Part 4: Chord tone - pitch matching
This is a useful method of identifying chords, especially if you're trying to work them out from a tape, CD or audio file where you can repeat the chord as often as necessary. While a chord is sounding, you play selected notes on the guitar and listen to how well the sound of each note blends with the chord. With practice it soon becomes apparent which notes are part of the chord and which aren't. As it becomes more apparent, the time it takes to find the right notes reduces significantly until you can almost do it in real time.
The key is to practise within a very narrow range, so that you have only a few notes to choose from. As you become more adept at finding the right note, you can increase the range of possible notes and reduce the time that the chord is played, forcing you to become faster AND more accurate.
Example:
Click to play chord
This particular chord happens to be played on four strings
(XX????) and all of its notes appear no higher than
fret 4.
Step 1: While the chord is sounding, play the open (1st)
E string. How does the
E note sound against the chord? Does it blend well, or does it clash? In fact, you might not know. It's hard to be sure. So what to do is play the other notes on that string, i.e.,
fret 1,
fret 2,
fret 3 and
fret 4. Now it should be much easier to know which one sounds best. The one that sounds best in this case is
fret 2. If you're not sure, play it over and over until you can hear that the note on
fret 2 sounds '
right'
Now we know the chord, so far is
XX???2
Step 2
Play the chord again and while it's sounding play
string 2. Again the open string might not immediately sound right or wrong. Play the fretted notes up to
fret 4 and decide which is best.
The one that sounds the best match is the chord tone you're looking for. In this case it's the note on
fret 3.
So now we know the chord, so far, is
XX??32
Step 3
Play
string 3 open - and on
frets 1 - 4 and find where the best match is. Hopefully you'll agree that the best match this time is found on
fret 2.
Now the chord is taking 'shape' and we have
XX?232
Step 4.
This is the final step as we happen to know this particular chord has only 4 notes. If we didn't know that, we could continue with another two steps to
string 6. In practice, however, it's often not necessary to do that, as the chord shape virtually tells us what the chord is even before we've finished. You have probably already recognised the chord shape that you're holding as
D major. So this step is probably more of a confirmation step. If the chord really is
D major then
string 4 will be played
open for the best match. A quick check by playing it confirms that it is.
So the final chord is
D major and it's being played as:
XX0232
Other possible notes
Even when we restrict the exercises to within the first four frets, it’s possible to find two possible ‘
right’ notes on the same string . If you play
string 4 on
fret 4 you’ll hear a note that sounds good. That’s because it’s another chord tone
(F#). The chord of
D major consists of the notes
D, F# &
A, played in any order. The shape that we found is the familiar
XX0232 consisting of the chord tones
XXDADF#. If we had chosen the note on
string 4 fret 4 instead of
string 4 open, the notes of the chord would have been
XX4232, which is still the chord
D major - just a different shape. Very often, it doesn’t really matter if the ‘voicing’ or
shape of the chord is exactly the same as that of the original or not. Just find the chord then refine it later if necessary.
The first four frets
You can focus your attention within the first four frets much of the time. That’s because most common chords have a familiar shape within that range. Even if a guitarist was playing a
D major barre chord up at the tenth fret, you could still find it down at the nut as the familiar D
chord that we found in the above example. It’s still a
D major. If you decide that you want to play it at the same pitch as the one you’re hearing then, knowing the chord is
D major, it’s simply a matter of using your chord knowledge to play it wherever
D chords are to be found higher up the fretboard.
That's basically all there is to this method and the rest of this section consists of exercises in the form of graded self tests to improve your speed and accuracy. All of the chords can be found within the first four frets. Your main aim is to get the chord, regardless of shape because in a real situation, it wouldn't matter so much. That would be even more true of chords originating on another instrument such as a piano, for example.
Double check that your guitar is correctly in tune before you begin. There is a tuning reference file at the start of these lessons in the
single notes lesson.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Test your level
Chord 1 (
hint: 5 string chord)
Chord 2 (
hint: 5 string chord)
Chord 3 (
hint: 5 string chord)
Chord 4 (
hint: 4 string chord)
Chord 5 (
hint: 6 string chord)
Chord 6
Chord 7
Chord 8 (
hint: 6 string barre chord)
Chord 9
Chord 10
Chord 11
Chord 12
Chord 13
Chord 14
Chord 15
Chord 16
Chord 17
Chord 18
Chord 19
Chord 20
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWERS
Chord 1 = A major (X02220)
Chord 2 = C major (X32010)
Chord 3 = A minor (X02210)
Chord 4 = D minor (XX0231)
Chord 5 = E major (022100)
Chord 6 = E 7 (020100)
Chord 7 = G major (320003)
Chord 8 = F major (133211)
Chord 9 = G 7 (320001)
Chord 10 = A 7 (X02020)
Chord 11 = F major 7 (XX3210)
Chord 12 = B 7 (X21202)
Chord 13 = C 7 (X32310)
Chord 14 = B minor (X24432)
Chord 15 = F minor (133111)
Chord 16 = A minor 7 (X02010)
Chord 17 = G major 7 (320002)
Chord 18 = E dim7 (XX2323)
Chord 19 = F augmented (XX3221)
Chord 20 = F# major 7th (XX4321)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
How did you do? (If you can find the chord but it’s not the same shape as revealed in the answers, count it as correct.)
15 - 20
Well done. Especially if you find it before the end of the 20 second sequence. Go on to practise with real music. Play a track and try to find the chord in the time available before the chord changes. Use music styles that tend not to have chords that are too obscure, i.e. folk, country and easy listening pop, preferably slow ones. Then progress to styles that feature more obscure chords, such as Jazz.
8 - 14
Your ear is developing well. Stay with it and try to increase your speed. Use the remaining time to confirm your notes are correct. Trust your judgement more.
0 - 7
Keep at it. Remember you can also listen to the sound of the chord type as you learned in the last section. While trying to find the notes, see if you can feel the type of chord and let that guide you. If you make no progress, revise the previous sections and practise recognising chord types and single notes