As I explained in my last post, “Key Shapes 1”, the easiest
way to find out what chords are in a key is visually, by
the pattern they follow on the fret board. To do this, you
must understand both type 1 and 2 bar chords and chord
degree names. Both of these were explained in the previous
post and more completely in my theory book “Take Control:
for guitar”. If the previous explanation doesn’t make
sense, either get the book or stop reading! In the
post I demonstrated the chords in the key of G major,
along with the corresponding degree names below them.
(It is almost impossible to get the tabs lined up 100% in
WordPress! You will have to compare the fret numbers
on the tab to your knowledge of the of the fretboard,ie. an
A min chord type I is on the 5th fret, even if the cheesy
tab is a little off). For this post I will compare the chords
in G major to the chords in A major. I will also try
using a table instead of tab. Just follow the fret number
on the left, notice any degree name to the right, and
play the chord listed in the type 1(6th string root), or
type 2(5th string root) column.

Key of G Major
fret#     degree     type 1 chord     degree      type 2 chord
0

1

2               vii*               F# dim.

3                  I                  G major                 I V                 C major

4

5                  ii                  A minor                  V                  D major

In the example below I will take the same degree

pattern and move it 2 frets higher, to the I chord on

fret 5. Notice the degree numbers follow the same

sequence and are the same distance apart. The only

thing that changes are the new chords you have to

make to match the degree names 2 frets higher.

Since the I chord is on the 5th fret we are now in..

The key of A Major

fret#     degree     type 1 chord     degree     type 2 chord

0

1

2

3

4               vii*               G# dim.

5                  I                  A major                  IV                  D major

6

7                  ii                  B minor                  V                  E major

8

9                 iii                  C# minor                 vi                  F# minor

You can move this degree pattern to any fret on the neck

(starting on the type 1 chord) and find the chords in any key!

Memorizing this degree pattern is much easier than learning

the chords in all 12 keys. In the next post I will use this idea

to find the chords in a blues key.

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.

This post concludes my “Rock Triage”,3 technique exercises
that cover the main challenges guitarists face;
1.- They can’t stretch far enough.
2.- They can’t play fast enough.
3.- They keep picking the wrong strings.
All 3 exercises are simple and cover the problems in a
general way. Once you get them down, you can do all 3 in
10-15 minutes a day, 4 or 5 days a week. You should start
seeing progress in a few weeks. In this post I will focus
on the 3rd exercise, cross-picking. I basically got the
idea for this one from a Berklee Book exercise called,
“Endurance Etude”. I took the basic idea and switched it
to a pentatonic scale and simplified it a bunch! This is
done using the 1st position of the pentatonic scale, I
have written it in the key of Amin/Cmaj because why not?
You should leave your 4th finger planted on the 1st
string, 8th fret through out the exercise. Use the other
3 fingers to play the rest of the scale. Pick 100% down
and up(down=v and up=^).
v ^ v ^ etc.

1—8—8—8—-8—8—-8—-8—-8—-8—–8—–8-
2-8—5————————————————
3———7—-5—————————————
4——————7—-5—————————-etc.
5—————————7—–5———————5
6————————————–8—–5—–8—-

At first, you will probably need to look at your pick (to
hit the correct strings) but try to play without looking
as soon as you can, even with a few mistakes. Learn how
to play by feel! Speed is not the main goal here, picking
the strings cleanly is.
This wraps up the technique stuff. I still do all 3
exercises first thing in my morning practice routine, it
takes 5-10 minutes and allows me to warm up and stretch
out for the rest of the day. Good luck!