Basic Chords
A chord is a group of three or more notes played together. Most chords are derived from a major scale. Written here is the C major scale. (For more on major scales and scales in general, see Progressive Scales and Modes for Guitar ).
The following example contains a C major chord. The major chord is obtained by taking the first, third and fifth degrees of the major scale and playing them together. Any major chord is usually described by its letter name only, so a C major chord would usually be called a C chord. The chord takes its name from the first note of the chord. This note is called the root note of the chord.
Here is the most common fingering for a C chord. Although this chord contains more than three notes, there are still only three different notes. The notes C and E occur twice in this fingering. Doubling notes is very common in guitar chords.
C
Try strumming the C chord on each beat of the bar as shown in the following example. Be sure to count out loud and tap your foot as you play.
Seventh Chords
One of the most common chords used in Funk is the seventh chord, (sometimes called the dominant seventh chord). Seventh chords consist of four notes taken from the major scale of the same letter name. These notes are the first (1), third (3), fifth (5) and flattened seventh ( b7) notes of the major scale, so the chord formula for the seventh chord is:
C7
Here is a common fingering for the C7 chord. Practice changing between C and C7 as shown in this next example.
