Memorizing the chords for all 12 keys is a hassle! There
are 7 chords in each key (84 total), and trying to keep
all of these straight seems impossible. You can get around
this by finding the chords in your key visually, by
position. As I explained in my book, “Take Control: for
guitar”, scales follow a physical pattern and chords are
built from scale notes, so it seems logical that the
chords in a key will follow a similar pattern. I will use
my cheesy tab to explain this, but first I need to explain
2 things.
1.- Type1 and Type 2 bar chords: I am using the 2 main
types of moveable bar chords most people are familiar
with. A type 1 chord is named from the 6th string root
and matches an open E and Em chord shape. A type 2
chord is named from the 5th string root and matches
the open A and Am chord shape. (If none of this makes
sense to you, stop! This post is not for you!)
2.- Chord degree names; Pros refer to chords by Roman
numbers, which tell the chords’ place in the key or its
degree. The first chord in the key is called the I chord,
the 4th chord in the key is called the IV chord, etc.
Since a key contains 7 chords, you have 7 Roman
numbers/degrees. Why do this? It makes it easy to
change keys! If a song uses the I,IV,V chords in the key
of F, you can play the same I,IV,V chords in the key of
G. Once you know the chord degree pattern, you can
start it on any fret to find the chords for any key. You
have to know (or look up) your type 1 and type 2
chords for this trick to work.
-Upper case Roman numbers (I,IV,V) mean major chords
-lower case Roman numbers (ii,iii,vi) mean minor chords
-lower case plus * (vii*), means diminished chord
Got all that? Below I’m showing the 7 chords in the key
of G with the matching degree names below that. The 7
chords in the key of G are; G major, A minor, B minor,
C major, D major, E minor, F# diminished. I am only
using strings 5 and 6 of the tab to match my type 1 and
type 2 chords.
Chords in the key of G
5—————-C——–D—–Em
6———-F#d G——Am—-Bm
fret# 01 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 etc.
Scale degrees in the key of G
5—————IV——-V—–vi—
6———–vii*-I——–ii——iii—
fret #01 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 etc.
Notice the root chord of the key, G major, is the
type 1 chord on the 3rd fret. The root chord for this
pattern will always be a type 1 chord and the rest
of the chords will be 2 and 4 frets above the root
chord, except the diminished which is always 1 fret
below the root chord. Got all that? Probably not
quite! in the next post, I will show the above key
of G and compare it to the key of A, so you can
see the Roman number pattern in action.
