Types of Guitar Chords

Guitar chords are the sounds that make up any piece of music you compose on your guitar. Of course, you can strum single notes, but knowledge of the different guitar chords is essential information for a guitarist of any genre or field. 

What are the different types of guitar chords? How many guitar chords do you need to learn? Let’s explore this:

What is a Guitar Chord?

Guitar chords are fundamental skills in guitar playing, up there with learning how to tune a guitar. You hear only one sound when strumming a single note on your guitar. This sound isn’t polyphonic or exciting. But when you play a chord, you combine three or more notes to create a richer sound. 

Types of Guitar Chords

If you know how to play some other instruments, you probably know that there are different types of chords. Indeed, there is music theory about concepts like diatonic chords, chord equivalents, and extensions far beyond the most common chords, but let’s take a closer look at the chord types that every guitar player needs to know.

Open Chords

As the name suggests, open chords are chords where you play notes on the fretboard, with the remaining strings left open, or not fretted.

Barre Chords

To play a barre chord, you use your index finger to press all the strings of a fret - this creates a bar or barre - much like a capo. You can shift barre chords up and down the fretboard, replicating open chord shapes with your remaining fingers.

Power Chords

Power chords are the first of our different chords of the same type. The technical definition of a chord is three or more notes played simultaneously. Therefore, power chords aren’t chords per sé - they’re dyads. 

Power chords are just two notes played together. That being said, power chords are still an equally valid and cool-sounding way to play notes simultaneously. If you’re interested in learning genres like Heavy Metal, Rock, or Punk, power chords will be some of the first chords you learn.

Triad Chords

And now for some real chords! Triad chords are composed of three notes stacked on top of each other in intervals of thirds.

There are four types of triad chords: major, minor, diminished and augmented. The major and minor triads use their scales' first, third and fifth notes. So to play the C major chord, for example, you would use its scale’s first, third and fifth notes - C, E and G. 

Or if you wanted to play C minor, you’d play C, Eb and G. The minor and major triad chords are some of the most common in music overall. That’s why these chords are typically the first you should learn.

Then there are the augmented and the diminished triad. The diminished triad chord comprises the root, a minor 3rd, and a diminished 5th - C, Eb and Gb, whereas the augmented triad is the root, a major 3rd and an augmented 5th - C, E and G#. These aren’t very common, which can make them difficult to learn as a beginner. 

Other Types of Guitar Chords

Yes - there are even more guitar chords you can learn and experiment with! Like the different types of guitar tuning, these advanced chords will help you to explore the outer reaches of the sounds your guitar can make and will help you learn more about guitar playing in general. Plus, if there’s a particular genre you want to get into, some of these chords are perfect.

7th Chords

First up is the 7th chord. You create 7th chords by adding the 7th interval from the root to an existing triad. The most commonly used 7th chords are the major 7th, the minor 7th and lastly, the dominant 7th. These chords are used frequently enough, so you’ll need to learn them early on in your guitar journey.

Then there’s the 7th chord or the half-diminished chord. You’ll learn this chord when you become an intermediate guitar player. When you master both these chords, you’ll be able to progress to chords like the diminished 7th or the Major 7 (#5).

Extended Chords - perfect for Jazz

There are also extended chords or Jazz chords. Commonly used in jazz music, you play these chords by stacking more thirds above the seventh - the 9th, 11th and 13th. The extended chords you are most likely to use are the major, minor, and dominant 9th, 11th and 13th ones.

Suspended Chords

And now for some suspense - suspended chords! 

In all the chord types we have mentioned, you’ve been stacking intervals of a third over each other. And, the third note of the scale - either E or Eb in the key of C - has been present. But now, the third is replaced in a suspended chord - either by the scale’s second (sus2) or the fourth (sus4).

When you play them, suspended chords tend to sound suspended. Thus, when you use suspended chords in music, you’ll need to resolve them to either a major or minor chord later.

Add Chords

If this wasn’t enough for you, did you know there are also add chords? The most popular chords are add 2, add 9, add 4 and add 6. Add chords are much like suspended chords, except that the third isn't removed while the new note is added.

Altered chords

An altered chord is either a 7th or extended chord with a lowered or raised 5th or 9th note, or even both. Altered chords have names like C7 (#5) or C9 (#11). Altered chords are great to learn if you are into jazz guitar music!

Slash Chords

Then there are slash chords. The root note is the lowest note played in all the chords we looked into previously. But if any other note is in the bass, the chord is written as a slash chord. So C/G, for example, would mean that you play the chord of C major, but with G as the lowest note.

It’s also possible to have a slash chord where the lowest note is not in the minor or major chord. For example, while C major is C, E, and G, a slash chord version is C/D. You would play Cadd 2 with the note D - the added 2 - in the bass to play this chord. You might refer to this as an add chord rather than slash, and that’s okay.

Why Guitar Chords Are Important To Playing Guitar

As you might have guessed, this list truly only represents a tiny fraction of the thousands of different chords and chord positions your guitar can make. So, even the most seasoned, diversified guitarist couldn’t possibly learn all of them. So, instead, you should learn as many guitar chords as you need to play the music you are interested in learning or that enables you to compose your own!

As we touched upon, major and minor, suspended 7th chords, and add chords are common in most genres. You’re guaranteed to encounter these at some point. Thus, we’ll cover these with you early on in your lessons. However, if you want to explore Jazz, fusion, Rock, or anything else, we’ll help you explore the chords you need to master the basics.

What to improve your playing and learn how to play an endless repertoire of guitar chords? Why not get in contact to discuss guitar lessons in and around Leeds, or online!