While learning new chords can often be daunting, even the trickiest chord shapes can feel not so scary when you’re able to relate them to shapes you’re already comfortable with. Any chord shape can be mastered with enough practice and elbow grease, but you might be surprised to learn just how many chord shapes are out there where you’ve already put in the bulk of the effort without even knowing it. In this article, we’re going to go over some chords that you may not know but are very similar to two chords that you probably do: F and Dm.  

Chords Based On The Open F

We’re going to start by learning some chords based on the open F-chord shape. This is not the 1st fret barre chord F that some players learn early on, but instead the version where you put your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 4th string, your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, and collapse your index finger of the 1st frets of both the 1st and 2nd strings. You then strum the top four strings, skipping over the 5th and 6th strings entirely. 

A perk of this F-chord shape is that it is entirely movable. As it contains no open strings, you can slide this shape up to any fret and it’ll still be a major chord. Exactly which major chord it is will change based on where you place it, but it will always retain its quality as a chord, and the same is also true for all the chords we’re about to learn based on it.

Fadd9

To play an Fadd9 chord, start by making the open F chord shape described above. Then add your pinky to the 3rd fret of the 1st string. You can choose to either leave your index finger collapsed, or you can straighten it out and have it touch only the 2nd string. It makes no difference to the sound of this chord, so it’s really about whichever is more comfortable for you. The Fadd9 chord will work almost everywhere that your ordinary F chord will work, and its more somber sound makes it an interesting choice as a substitute. 

Fadd9 Chord

F6

Playing this F6 shape is going to be a lot like playing the above Fadd9 chord. You’re again going to just add your pinky to an open F-chord, but this time add it to the 3rd fret of the 2nd instead of to the 3rd fret of the 1st string. This chord will again work just about anywhere that an ordinary F-chord would work, but it has a nice touch of melancholy that the plain old F-chord lacks. 

F6 Chord

F7

Although slightly more of a stretch than the other chords discussed so far, this F7 shape has a great, crisp sound to it. To play this F7, start by playing an F6 chord exactly as described above. Then slide your pinky finger up one fret, from the 3rd fret of the 2nd string to the 4th fret of the 2nd string. That one fret is all the difference there is between an F6 and an F7 chord, although it makes a world of difference in terms of harmony. An F7 chord will work about one in every three times that you see an ordinary F-chord written, so I’d avoid using it as a substitution if you don’t have too much theory knowledge. 

F7 Chord

Chords Based On The Open Dm

Next, we’re going to learn some chords based on the open D-minor chord (commonly abbreviated as Dm). We’re going to use the common open Dm as our frame of reference. To make this chord, place your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string, and your index finger on the 1st fret of the 1st string. Then strum the top four strings, allowing the 4th string to ring out open, and skipping over the 5th and 6th strings entirely. 

This Dm chord isn’t quite as perfectly movable as the above F-chord because it involves the open 4th string. However, if you remove the 4th string from the chord entirely, then the remaining three notes of the Dm chord are completely movable and can be placed anywhere on the fretboard. This is also true for the chords we’re about to learn based on this Dm shape, so feel free to experiment with moving these shapes and down the neck. 

Dsus4

To play a D-suspended-fourth chord (or Dsus4, for short), play the Dm chord shape as described above. Then add your pinky finger to the 3rd fret of the 1st string. That’s all there to it! You can choose to either leave down the middle finger already on the 1st string or lift it off the fretboard. It makes no difference to the sound of this chord, although it is easier to switch back and forth between a Dus4 and a Dm chord if you leave the finger down. The Dsus4 will work just everywhere your Dm chords will, and their ambiguous sound can make them a very interesting choice for a substitution. 

Dsus4 Chord

Dm7

In order to play this D-minor 7 chord (or Dm7), start with the open Dm shape. Then lift your ring finger off the guitar and collapse your index finger so that it covers the 1st frets on both the 1st and 2nd strings, similar to the way you would play an F chord. In fact, another way to arrive at the Dm7 shape is by starting with the F chord described earlier, then lifting your ring finger off the guitar and letting the 4th string ring out open. A Dm7 will work pretty much anywhere that you see an ordinary Dm written, and substituting it can be a great way to subtly class-up a chord progression. 

Dm7 Chord

Bb

Even though this is the only chord on this list where we’re going to change the root note, it’s surprisingly easy to change a Dm chord into a Bb. All you have to do is take the above Dm shape and slide your middle finger from the 2nd fret of the 3rd string to the 3rd fret of the 3rd string. That one fret makes the difference between a Dm chord and Bb, although some would refer to this Bb voicing as Bb/D. 

Alternatively, you could refinger this voicing with your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 3rd string, your pinky on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string, and your index finger on the 1st fret of the 1st string. These are some frets as described above, but you may finger it more comfortable to instead use these fingers. As it is a different root note entirely, substituting a Bb for a Dm typically won’t work out super well, but it’s still a great chord shape to know. 

Bb

I hope you learned something from this article! If you have any questions, comments, corrections (I have been known to commit the more than occasional type or notation mistake), or requests for future articles like this one, please feel free to reach out to me at benfittsguitar@gmail.com. 

It can be difficult to keep track of all of the different types of chords, as well as their relationships to each other. However, understanding different chord qualities is important for songwriting, improvising, or just all around being a musician. I’ve found it helpful to think of different chord types as a spectrum, much like the color spectrum. Below is a simple version of this spectrum that consists only of the six most common chord qualities. 

A Broad Look

On one end of the above chard, we have chords primarily built upon minor thirds. On the other end we have chords primarily built upon major thirds, and in the middle we have chords that split the difference. The chords on either end are extreme opposites of each other, and the differences will grow less stark as we move towards the middle of the spectrum. 

A QUICK NOTE: as we analyze the different types of chords in the above chart, we will be using the root position triad versions of the chords as the frame of reference, as is common practice. The concepts discussed in this piece are equally applicable to inversions of the triads and denser versions of the chords. However, minimalist root position versions of the chords will be used for all examples for the purpose of the clear illustration.  

On the end of the left side of the spectrum (which I like to think of as the minor side), we have diminished chords. Diminished chords contain a triad of two stacked minor thirds, which makes them more minor than minor chords and thus places them on the far end of the spectrum. Diminished chords sound darkly dissonant and occur naturally on the seventh degree of the major scale. 

After diminished chords, we have minor chords. Minor triads consist of a minor third followed by a major third. So while they contain an equal amount of minor and major thirds, the fact the minor third occurs first makes it the definitive of the two thirds and ultimately places minor chords on the left side of the chord spectrum. Although minor chords share the darkness heard in diminished chords, they are much more consonant are used far more widely in popular music. Minor chords occur naturally on the second, third, and sixth, scales degrees of the major scale. 

In the middle, we have dominant and suspended chords. Dominant and suspended chords walk the line between major and minor, and don’t fit neatly into either category. Dominant chords are built upon a major triad, but have at least at a minor seventh interval stacked on top of the triad. That exact combination of a major triad and a minor seventh form a dominant seventh chord, which is both the simplest kind of dominant chord and the foundation of all the other dominant chords. 

Altogether, a dominant seventh chord consists of one major third and two minor thirds. When played in root position, the major third is the first and therefore definitive third, but it’s still outnumbered by the minor thirds. This creates a chord that essentially splits the difference between major and minor and thus falls in the exact middle of the chord spectrum. Dominant chords sound gritty, in your face, are fairly dissonant, and usually really want to resolve to a major stable-sounding chord. They occur naturally on the fifth scale degree of the major scale.

Suspended chords are the only chords discussed in this piece that break the pattern of stacked thirds. Suspend chords contain and a root note and a fifth just like all of the chords we’re going to go over, but instead of a third, it has either a major second or a perfect fourth. Suspended chords with a major second are called a suspended-second (or sus2) and the somewhat more common variety of suspended chord with a perfect fourth is called a suspended-fourth (or sus4). 

Neither the perfect fourth nor the major second (despite its name) make the chord lean inherently major or minor, which ultimately places suspended chords in the middle of the spectrum, along with dominant chords. Suspended chords sound tense, ambiguous, and bittersweet. Sus2 chords can be built over every scale degree in the major scale except the third and seventh, and sus4 chords can be built over every scale degree in the major scale except the fourth and seventh.

Moving to the right side of the spectrum, we have major chords. Major chords are the exact opposite of minor chords; while minor chords consist of a minor third followed by a major third, major chords consist of a major third followed by a minor third. The two are essentially mirror images of each other. Because of this structural similarity, major are in many ways the brighter, happier counterpart of minor chords. Both are consonant chords with similar harmonic functions, but with pretty much opposite moods. Major chords occur naturally on the first, fourth, and fifth scale degrees of the major scale. 

After major chords come augmented chords, which occupy the far-left end of the chord spectrum. Augmented chords consist of two stacked major thirds, which makes them the polar opposite of diminished chords. Augmented chords are also the only chord type discussed in this section that will never occur diatonically, which means that every augmented chord is going to contain at least one note outside of the key. This fact, paired with augmented chords’ jarring dissonance, makes them the least commonly used of the main chord types. However, augmented chords can still be heard in all sorts of music and have been used by everyone from The Beatles to Stevie Wonder to Beethoven. 

A More In-Depth Look

Below is a slightly more fleshed out version of the earlier chart. It is built off of the previous chart, but is adjusted to accommodate an added seventh to some of the chord qualities. This creates a more nuanced look at the chord spectrum that accounts for denser harmonies. Although not all of the chord types on it are particularly common, they all see far enough usage to be worth understanding. The below chart can of course be ever further fleshed out to include more nuanced differences, but the information already on it is plenty to get you started.

ANOTHER QUICK NOTE: Although we are now looking at chords that inherently denser than triads, we will still be examining all of the chords discussed through the framework of looking at them in root position. Just as with the previous section, everything discussed is still equally applicable to inversions of these chords. 

Starting on the left end of the above chart, the first new chord we come across is the full diminished. A full diminished chord (also known as a diminished seventh), is a diminished triad with a diminished seventh interval (which is enharmonic with a major sixth) stacked on top. This adds up to a total of four minor thirds within the chord, thus placing it on the far left side of even this more nuanced look at the chord spectrum. Full diminished chords never occur diatonically, but they are a notable part of many pieces of music written in harmonic minor modes. 

Following the full diminished chord is the highly similar half-diminished chord. The half-diminished chord (sometimes referred to as a minor seventh flat five) is a diminished triad with an ordinary minor seventh stacked on top. This means that a full diminished and a half-diminished chord are exactly the same, except that the seventh in the half-diminished is a half-step higher than the seventh in the full diminished. Altogether, a half-diminished chord consists of two minor thirds followed by a major third at the very top. The half-diminished chord occurs naturally on the seventh scale degree of the major scale. 

The next new chord in the minor major seventh, which sits with dominant and suspended chords in the middle of the spectrum. Minor major seventh chords are the conceptual inverse of dominant seventh chords; while a dominant seventh chord consists of a minor seventh stacked on top of a major trial, a minor major seventh consists of a major seventh stacked on top of a minor triad. Altogether, a minor major seventh chord contains one minor third and two major thirds, with the minor third being the definitive one. The minor major seventh chord will never occur diatonically, but it can be built off of the first scale degree in both the harmonic minor scale and the melodic minor scale. 

The final newly introduced chord is the augmented seventh. An augmented seventh is an augmented triad with a minor seventh interval stacked on top. This gives the chord a total of two major thirds and one diminished third, the latter of which is enharmonic with a major second. The diminished third places the augmented seventh left of a simple augmented chord on the chord spectrum, but its augmented triad makes it still lean right of a simple major chord. The augmented seventh chord does not occur diatonically and is not used particularly often in popular music. However its harsh, striking sound gives it a lot of character, and it can be a highly effective choice when used tastefully. 

The other chords on the above chart, such as major, minor, and suspended chords, do not become particularly complicated by the addition of sevenths. A major-seventh and a minor-seventh will sound richer and distinct from their triadic equivalents, but will ultimately function in the same way and occupy the same spaces on the chord spectrum. 

Building your own chords can be a great way to find new chords to incorporate into your guitar playing and songwriting, as well as make a fun exercise to practice your music theory skills. I find myself chord-building often, both when trying to find a new chord to put into something I am working on or just for fun when I’m sitting idly around with a guitar in my hands. The following is a step-by-step guide to building your own chords. It is written for an intended audience of guitarists with at least a basic understanding of music theory, but many of the concepts discussed here are applicable to other musicians as well. 

Building A Foundation

When building chords, a great first step is to build a triad that will serve as the skeleton of your chord. Triads are little, three-note chords that contain the bare minimum amount needed to create a chord. Most chords you know that contain at least three unique pitches (so power chords are out) can be stripped down to the triad that serves as their foundation. Although many musicians use the term triad to refer to any chord of exactly three unique pitches, the classic definition of a triad is specifically a pair of stacked thirds. Under the classic definition of triads, the only proper triads are major triads, minor triads, diminished triads, and augmented triads. 

This definition excludes the fairly common chord type called suspended chords, but three-note suspended chords have become pretty widely used by musicians in recent years and have a history of being used far before as well. The term suspended triad sees common usage nowadays regardless (with the sus4 variant traditionally referred to as a Georgian triad). Therefore, the use of suspended triads is entirely valid for the following exercise. 

Pick one of the following triad types. This triad will serve as the foundation of the chord you build. 

Once you’ve selected the triad you’d like to use, choose a root note to build it upon. It can be any note, so don’t spend too much time worrying about this detail. When you’ve selected the root note, build the rest of the triad off it. Figure out what the other two notes would be, and then find all three notes somewhere on your guitar. Find the notes on three different strings and on frets that you can reach, as this will form the skeleton of the chord you are about to create. Don’t get too bogged down with committing to fretting choices now, because you can always adjust as needed later.  

Example: I’m going to pick an A-minor triad to start with, which give me the note A, C, and E. I’m going to choose to tentatively fret the A on the 12th fret of the 5th string, the C on the 13th fret of the 2nd string, and the E on the 12th fret of the 1st string. 

Adding Extensions

Once you’ve figured out the triad, the next step is to add some other notes into the mix. Any chord harmonically denser than a triad will have at least four unique pitches in it, but traditional six-string guitars can have up to six notes in a chord. In the following step, you are going to add specific on top of whatever triad you chose. As previously stated, you can add up three intervals to your triad, but not all combinations of six notes will be reachable on a guitar with ordinary human-sized hands without getting creative. The use of open strings and, especially, alternative tunings, can make just about chord possible, but if you’re hoping to stay in standard tuning some combinations simply aren’t possible. 

While any note you can reach can be added to your chord (there’s nothing stopping you), there are specific chord tones that are much more commonly used in the world of popular music. These tones form the chords that you probably hear in a lot of the music you listen to. Below is a chart detailing many of these chord tones. The chord tones in the chart below are labeled as they relate to the root note. You can feel free to use other intervals as well, but the intervals below are all great places to start. 

As you probably noticed in the above charts, the last two chord tones listed are higher versions of smaller intervals. They are written this way to conform to standard chord names, but I’m going to advise you not to worry about what octaves you place the chords you choose. An E-note is going to function harmonically as an E, whether you play by plucking your open 6th string and play it on the 12th fret of the 1st string. 

So when finding the notes you picked on the fretboard, your main considerations should be convenience and timbre. The first priority is making sure that you are able to reach all of the notes you’ve chosen. If you find multiple ways to reach some of your chosen notes, then you can feel free to take your pick. Notes will have different timbres when played on spots on the guitar, and rearranging the order of the notes within a chord can greatly affect the sound of the voicing. Also feel free to repeat any pitches as you wish, which can serve both to make the chord shape more easily playable and to beef up its sound a bit. 

Example: I’m going to add a seventh and an eleventh to the chord (and no, this is not product placement). Since my root note is an A, the seventh is going to be a G# (just because my triad is minor doesn’t necessarily mean that my extensions have to be as well) and the eleventh is going to be a D. Based on where I placed the notes in my triad, I can conveniently find a G# on the 13th fret of the 3rd string, and a D on the 12th fret of the 4th string. This  results in the following completed chord shape: 

Naming Your Creation

Once you’ve built your chord and determined how you want to voice it, the final step is to figure out what it’s called. While it may not seem important, figuring out the proper name of a chord can be useful for a few reasons. It allows you to communicate what chord you are playing with other musicians, it’ll help if you to jot down a progression you wrote that uses the chord, and it will potentially help you to understand the musical context of the chord you created and how to use it with other chords. 

Naming denser chords, particularly less common ones, can be somewhat of a nebulous process. This is largely because certain combinations of notes can sometimes spell multiple chords, all of which are valid names for the chord. Therefore, choosing how to name the chord you created is largely determined both by musical context and how you yourself are thinking about the chord. That being said, there are two pretty surefire ways to determine the name of the chords you create. 

The first strategy is generally the simplest. Start by taking the name of whatever triad you chose. Then add the names of the extensions you chose. You’re probably not quite done yet, but you might be. If all you added was a sixth, then simply add the number six to the triad you chose, and you have your chord name. If you chose just all added was an interval larger than a seventh, then the name of your chord is the triad type, the word add, then the added interval (for example, Dmadd9). 

If all you added on top of your triad was a seventh (either major or minor), then consult the chart below to find the name of your chord. 

If you added a seventh and another interval larger than a seventh, then consult the above chart but replace the number seven with whatever the highest the interval you included was (for example, Fmaj9). If you added a seventh and a sixth, then consult the above chart but replace the number seven with the number thirteen. If your chord has two or more extensions all higher than a seventh, but with no seventh, then the name of the chord is the triad with all the extensions added to the end (for example, Em9/11). And that should just above cover you for the confines of this exercise. 

The second method isn’t quite as systematic, but can sometimes be the more helpful of the two. For this method, write out all of the notes in your chord on a piece of paper. Then look over the notes you’ve written out and try and find any pattern of stacked thirds you can. If you find a pair of stacked thirds that starts on a note other than the root note you previously selected, then you’ve found a second triad that you accidentally created when adding extension notes to your original triad. 

This happens more than you may think, and sometimes you will create combinations of notes where it makes more sense to use your accidental triad than your intentional one. If this happens, figure out what all the remaining notes are to your accidental triad, and then name your chord by more or less following the rubric above. 

Example: In my chord, I added a major seventh and an eleventh to an A-minor triad. Therefore, I could call my chord an Am(maj7)11 and be done with it. However, I can also deconstruct the notes in my chord to A, C, E, G#, and D. When I do this, I can spot that C, E, and G# form a C augmented triad. A is the sixth of C and D is the ninth, making my chord also a Caug6/9. Both are equally valid names for my chord, and the decision of which one to go with really rests on musical context and whether I feel like the A or the C is truly functioning as the root note.

Sixth chords are often overlooked. They sound great and can add some wonderful color to a chord progression, but, like many other chords that break-away from tonal music’s standard pattern of nothing but stacked thirds, they don’t get much attention. Guitar methods and class curriculums often exclude them, teachers seem to sometimes forget about them, and many guitarists just never get around to really learning them. On top of that, many sixth chords are inversions of other sorts of chords, which sometimes causes them to be neglected the sixth-chord label altogether. 

All of this adds up to sixth chords being pretty underutilized by many guitarists. In this article, I hope to make you not be one of those guitarists. We’ll discuss how sixth chords are constructed, learn some of their most common forms, and learn how to use play them diatonically.

Before we get going, I would like to take a moment to say that this article is going to be pretty heavy on music theory. If you’re just looking for some new chord shapes and aren’t interested in the theory behind them, then feel free to scroll down, take some screenshots of the provided chord charts, and not worry too much about all of those pesky words in between. But if you are interested in the theory this article discusses, please go into it knowing that the article assumes at least a basic understanding of how chords are constructed and intervals. If you’re unfamiliar with either of these concepts, then it might be worth it read up a little on them before returning to this piece.

Major 6th Chords

A proper major 6th chord is a major chord with a major sixth interval stacked on top. So when creating major-sixth chords, all you need to do is find that sixth and add it to your favorite major chord voicing. The major sixth interval is going to be exactly nine-half steps up from the chord’s root note, but a quicker trick to find that note is to go up strings and down one fret from the root note. 

For example, strum an open C chord with your root on the 3rd fret of the 5th string. If you go up two strings and down one fret from that root note, you’ll land on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, which is an A note. If you add that A-note to your open C chord, you’ll be playing a C6. You lose the note you were playing on the 3rd string if you do this, which was a G, but as that note is the 5th it’s not entirely necessary to the identity of the chord the way the other notes in the chord are. You can see that chord charted out below. 

However, here’s a useful and entirely movable barre chord version of the major-sixth chord that does not omit any notes, fifths or otherwise:

A quick note: although the above chart says to use your ring finger to barre all of the notes between the 4th and 1st string, it’s totally fine to have your pinky help out and grab a few of those notes. It’s a lot for just one finger to do!

When all four unique notes are played in a major-sixth chord, it actually forms an inversion of a minor-seventh chord. Because of this, a major-sixth chord has a sonic quality very similar to a minor-seventh chord, but something about the order of notes in a major-sixth chord gives it a bittersweet melancholic feel that minor-seventh chords don’t quite have. When it is inverted into a minor seventh, the note that would be the 6th in a major-sixth chord would instead function as the root note of the minor-seventh. This means that a minor-seventh chord built off the sixth can be substituted whenever you see a major-sixth chord, and vice versa. 

A less common variant of the major-sixth chord is the major flat sixth chord, which is constructed by stacking a minor sixth interval on top of a major chord. So the notes in a C6 chord are C, E, G, and A, the notes in a C b6 chord are C, E, G, and Ab. Major flat-sixth chords will be extremely dissonant due to the fact the fifth and the flat sixth are only a half step apart, but a flat-sixth chord isn’t an example of a chord where you can just drop the fifth as we did earlier with the C6 chord. This is because if you remove the fifth from a major-flat-sixth, the remaining notes will form an augmented triad. While there’s nothing wrong with an augmented chord, it’s not what we’re going for at the moment. 

That half-step relationship between the fifth and the minor sixth makes major-flat-sixth chord voicings rather difficult to play on guitar, but the movable barre chord shape below is pretty painless. 

The above chord chart shows this movable major-flat-sixth in the first position, where it’s an E b6. The root note in this voicing is along the 4th string and not the 5th string, so just remember that the bass note is not also the root note in this case. But as I mentioned earlier, this chord isn’t particularly common as it never occurs diatonically. We’re going over it more for the completionist’s sake than anything, so you probably won’t come across it too much. 

Minor 6th Chords

Like their major counterparts, minor-sixth chords have both a natural-sixth and a flat-sixth variant. But unlike their major counterparts, both variants of the minor-sixth chord are used pretty frequently. Minor-sixth chords are constructed using the same logic as major-sixth chords, so if you’re reading this article in order there’s a chance that you’re already ahead of me. 

The standard minor sixth chord is built by stacking a major-sixth interval on top of a minor triad. This makes it exactly the name as its parallel major-sixth chord, except with a lowered third. For example, the notes in a C6 chord are C, E, G, and A, and the notes in a Cm6 chord are C, Eb, G, and A. Unlike seventh-chords, the sixth remains major regardless of whether the triad beneath it is major or minor. Below is a movable minor-sixth barre chord with its root along the 6th string. This chord shape is exactly what we just discussed: a minor chord with an added major sixth.

If you instead stack a minor-sixth on top of a minor chord, you’ll end up with a minor-flat-sixth chord. Unlike major-flat-sixth chords, minor-flat-sixth chords do occur naturally in diatonic keys and don’t sound particularly dissonant.

The barre chord shape is almost exactly like a natural minor-sixth chord, except that the note on the 2nd string is lowered by one fret. This is because that note is the sixth, so that’s the note that gets flattened. A minor-flat-sixth chord is actually an inversion of a major-seventh chord, which is why it’s a term that you don’t hear used all that often. 

The inversion is built upon that flat-sixth scale degree that defines the chord. For example, the notes in an Amb6 chord are A, C, E, and F. If you rearrange the order of those notes to F, A, C, and E, you get a root position Fmaj7 chord. 

Playing 6th Chords Diatonically

Now that you know four different kinds of sixth chords, chances are that you’re going to want to start sprinkling them into your playing and songwriting. However, it can be a little tricky to know which variant to use when, so I made the below chart to illustrate when each sixth chord can be used diatonically. 

As I mentioned earlier, the major-flat-sixth will never occur diatonically. The natural major-sixth chord occurs the most often diatonically, followed by the minor-flat-sixth, which are in turn followed by the natural minor-sixth and the one chord on that chart that we haven’t yet discussed, the diminished flat-sixth chord. 

Both natural sixth and flat sixth chords can be constructed with every chord quality just as we constructed them with major and minor chords. However this article would be much longer if we took the time to apply the concept to each and every chord type, so I’m going to leave you with one last sixth chord. The diminished flat-sixth chord is the last sixth chord that will occur diatonically, so after this, you’ll have all the sixth-chords that you’re likely to come across anytime soon. 

 A diminished-flat-sixth chord is a minor-sixth interval stacked on top of a diminished chord. A diminished chord is nothing but stacked minor thirds, so adding other intervals to the mix tends to undercut the diminished nature of the chord, and the diminished flat-sixth is no exception. The addition of the minor sixth really does smooth out the sound of the diminished chord, creating quite a lovely harmony in the process. A diminished-flat-sixth chord is an inversion of a dominant-seventh, so it captures that punchy dominant sound while still managing to be a bit darker and more reserved than a typical dominant-seventh voicing. 

You can see a reliable and entirely movable voicing of the diminished-flat-sixth chord charted out below. 

Have you ever been having fun jamming with some friends, only to have one of them yell “Let’s try a blues in D!”. Then you watch in abject horror as everyone else effortlessly jumps into a set of chord changes you don’t know and no one takes the time to explain to you? Teary-eyed, you watch your friends tear through some righteous blues licks as your unplayed guitar grows in your lap. When I first started playing guitar, that situation actually happened to me quite a few times, with only mild exaggeration. 

I was an enthusiastic beginner who often leapt into situations with far more experienced musicians who assumed a twelve-bar blues was something everyone in the room would know. So for me, learning both a twelve-bar blues and how to move it around to different keys was an important step as it gave me a common ground that I could share with most musicians that I came across and something that I could count on us being able to play together. But even if this isn’t your situation, a twelve-bar blues is still good to know. 

A twelve-bar blues is one of the most common musical progressions in the world. Not only is the foundation of the blues itself, but it’s used widely in rock and roll, jazz, country, folk, soul, bluegrass, and more. So regardless of what kind of music you like to play, being familiar with a twelve-bar blues is a useful skill for any guitarist. And as I alluded to earlier, it’s something pretty standard of all sorts to jam together. Luckily, a twelve-bar blues is a rather simple form and is pretty easy to learn. What can be a little trickier is moving that form from key to key, but we’ll get to that a little later. 

Playing A Twelve-Bar Blues

There’s nothing misleading about the name of a twelve-bar blues. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a blues form that spans twelve measures. Even if you’re unsure as to what exactly defines a blues form, you probably have a notion of what it sounds like, as few other musical forms have their fingerprints so thoroughly smeared over all kinds of American popular music. A typical blues progression consists of three main chords: the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. Exactly what each of those chords are changes depending on the key, but the pattern always stays consistent. 

Below is an example of an archetypal twelve-bar blues in the key of A. 

Try playing through the above chord twelve-bar blues progression. Any voicings you know for the above chords are acceptable, but the whole chord progression can be easily played with open chords. If you are unfamiliar with any of these chords, the open chord voicings for all three are charted out below. You can also substitute them with their simple major chord equivalents (A, D, and E), but you will lose a bit of that gritty blues sound if you do so.

Understanding The Pattern

The above progression is based upon those I, IV, and V chords mentioned earlier. In an A-blues, the I chord is an A7, the IV chord is a D7, and the V7 chord is an E7. We’ll get to why that is in a sec (although there’s a chance you may have already cracked the formula just by eyeballing it). But first, we’re going to rewrite the chord chart you just played, replacing each chord with its numerical value. 

You might want to either copy down or take a screenshot of the above chart, because it’s the formula that will allow you to construct a typical twelve-bar blues progression in any key. Four measures of the I chord, two measures of the IV chord, two measures of the I chord, one measure of the V, one measure of the IV, one measure and the I, one final measure of the V, and repeat. That’s the blues. 

But how do you know which chord to play during the I, during the IV, and during the V?, you may be wondering. To answer that question, we’re going to have to dip into some music theory, but I promise that it’s not going to get very complicated. 

The I chord will always be the chord that shares the name as the key you are playing in. The blues progression you played through earlier was in the key of A, so the I chord was an A. If the key was A minor, then the i chord (the roman numerals are stylized with lowercase letters in the case of minor chords) would be an A-minor. The reason I had you play an A7 instead of an A-chord is that in blues music, it is typical to replace all major chords with their dominant-seventh equivalents. 

The IV and V chords are found by counting up the musical alphabet from the I chord, and adding sharps or flats as applicable. So in the key of A, the I chord is an A, the ii chord is a B-minor and the iii chord is a C#-minor (neither of which are used in a typical blues pattern), so therefore the IV chord is a D. We only have to count up one more letter to find the V chord, which is an E. This gives us the chords A, D, E. As we’re playing a blues, we can change each them to a dominant-seventh chord, giving us the final chords of A7, D7, and E7. 

There are reasons why the ii and iii chords were minor and why the iii chord was a C#-minor and not a C-natural-minor, but none of them are particularly relevant to what we are currently working on. If you’re curious, it has to do with how keys are constructed. But that’s a topic for another time.

Moving The Blues To Other Keys

Now that you have an understanding of how a twelve-bar blues pattern works, let’s try applying it to some keys other than A. A is a great key to start with because you’re literally just counting up the alphabet, but you’re only likely to be playing in it a fraction of the time. For the sake of the exercise, we’re going to work through what the chords would be in a twelve-bar blues in the key of D. 

The I chord is will share the name of the key, so in this case the I chord is a D. The ii chord is an E-minor and the iii chord is an F#m, which brings us to the two chords relevant for our purposes. Therefore, the IV chord is a G. Since there is no H-note in tonal music, after G# we restart again at A, making the V chord an A. That leaves us with these chords: D, G, A. Since we’re playing a blues, it’s customary to change them all to dominant-seventh chords, giving us the final chords of D7, G7, and A7. You can the final product charted out below. 

Two of the above chords were already covered when we went over a blues in A earlier, but the G7 is a potentially new chord. If you are unfamiliar with it, the open position version is charted out below. 

A great way to practice this skill is by figuring twelve-bar blues in new keys, and then play through the resulting progressions. And that’s all there is to it! 

While learning new chords can often be daunting, even the trickiest chord shapes can feel not so scary when you’re able to relate them to shapes you’re already comfortable with. Any chord shape can be mastered with enough practice and elbow grease, but you might be surprised to learn just how many chord shapes are out there where you’ve already put in the bulk of the effort without even knowing it. In this article, we’re going to go over some chords that you may not know but are very similar to two chords that you probably do: C and Am.  

Chords Based On C

We’re going to start by learning some chords built off of the open C shape, one of the most common chords in popular music. Although there are a couple of ways to play a C-chord in the open position, the shape we’re going to be using here is the most common version, with your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 5th string, your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string and your index finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string. Skip the 6th string entirely and allow the 3rd and 1st strings to ring out open. 

Cadd9

In order to play a Cadd9 chord, start by playing an open C-major chord as described above. Once you have the shape, add your pinky to the 3rd fret of the 2nd string. And that’s it, you’re playing a Cadd9! You can either leave your index finger down or remove it. It makes no difference, as the note on the 2nd string that will sound out will be the 3rd fret either way. However if you leave your index finger down, then it’s super easy to quickly switch back and forth between your C and Cadd9 chords which can sound really great. 

Alternatively, this same Cadd9 chord can be played by placing your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 5th string, your index finger on the 2nd of the 4th string and your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string. While you’re playing the same frets either way, this second fingering doesn’t use the framework of the C-chord you already know, so it might be a little more work to get down at first. This Cadd9 should work anywhere your ordinary C-chord would, and the two can be used almost interchangeably. 

Cadd9 Chord

Cmaj7

To make a C-major7 chord (commonly abbreviated as Cmaj7), you’re essentially going to do the opposite of what you did to make a Cadd9 chord; instead of adding a finger, you’re going to remove one. Start by playing the C-chord as described above, but take your index finger off the guitar, leaving the 2nd string to ring out open. And that’s all there is to it! The Cmaj7-chord while work about two of every three times that you see an ordinary C-chord used, so it can often make for a good substitute. 

Cmaj7 Chord

C7

In order to make a C7 chord, you’re going to do almost the same thing you did to make a Cadd9 chord. You’re just going to add your pinky to your typical C-chord shape, but this time you’re going to add your pinky to the 3rd fret of the 3rd string instead of the 3rd of the 2nd string. So altogether, you’re going to have your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 5th string, your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string, your pinky on the 3rd fret of the 3rd string, and your index finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string. 

This chord might be just a little bit rougher on your fingers than many of the chords you may know at this point, but it sounds good enough that’s is definitely worth it! It’ll work about one in every three times you see an ordinary C-chord listed, but it sounds different enough from an ordinary C-chord that I’d recommend generally sticking to the chord that’s written down. 

C7 Chord

Chords Based On The Open Am

Next, we’re going to learn some chords built off of the open A-minor (typically abbreviated at Am) shape. While most open chords have several ways they can be played in that position, we are again going to be using this chord’s most common open voicing. To play this voicing, put your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string, your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, and your index finger on the 1st fret of the second string. Skip over the 6th string entirely, and let the 5th and 1st strings ring out open. 

Am7

In order to play an open Am7 chord, starting by playing the Am shape described above. Then remove your ring finger, allowing the 3rd string to ring out open. And there you have it! The Am7 will work everywhere that an Am-chord will and all but the rarest circumstances, and the chords’ sonic similarities allow the Am7 to make a great but subtle substitution for a plain old Am-chord. 

Am7 Chord

Asus2

An A-suspended second chord (or Asus2) is created similarly to an Am7. Your are again going to be starting with the previously described open Am chord, but instead of removing your ring finger the 3rd string, remove your index finger from the second string and allow it to ring out open. An Asus2 chord has a pretty different sound than an Am, but it’ll work in most places that an Am chord would (and almost all places that an A-major chord would). This means that while substituting an Asus2 chord for an Am or A-major chord would likely change the sound of the progression somewhat considerably, it is in most cases an option worth remembering.

Asus2 Chord

Am6

To play an Am6 chord, all you have to do is add your pinky finger to the 2nd fret of the 1st string to your open Am shape. This means that altogether, your middle finger will be on the 2nd fret of the 4th string, your ring finger will be on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, your index finger will be on the 1st fret of the 2nd string, and your pinky will be on the 2nd fret on the 1st string. That note that your pinky adds is the 6 that gives the Am6 its name. The Am6 is a bit more jarring than the Am, and it’ll work as a substitute for the Am in any key with one or more sharps. 

Am6 Chord

I hope you learned something from this article! If you have any questions, comments, corrections (I have been known to commit the more than occasional type or notation mistake), or requests for future articles like this one, please feel free to reach out to me at benfittsguitar@gmail.com. 

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With two open string juxtaposing the high notes, this is a beautiful sounding chord. Now you can’t just go subbing it out for an A7 just willy nilly. It doesn’t always work. You’ll know when it’s time.

P.S. The 4th finger is optional. It’s lovely with an open E as well.

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D, G
Buffalo Gals (trad.)
Jambalaya (Hank Williams)

D, G, A7
Twist and Shout (Beatles)
Times They Are A Changin’ (Bob Dylan)

G, C, D
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)
Hotel Yorba (White Stripes)
Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett)
The Gambler (Kenny Rogers)

G, Emin, C, D
Let It Be (Beatles)
Take It Easy (Eagles)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Blue Moon
Ripple (Grateful Dead)
Octopus’s Garden (Beatles)
Candle in the Wind (Elton John)

G, D, Amin, Emin
Yellow Submarine (Beatles)
Scarborough Fair (trad.)

G, C, D, Emin, A7
American Pie (Don McLean)
I Fought The Law (The Clash)
American Girl (Tom Petty)

A, D, E
King of the Road(Proclaimers)
You Are My Sunshine
Can’t Explain (The Who)
Cold Cold Heart (Hank Williams)
Blowing In The Wind (Bob Dylan)
Amazing Grace (trad.)

C: