The guitar can be called the most popular instrument of our time. Many teenagers and even adults want to learn how to play it. True, we are not talking about the professional mastering of the instrument, but about the simplest accompaniment to singing.
Learning basics
In most cases, a person who wants to learn simple guitar accompaniment does not want and cannot master musical notation. For such musical activity, chord digits are quite enough - schematic images of guitar strings and frets with an indication of the locations of the fingers in a particular chord. Having memorized the chords and their designations, you can accompany them according to the schemes that are easy to find in special songbooks or on the Internet.
Learning chords will be more successful if you understand the meaning of their notation. At the same time, knowing the basics of musical notation will not hurt, at least at the level that is given even in music lessons in a general education school, because there is still a connection between these systems.
The letter that denotes a chord is the note on which it is built. The letter system for denoting pitch is older than musical notation, it developed in the Middle Ages, when the "starting point" of the scale was not the note before, as it is now, but the note a. It is she who is designated by the letter A. Further - according to the scale, according to the Latin alphabet. There is only one clarification: the letter B corresponds not to si, but si-flat, si is denoted by the letter H. But then everything is quite simple: C - do, D - re, E - mi, F - fa, G - salt. A sharp (a sign that raises a sound by a semitone) is indicated by the combination is, a flat (a decrease in a semitone) - es. Thus, Cis is C sharp, Des is D flat. After the vowels A and E, only the letter s is written. Since A-sharp and E-sharp are not used in this system (they correspond to B-flat and F in frets), As and Es are A-flat and E-flat.
To find these notes on the fretboard, you need to know the tuning of your guitar. The first (highest) string is the E of the first octave, then the B of the minor octave, the G of the minor octave, D of the minor, A of the major octave, and the lowest string is the major octave.
The base of the chord - bass - is usually played on the 5th or 6th, less often on the 4th string.
The frets on the fretboard are in semitones. To figure out which mode corresponds to which note, you can rely on the composition of the major scale (after all, the C major scale - do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si - is known, if not to everyone, then to many): tone-tone-semitone -three tones-semitone. For example, you need to find the note G on the 6th string. The open strings are E, between E and F is a semitone, therefore, the first fret will be F. Between F and G there is a tone, which means that G is located across the scale from F - at the third fret, and the second fret is F-sharp.
Chord types
In simple guitar accompaniment, three types of chords are most often used: a major triad, a minor triad, or a seventh chord (in most cases, a minor major). The seventh chord is indicated by the number 7 after the letter, the minor triad is indicated by the letter m, the major triad has no additional designations at all.
A chord consists of sounds that are positioned across a note, or they can be positioned this way. A triad consists of three notes. Between the first two notes of the major triad, there are two tones, and in the minor, one and a half. For example, E-G-B is an E-minor triad (Em), E-G-sharp-B is an E major (E). A seventh chord consists of 4 notes, for example, B-D-Sharp-F-Sharp (H7).
All notes included in the chord are played on the strings of the guitar in the most convenient way. For example, the E-minor triad "e-sol-si" (Em) "unfolds" as follows: e - the 6th string is open, b - the 2nd fret on the 5th string, e - the 2nd fret on the 4th string, salt, si and mi - open 3rd, 2nd and 1st.
The number 6 denotes an additional note in the triad, which, together with the base of the chord, forms an interval spanning 6 notes, for example, la-do-mi-fa (Am6).
In some cases, a letter is added to the chord, separated from the main designation by a slash. This is how additional bass is denoted, for example, Am / E is an A-minor triad with an “e” bass.
