CHAPTER 1

Chords

Getting beyond the basic open-position chords you have probably al-
ready learned, the guitar is full of all sorts of neat chords to explore. We
start with the essential major, minor, dominant 7th and power chords
that are so fundamental, and then move into the jazzier extended 7th
chords that you’ll need to know as a competent guitarist.
Chords are the first efficient element learned on the guitar. Each
one is a single shape that you can slide to any root position to cover
any of the twelve possible chord names.

Note: If barre forms are unfamiliar to you, it may be useful to relate

them to open-position chords. The following two videos walk through
open-position chords for anybody who’s new or needs a review.

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22 THE EFFICIENT GUITARIST

Getting to Know the Majors, Minors, and Dominants

The chord-block diagrams are indispensable for quick reference, but
we also have a set of videos here to help walk you through an approach
to the majors, minor, and dominant 7th barres chords covered in the
following pages.

A Word on the Dominant Chords

This video will help you understand the theory behind dominant
chords. You’ll learn about the construction of dominant chords and
how they relate to major barre chords.

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CHAPTER 1. CHORDS 23

Important Moveable Chords on the 5th String

× R 5 R × × × R 5 R 3 5 × R 5 R
3 5 × R 5
7 3 5
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
¿ ¿ ¿ ¿
2
3 4 3 3 3 3 4 3 4

C5 (Power) *C Major C Minor C7 (Dominant)

× R 5 R 3 5 × R 5 R 3
7
1 1 1
¿ ¿
2 3 4 3 3 3
4

Optional C Major Optional C7

Notes on the 5th String

A String B C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

These are the written notes if each chord is played from the 3rd fret root C









 


















Power Major Minor Dominant Opt

*If you use this voicing and barre your 3rd finger, you will probably not be able to play
the 1st string. If you are double jointed it may happen, otherwise just mute the string
and don’t pick it. If you need that note in the chord, you will probably need to use the
alternate fingering for the chord shown as ‘optional C major.’

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24 THE EFFICIENT GUITARIST

Important Moveable Chords on the 6th String

R 5 R × × × R 5 R 3 5 R R 5 R
3 5 R R 5
7 3 5 R
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
¿ ¿ ¿ ¿
2 2
3 4 3 4 3 4 3

G5 (Power) G Major G Minor G7 (Dominant)

R 5
7 3
7 R
1 1 1
¿
2
3
4

Optional G7

Notes on the 6th String

E String F G A B C D E F G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

These are the written notes if each chord is played from the 3rd fret root G









 




















Power Major Minor Dominant Opt Dominant

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CHAPTER 1. CHORDS 25

Important Moveable Jazz & Extended Chords on the 5th String

× R 5 7 3 5 × R 5
7
3 5 × R
5
7
3 × × R 5
7 3 5
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
¿ ¿ ¿
2 2
3 4 3 1 2 3 4
3 4

C Major 7 C Minor 7 C Minor 7
5 (Cø ) C7

× R 3 6 R × × R
3 6 R × × R
5

7
3 × × R 3
7 R ×
1 1 1 1
2 3 2 1 2
4 3 2 3 4
3 4

C Major 6 (C6) C Minor 6 (Cm6) C Diminished 7 (C◦ 7) Optional C7

Notes on the 5th String

A String B C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

These are the written notes if each chord is played from the 3rd fret root C








 




 








Major Minor Minor Seven Dominant
Seven Seven Flat Five Seventh





 













Major Minor Diminished Opt Dominant
Sixth Sixth Seventh Seventh

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26 THE EFFICIENT GUITARIST

Important Moveable Jazz & Extended Chords on the 6th String

R × 7 3 5 × R ×
7
3 5 × R ×
7
3
5 × R 5
7 3 5 R
1 2 2 3 3 3 1 1 1 1
¿ ¿ ¿
3 4 1 2
2 3 4 3

G Major 7 G Minor 7 G Minor 7
5 (Gø ) G7

R × 6 3 5 × R 5
7
3 5 R R × 6
3 5 × R ×

7
3
5 ×
1 1 1 1 1
¿
1 1 1 1
2 3 3 2 3 4 2 3
4

Major 6 (G6) Optional G Minor 7 Minor 6 (G Minor 6) G Diminished 7 (G◦ 7)

Notes on the 6th String

E String F G A B C D E F G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

These are the written notes if each chord is played from the 3rd fret root G



  





 












Major Minor Minor Seven Dominant
Seventh Seventh Flat Five Seventh















 







Major Optional Minor Minor Diminished
Sixth Seventh Sixth Seventh

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CHAPTER 1. CHORDS 27

Important Moveable Jazz & Extended Chords on the 4th String

× × R 5 7 3 × × R 5
7
3 × × R
5
7
3 × × R 5
7 3
1 1 1 1
¿ ¿ ¿ ¿
2 3 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 4 3 4

F Major 7 F Minor 7 F Minor 7
5 (Fø ) F7

× × R 5 6 3 × × R 5 6
3 × × R
5

7
3
1 1 1 1 1 2
¿ ¿ ¿
2 3 4
3 4 3

Major 6 (F6) Minor 6 (F Minor 6) F Diminished 7 (F◦ 7)

Notes on the 4th String

D String E F G A B C D E F
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

These are the written notes if each chord is played from the 3rd fret root F



















Major Minor Minor Seven Dominant
Seventh Seventh Flat Five Seventh



 












Major Minor Diminished
Sixth Sixth Seventh

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28 THE EFFICIENT GUITARIST

Barre Chord Tips

For many players, barre chords are physically not easy to play. For
the record: I had a very hard time with barre chords when I was
learning to play guitar. I could rarely get all the notes to sound without
squeezing too hard. This lead to fatigue and discomfort and a healthy
dose of frustration! The next two videos will outline some great tips
for playing barre chords with ease.

What Do I Do With These Chords?

First, play songs. All the chords you’ll find are represented here.
Play as many songs as you possibly can – this is the secret to becoming
a great rhythm player.
For those of you who want a bit more, you’ll find it in Part 2. You’ll
learn what chords belong to each key, along with tools to play chord
progressions in any key with ease.
All the chords you just learned are spread over four pages. If you’d
like a Cheat Sheet for these chords, all smashed on one page, go to the
Cheat Sheet appendix at the end of Part 2.
In any case, I want you to learn the chords from this chapter and
pay attention to the intervals and other theory things provided here.
However, if you’re learning some music that requires all of the chords
and you don’t want to flip between four pages and you haven’t memo-
rized them yet, go to the Cheat Sheet and use that as a reference, not
a crutch. You should be able to memorize the chords in a few weeks.

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CHAPTER 1. CHORDS 29

How To Recognize Jazz & Extended Chord Symbols

These jazzy chords, which are not exclusive to jazz, come up in
a variety of situations. You find them in rock and pop music more
often than you might think. You’ll see them in jazz charts, which are
typically called “lead sheets.” You also see this style if you’re playing
in the pit for a show or a musical. No matter where you see them,
they visually appear in a few different ways. The first thing you will
encounter is variety of different symbols. Unfortunately, there is no one
agreed upon way to show a major 7th chord. Over the years, different
naming conventions have been used and as a musician you have to be
able to read them all. It’s not that hard! Here are the basic symbols:

• C major 7th – Also appears as CM7, Cmaj7, C major 7 or C 7

• C minor 7th – Also appears as Cm7, Cmin7, C minor 7 or C-7
• C7 – Also appears as C7, C dom or C dominant 7th
• C major 6th – Also appears as C6
• C minor 6th – Also appears as Cm6, C minor 6 or C-6
• C diminished 7th – Also appears as C◦ 7 or C dim 7
• C minor 7 5 – This chord is special because it has two names. As
a minor 7 5, it’s shown the same way as minor chords typically
are (C minor 7 5, C-7 5 or Cm7 5). If the minor 7 5 is called a
half diminished chord, it will have only one symbol: Cø 7

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30 THE EFFICIENT GUITARIST

How To Decipher Complicated Looking Chords

At times, chords can look pretty crazy. They can look downright
scary! For example, look at this chord: C7(
9 13). What do you play
for that? Well, we are going to learn about chord downgrading, which
says that no matter what chord you see, no matter how crazy it looks,
you can always play one of the basic 7th chord shapes that you already
know. Let’s take a look at the different families of chords, because no
matter what they throw at you, you’re only dealing with a few chord
families.
• Major 7th Chords. Major chords follow the syntax that you have
a root (the name of the chord) followed by one of the accepted
symbols for major (Major, M, Maj or  ) followed by a number.
Usually, you’ll see a C major 7 and this is fine. The number at
the end can change to 9, 11 or 13. For example: C major 13.
You can see alterations like C major 9(
11). You can see almost
anything that comes along and treat them all the same: you can
downgrade any major-type chord to a major 7th and you won’t be
wrong. These scary chords are called extensions and we think of
them as taller chords. At their foundation, they are C major 7th
chords with additional notes added. You could add the notes at
some point to give the chord some more color, but playing a major
7th gives you the essential foundation. C major (anything) can
always be simplified as C major 7. In time, you’ll want to learn
the real chord because they have neat sounds. For now, survive.
• Minor 7th Chords. This follows the exact same logic as the major
chords above. C minor anything becomes C minor 7. The only
exception is the min7 5 chord. The min7 5 is a chord by itself and
has the real name of a half diminished seventh chord. Other than
that, downgrade any minor type chord to a minor 7th and you
will be fine.

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CHAPTER 1. CHORDS 31

• Dominant 7th chords (7th chords). These are the chords that can
look the scariest. Dominant seventh chords often have lots of junk
attached to them! They are easy to spot, though: C7, C9, C11
and C13 are all examples of C7th chords. It follows the syntax
of root(number bigger than 7). Now, it doesn’t matter what else
you see after that. It could be a C7( 9 13) chord. Look closely.
Ignore all the ’s and
’s and all the numbers larger than 7. At its
heart you have a C7. So, guess what you’re going to play? C7.
• 6th chords. Both major 6th chords and minor 6th chords are
very easy to deal with. They are simple chords that don’t have
complicated extensions like other chords do. Just play the C6 or
Cm6 shapes you already know.
• Diminished Chords. These are also easy. You never see extensions
on these chords. What you may see if a simple C diminished chord
without a seventh attached to it (C◦ ). In that case, it’s ok to up-
grade that chord into a C diminished 7th chord.
• A half diminished seventh chord is typically written as a min7
5
because its actual symbol looks too much like a full diminished
symbol. To avoid this confusion, we use min7 5 instead. We have
said that you can ignore any odd alterations with  and
’s after
the chord name, but the notable exception is the min7 5, or half
diminished chord.
If you follow these simple rules, you’ll be able to read through chord
charts using only the basic chords we provide in this book. Future
books of the Efficient Guitarist series will cover how to play the ex-
tended and altered chords exactly as written. Don’t think you’re cop-
ping out by reducing these chords. Extended chords are a very ad-
vanced topic, and learning the chord voicings here will put you well
ahead of most guitar players.

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32 THE EFFICIENT GUITARIST

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