Basic Guitar Chords of The Major Scale

There are 12 Major keys or scales. Each key has 7 notes and a chord for each of those 7 notes.

The basic chords have 3 notes in them and are called triads.

Each key has the exact same structure and order of chord types. This is important to understand.

I.e.

The 1, 4 & 5 chords are always major chords.

The 2, 3 & 6 chords are always minor chords.

The 7 chord is always a diminished chord.

This chart shows the 12 keys in the order of the cycle [circle] of 4ths and 5ths.

Circle of 4th's - Start from the top and go down... C, F, Bb etc

Circle of 5th's - Start from the bottom and go up... C, G, D etc.

NOTE: Each of the 7 chords in a scale are given a number relative to where they are in the scale. You will also see these chord numbers used as Roman Numerals.

Capital numerals denote major chords (I, IV, V), while lower-case numerals denote minor chords (ii, iii, vi). The 7 chord uses lower case (vii) because it has a minor 3rd interval and is also essentially a minor chord type. You'll learn more about this on the next page about chord theory.

Also, I have made major chords YELLOW and minor chords BLUE. Yellow for happy. Blue for sad.

As this chart represents 3-note chords [triads], the 5 chord is yellow [major]. Later when we get to 4-note chords, the 5 chord will become a dominant [RED] chord.

And don't concern yourself with the 7 chord too much at this stage. It is rather confusing and will be explained later on. (Suffice to say it is a substitute [multi-purpose] chord. And the 4-note version of the 7 chord is actually a particular kind of minor chord... a minor 7th with a flattened 5th. Aka - min7b5 or half-diminished.)

Chart of All 12 Major Keys And Their Chords

Key

1
(I)
Major

2
(ii)
Minor

3
(iii)
Minor

4
(IV)
Major

5
(V)
Major

6
(vi)
Minor

7
(vii) Dim