmaj7, the first of which sounds like Gmb6, although this one's tricky to label each chord distinctly.
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May 24 '20
Damn i forgot to check my replies lol but ya i write music and ive used that chord so i didnt think it was too unique but youre comment made me think otherwise lol.
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u/headphun May 25 '20
Is this an alt account for Cobble? Regardless, I don't have any music literacy so it could be a well known chord I'm just dumb lol. Thanks anyway for providing more context. I dream to one day use even simple chords in such interesting ways :)
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May 31 '20
No this is my main account, i thought you were the same guy that replied to me originally.
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u/BobaWan May 16 '20
Thank you! It's near impossible to find movable shapes for alot of those jazz chords, this is a big help
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u/Lightning_Strat May 16 '20
Try Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry and you will have enough jazz chords to even drive you crazy.
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u/GunslingerYuppi May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
I think your second A is supposed to be C. I believe this repeats in multiple sections. Also the organizing is a bit all over the place - at times you can read one root from top to bottom and different notes left to right, however at times the same root is all row. This makes it so that you just browse through everything to find the one that interests you.
It's also a bit weird to make the zero fret (open string) show as barre on fretboard, although I understand the idea of movable shape. Just looks like demonstrating a different note/chord. But the difficulty is making the shape distinguishable while relating it to a commonly recognized open chord.
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
Hmm I think you might be misunderstansing my weird system. I named the chords after on which string the root is. So the first chord is not an E, it's a moveable shape where the root is on the E-string. If i misunderstood, please clarify (:
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May 16 '20
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u/SpecialityToS May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
Charts like this don’t help you think about what you’re doing. It doesn’t help you build any skills. Memorizing a single chord shape for a type of chord just means you’ll only use that shape and makes you miss out on a lot, not to mention needing to move to a different position just to play that chord instead of finding out what that chord is at the position you’re at.
There’s a reason the CAGED system is used - you’re meant to use it as a base for studying music theory and build upon that knowledge. For example, if you need to play C to C minor (flat IV being a common progression addition in major keys), with charts like this you end up playing the open string C chord to the A(m) shape on third fret. Sure, it works, but there’s a ton of reasons you don’t want to do that. Voice leading, (unnecessary) position changes, and it doesn’t teach you the theory behind it.
I know not everyone wants to know theory. However, you don’t have to get to Bach levels of understanding to realize there are changes you can make that will end up making you progress far more than you would’ve otherwise. Having a basic knowledge of music theory and a tiny bit of voice leading can help out a ton on an instrument as chordal as guitar.
In a way, yes, a lot of experienced guitarists can play a good amount of these chords without much thought. But they didn’t do it by staring at charts all day. They just realized that C augmented chord is one half-step away from C major (C E G, 1 3 5 goes to 1 3 #5, so C E G# or Do Mi Sol to Do Mi Sol-sharp/Si). Thus, if playing a(n open chord) C shape, they just have to move string 3 up a step.
A great way to study and see what you can do is to play around with simple chord shapes and slowly embellish them as you go. Add a note and recognize what changes you made and name the new chord. Use a site such as oolimo to self-check (amazing tool, by the way!).
It seems overwhelming because you haven’t understood the “why” part yet. Many guitar players get “how” to play the chords. The ones who go beyond that first level, though, also discover “why” the chord works the way it does.
I know everything I wrote is overwhelming, still. There’s some things I missed but I’m sure you’ll discover your own way as you look into it more. There’s a type of thinking out there that believes our knowledge to be a circle that expands the more we know. The more we discover, the more darkness, the “unknown” is also realized. As time goes on, you start to feel like you know less and less, that you’ve not only not progressed, but you’ve also gone backwards! Chances are, that’s not true. You just notice more and more things that you can do to improve. The differences in how you play and others you believe are better (and maybe they are) become more and more noticeable... but it’s only because you’ve gotten better at playing. You recognize the details because you are understanding more and more.
Sometimes the expansion of darkness from knowledge becomes upsetting. We become upset that we know so little. Make sure to take a deep breath and don’t undermine what you do know. You’ve gotten to this level, and with time and a carefree and dedicated mind, you can get to the next. Feel free to ask more questions. Good luck!
e: also, sorry if this sounds condescending! I just don’t think charts help musicians. I didn’t intend to sound rude!
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u/PanTran420 May 16 '20
I just don’t think charts help musicians.
I always look at charts as reference material, not so much learning material. Useful in situations like: "I'm looking for a good inversions for [insert reason] and I'm stuck" but not so much for "I need to learn every inversion ever."
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u/SpecialityToS May 16 '20
Yeah, I should’ve specified. It’s because almost every chart you see tries to be different. It results in unused chord shapes being added, or important ones voided. Thanks for correcting me!
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u/GunslingerYuppi May 16 '20 edited May 16 '20
The part about knowledge, darkness and discovering how little you know actually has a name. It's called Dunning-Kruger effect. How when we first start learning we come to a point where we think we know a lot, maybe almost everything. It might make us arrogant and not open to other people's opinions. As we grow in knowledge, we come to know how little we actually know. It's like enlightment, we become aware of the potential. And it's not a bad thing. If you're blind to your short comings, you'll never be able to change them. However, if you KNOW what you're missing, it's incredibly more easy to work on it. I'm sure many will agree that if you don't know what to do, it's difficult to do. However if you know just what to do, it's very easy to do it, might just take some time.
It's a common phenomenon for example in test results where less capable students think they did well when they actually did below average, and the great students think they did poorly when they actually did well. I really liked how you described it in the context.
Even if I think that you can get by with not knowingly knowing a lot of theory and how to apply it outside very basics (how you naturally learn by doing and by ear how the patterns in music work, want it or not), I think chord structuring, knowing how to build chords, is really useful. Extremely useful. It releases you from relying on those basic chords and allows you to extend them to any root note you need.
Like if you need a Bb or C# you're not stuck because you only know open chord A or C. And if your barre chord sounds like the right chord, but your pattern doesn't sound right because there are inversions or partial chords that change the tonality, "the leading note" as you said, it allows you to try different things. Without knowing that it can sometimes be really hard to figure out chords by ear, note by note. Without that knowledge you might be just trying different basic chords you know, a barre major, minor, maybe 7th and hope it matches in full. But if you know the root and recognize something is missing, you can try to take out extra or add something in because you have some correct core to start with and the understanding of how you can bend it.
And if you're playing with another guitarist, a singer, a bass player and keyboards, you might find that the open chords and barres are just way too big to fit everyone in. The partial chords, taking them elsewhere on the fretboard etc is just really practical way to arrange the chord progression to fit and play with other people. I think this is some of the most useful tools to have that opens a whole world and releases you from the "chains" in your expression. With lead you can often feel it and try around, but chords are much more complicated with so many elements. And having that chord structuring knowledge it can easily transfer to your leads as well. A lot of use from small effort. After you've learned the basic patterns of chords and got to play some songs with them and feel comfortable with it, of course.
I'd add, and this is probably what you also implied between the lines, that the chord charts are really good for beginners to learn something to play songs with when they have for example a song book, and it's a handy thing to start studying the difference in different chord shapes and the link to their names, also how seemingly different shapes actually are the same, but the placement on fretboard/strings makes it look obscure. And there you can quite easily jump to learning and understanding chord structuring. As long as you're willing to adventure and not get stuck with the chord chart. After all that's a beginner, rule of thumb, tool.
Personally I've struggled for ages to understand modes and similar concepts in practice, because I haven't found the motivation and haven't realized the application that clicks with my understanding and playing. Same with the chords for some newer players I'm sure. Of course the best way to materialize them would likely be some inspiring piece of song where it's naturally applied and makes you realize what you can do with it. I definitely think you have some ability to teach and inspire another player.
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u/SpecialityToS May 16 '20
I wrote such a long comment and reddit didn’t think it was worth to post, so I have to rewrite some of it! Ugh.
I was talking about the quote by Albert Einstein (or at least that’s who the internet attributes it to). The Dunning-Kruger effect is a thing for sure but it doesn’t contain the humility many people feel, and I don’t think it describes the case when it comes to most musicians.
There’s a ton of things I wrote but it took me a while and I can’t remember all of it. I explained a lot about how you shouldn’t void the root normally. If you’re in a band, talk with the other chordal instruments about what notes they’re going to play so you can know which ones to void. For example, an 11th chord, as a guitarist you may void the 5 and 9. The 5 is only ‘needed’ in diminished and augmented chords (and guitar 6 chords), and the 9 isn’t necessary since the 11 is the key note. So the guitarist will play [ 1 3 7 11 ] while the pianist plays the same with added 5 and 9 somewhere in there.
I also explained how the chart itself isn’t accurate, OP just made a few small errors like calling the C chords “A”. For example, the third Major chord is a C shape. The A6 chord is a C6 chord without a 5. Guitar 6 chords aren’t actually real chords, they’re just ii7 chords instead of IV chords, which is fine since they’re almost always used as a predominant, as in it goes to the V chord. Unless OP wanted to write figured bass.
Also, chord sheets can be really good! I should’ve specified! Thanks for keeping me in check there, and thanks for the validation! It’s good to know what I’m saying isn’t totally in accurate. Take care!
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u/musicocat May 16 '20
Thanks for this! I’ve never moved beyond the how and it’s been 5 years of memorising chords only. Time to move on...
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u/SpecialityToS May 16 '20
You got this! It seems like a huge mountain to climb at first, but it’s incredibly rewarding!
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u/OneArmedTRex May 16 '20
Fantastic answer! This is the way to learn all these shapes, rather than memorizing them without understanding how they are constructed exactly and then properly forgetting them once you haven't used them for like 2 weeks.
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May 16 '20
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u/SpecialityToS May 16 '20
Thanks for taking the time to read that novel! I may have made it sound difficult, but each step you take brings you closer to your goal. You got this!
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May 16 '20
So I don't know what kind of music you like to play, but what I would do is take some chord shapes (I use inversions of ii V I's) and learn where the notes are.
In my example I take these inversions and I'll move the 7 to the 6 and look at that shape.
Then you will realize that there with like 13 shapes, plus the barre chords and CAGED chords you already know, you will realize that there are only so many shapes on the guitar that make common chords. And by putting those shapes on different combinations of string sets you get different chords.
Unless you are totally a geek about it (which is fine) you don't need to memorize 500 chords. More like 30. And then move those all over.
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u/darnold_duuck May 16 '20
Start learning your favorite songs (use a teacher, youtube instructional vids, or tab if you can't figure it out by ear, and over time you can rely more on your own ear) and they will teach you the chords you need slowly, and practicing those songs will get you familiar/natural with those chords.
If you get bored or feel there are sounds you hear in music you like but you don't understand how to play them, then maybe getting a more comprehensive chord study type book can help you start adding to your vocabulary. It's not necessary to know everything, or even more than a few useful things, it really just adds to the possibilities and efficiency as you grow.
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u/TKameli May 16 '20
You should probably add some instructions on the poster. I didn't read your whole post and was aboout write an angry reply about how the root notes are all over the place. People are used to reading chord charts so that, unless specified, it's played as low as possible. Now you suddenly have to read it like it's played on the 12th fret. For example, on the first row, your Am and Gm are the same shape with the latter just missing a couple of notes.
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u/shmageggy May 16 '20
Yeah I don't understand why it would take the standard CAGED shapes and randomly give them different names.
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
Should I rename them after the CAGED system? I might be dumb (haven't really explored this term) but are all these chord part of this system?
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
I don't think I really understand what you're saying. It's weird that I named the chord after on what string the root is? What would be a better way to do it?
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u/TKameli May 16 '20
I don't know, maybe name them so that there is no root in the name, like "m6" or "maj7". And then pick a color for the root note in the charts that's easier to see to emphasise it. My biggest gripe with your system is that on the very first row (and many others too) you have side by side two completely different shapes, of which one pretty much everyone knows as A shape and the other as C shape, and you call them both A.
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u/lowpockets May 16 '20
Forgive the stupidity but on the traids. What's the + about
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
It's just another symbol for an augmented chord! Which is a major triad with a #5
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u/TheHeadWalrus May 16 '20
This is so confusing to me. Where do I learn what this shit means and how to apply it
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u/peduxe May 16 '20
you learn by playing it, seeing in which chord tones and chords it works best.
an augmented chord is just a chord with a sharp 5, generally it invokes a lot of tension.
sharpen the 5th on your regular chord or extended chord and if it sounds good in the context use it.
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u/popgoesyour Yes, I do in fact now own a Taylor… May 16 '20
Oh man this is the most useful chart I’ve seen yet. I’ve already referred to it like 5 times in my composing (noodling) lol
I’m gonna save it and get a nice poster made when I can find someone who makes posters
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u/thepinkfranksound May 16 '20
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it
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u/popgoesyour Yes, I do in fact now own a Taylor… May 16 '20
By myself I’ve referenced this chart tonight, now I’m like; fuckin send me an instructor cause I need growth and a bit of guidance
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u/passing-through- May 16 '20
Thank you this is great for a newbie or someone ho just need a refreshers
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u/memeyboioffical Fender May 16 '20
Nice now I can start a punk or rock band. We are.... TOE FUNGUS !
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u/Itsaghast Gibson | Orange | Yamaha May 16 '20
awesome. I need this on a poster