Chords rule. If you're ever wondering what you should brush up on, what to devote some time to studying, concentrate on chords. Chords qualify the moment, and they really do rule the roost.

Keyboard players must wonder what all the fuss is about. Their chords are so easy to see, and there's only one of each (repeated through the octaves, of course). That's because they only have one of each note. Guitars are a clutter of repeat notes, and that kink in the symmetry of the tuning just adds to the confusion.

Here are some important things to remember about chords...

There are two main qualities, major and minor. The qualities of chords come from the mathematics of it all. They are locked in by the physics of sound waves and never change.

These two qualities can be 'extended' into different flavors of each, such as 'seventh', 'suspended fourth', 'sixth', etc. Once again, physics is behind it all and these flavors never vary. A seventh is a seventh, whether you're listening to an A7th or a C#7th; a minor 6th is a minor 6th whether it's a Bmin6th or a G#min6th

There are two other qualities, augmented and diminished. These come up less often, but once again, an augmented chord is augmented because of the physics -- the intervals of the chord's notes measure up as augmented. Once again, these two qualities can be 'extended'.

Chords can be seen as 'crystallized' scales. That's how I see them anyway. My brain much prefers to see scales as disassembled chords than the other way around. Tell me the chord, I'll play you the scale. No need to have to learn Greek either, when you approach it via the chord. I recently got chastised for misspelling Mixolydian at a forum. It wasn't that long ago I thought it was a rabbit disease.

If you're just starting out, my site www.guitarforbeginners.com has a wealth of free, plain English, information about all of the above.

The more you get into playing the guitar, the more you will realize that when a tune calls for, say, a G chord, there are many to choose from. The way notes spread themselves across the fretboard, there are G chords all over the place. All the repeat clusters I mentioned are there, and when you realize that the notes can be in any order, you can start to understand that it's the whole fretboard that becomes 'G', or 'A minor', or 'B augmented'. This is how I view the fretboard, after 40 years of looking at it. I see the whole fretboard as the chord that's being called for.

When the piece of music moves on to the next chord, the layout of my fretboard morphs into that chord. I can see the Ones, Threes and Fives there. Any extensions, the sevenths, sixths etc., are nearby. This is the only way to get to the stage of improvising, of inventing on the spot. To be thinking of seven-note scales and five passing notes, criss crossing the fretboard through all the repeat notes, would be impossible to my mind. My brain couldn't handle all that information. I 'see' the chords there, all of them, from end to end, and I use the notes I see to create chords, harmony and melody, and in a very real sense, my fretboard adopts these qualities as the progression moves through time.

One of the wonderful thing about the guitar is that the way the chords lay themselves out is consistent, in other words, each position is linked to the next in the same way. The whole template moves up and down the neck, and apart from the first few frets down by the nut, the master template never changes.

The other wonderful (but perplexing) thing about the guitar is the way the kink in the tuning provides the player with several (Most say 5, I say 3) 'shapes' for the same chunks of music, and each shape allows for different approaches for those chunks, be they chordal or melodic. That one-fret deviation in the tuning, coupled with the asymmetry of the structure of Music, is what makes the guitar so difficult to decipher, and so frustrating to learn.

It's one thing knowing a set repertoire of a few tunes, knowing that 'in this tune I go up to the 7th fret and then go up two more frets and make a triangle shape'; or 'I play a G chord and then like an E chord but barred at the fifth fret'. This is of course how we all start out, and it's fine to continue in this fashion if playing is just a bit of a hobby. But if you want to master it, if you want to be able to PLAY it, play with it, then you've got to learn how it all hangs together and how you can be in control of all the various qualities music has on offer.

All an elaborate set up to promote my book PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book, which reveals in PLAIN ENGLISH how music connects up and what the trick is to seeing it all there on the fretboard. It goes out every day from my site http://lorange.kirk.net at such a rate now that I've just ordered a re-print. PlainTalk, the hour long companion video, demonstrates this powerful visualization technique and will forever change the way you view the fretboard. Oh, and the Australia Dollar is at an all time low (around 50 cents US) -- great time to buy if you're from anywhere outside of Australia!

All the best and never stop twangin',

Kirk
http://kirklorange.com
http://lorange.kirk.net
http://guitarforbeginners.com
http://mp3.com/kirklorange