Chord Construction & Exploring Open Chords

The open chords are a delight to use and sound beautiful when used correctly . Some of the guitarists may argue that barre chord sound's more right but this actually depends on the feel of the song . At some point barre chords sound too warm and heavy but if you're playing a song on a cheerful note then you need something that sound's gentle , cool and happy . The open chords provide all the qualities which a song with special feel needs . 

Chord Construction
Before continuing towards chord construction I would recommend that if you don't know about the fret board notes then refer to my earlier post : Memorize Your Guitar Fret Board & Basic Music Theory  . I'm giving a complete fret board with all notes here for a reference and reminder of the earlier post .

Complete Fret Board with all notes

If you know where all the notes reside on the fret board then its half way towards construction of a chord . Here's how every chord is made on your fret board :

Step 1 : Chord Formula
Every chord that is designed to be played has a formula . This formula can be said similar to the one's we find in our science books but the major difference is that here we have roman numerals instead of elements of the formula . Here's a chart for the formula for every chord like major , minor , diminished etc .

Chord Formulas : (b=flat , #=sharp)

You don't need to learn this whole chart but this will be helpful when your finding some chord on the fret board .

Step 2 : Scale Note & Degree 
This is a chart for the scale notation for every note from I to I(octave) . Here also you don't need to understand the chart to make chords it's just a reference for Step 3 .

Scale Note and Degree Chart

Step 3 : Finally, how to make the chord ?
In this step we will use the charts from step 1 and 2 two make a chord . So , Here's what you need to do 

• From the Formula chart find which type of chord you are looking for ( like major , minor , minor 6 etc ) .
• Now remember the formula ( the roman numerals ) for the chord you are looking for .
• Go to the second chart now and find the chord then write down the corresponding note according to the formula . 

Here's an example how to do this : 

• Say we choose G major chord to start with so the formula for major is I-III-V.
• Now we go to the scale chart and find G scale . Then according to the formula on G scale at I-III-V the note are G-B-D .

Now you just have to find combination of these three notes on the fret board and the chord will always be called G major .
Here's an example of simple G major which we use :

As you can see above that when we construct the chords the only notes that come in the chord are G-B-D .


Exploring Open Chords 
After you know the theory to construction of a chord it's time for you to have some fun exploring your guitar's neck for alternative of the open or barred chords . 
Say, If we take E major chord the formula corresponds E-G#-B and the various formation across fret board are :

• 001220
• 4542xx
• 799970
• 12 12 13 14 14 12
• 45467x
• 12 9 9 9 11 12

To know how to read guitar chords refer to :

How to read the chords and tabs on the blog?

You can still find many shapes by tuning the guitar to a specific tuning . The whole theory remains the same all the time . So best of luck finding the correct sound for your songs . Experiment a little and you may come up with your own brand new chord . If you were unable to understand anything please comment that is always appreciative .

Thanks-
Raam Parashar