Major Chord Construction
It is important for you to know how to construct a major chord.
Beyond knowing what chords should be played it’s important to understand how to construct these chords using your right hand. Here we will focus on how to construct a major, chord which you will find is very widely in the type of jamming that we do. If you know what the notes are of the major scale in the key in which you are playing then chord construction is not difficult.
To play a major chord play the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes in the key in which you are playing simultaneously, therefore if you are in the key of “C” – the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the C scale are C, E, and G therefore if you play these 3 notes simultaneously you will have a “C” chord. The same will hold true for any key in which you are playing. Consider the Key of “F” – The 1st 3rd and 5th notes of the F scale are F, A and C – therefore if you play these notes together you will have an F chord.
Further it is important to be able to play the inversions of these chords. IE. For a C chord C,E, and G it is important that you can also play the same chord as E, G and C and also G, C and E.
That’s it for now. Practice constructing the major chords of the 1st 4th and 5th positions in each main key and practice playing them along with their inversions . This will take some time and effort but the end result will definitely make you a better jammer.