Guitar Tutorials - Music Theory III

What is a chord?

A chord is when three or more different root tones are connected (played together, or clearly grouped).

Different "root" tones means different letters. So:

C-C-D is not a chord
C-E-C' is not a chord
But C-E-G is a chord
And G-B-D-Ab-Bb is a chord

The different root notes make the chord. This has some implications that are important to know for guitarists:

The order in which the tones appear does not change the name of the chord. C-E-G is the same as E-G-C.
Tones can be played doubled above the octave: C-E-G is the same chord as C-E-G-C'-G'

Note that the order of the tones does not change the name of the chord. However, the chord does sound different. E.g. you can play the C major chord on a few different ways on the guitar. On guitar, you normally choose chords that are close to each other on the neck.

Four c chords on guitar

Four different C major chords. All chords have the tones C,E and G, in different order:

first: C-E-G-C'-E'
second: C-G-C'-E'-G'
third: C-E-G-C'-E'-C''
fourth: C-G-C'-E'-G'-C''

On guitar, you can play all the tones of the chord at the same time, one after the other, or any creative combination of the two:

Four Am chords on guitar

All A-minor chords, played in a different way. It's a chord when the tones somehow belong together.

Playing the tones of a chord one after the other is also called playing a "broken chord". When the chord tones are played in sequence from low to high or visa versa, it's called an "arpegio".

A note about notation

Note the notation of A-minor above: "minor" is abbreviated to "m". Sometimes a dash (-) is used: A-.
When a chord is major, there is no abbreviation. So C = C major, while Cm or C- = C minor.
Sometimes you'll see a capital M for major, like CM, and a small m for minor. Luckilly that is not common,... it's confusing!
However, later we'll look at chords with four tones. In that case it is okey (and desirable) to use a capital M (there is a difference between C7, CM7 and Cm7, more on that later in this course.)

Bass tones and ground tones

The bass tone of a chord is the lowest tone. The ground tone is the tone that gives the name to the chord. These two do not have to be the same.
Let's look at the C major chord. The tones in the C chord are:

C - E - G

If you play these tones in a different order, it is still a C chord. The ground tone remains C, the bass tone changes:

C-E-G: ground tone = C, bass tone = C
E-G-C: ground tone = C, bass tone = E
G-C-E: ground tone = C, bass tone = G

So all these chords are called the C chord. However, when changing the bass tone, the tones are inverted. And that is exactly what chords with a bass tone that is not the ground tone are called: inversions.

C-E-G is called the "root position"
E-G-C is called the "first inversion"
G-C-E is called the "second inversion"

Let's listen to these inversions.

Inversions of the c chord

root position, first inversion and second inversion of the C major chord.

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