Use the links below for more information on how to find the guitar chord shapes you need from my guitar chord dictionary, explanations of the information given in each guitar chord shape list and for answers to other questions relating to guitar chord shapes.
The root note of a chord is the note that defines the scale on which the chord is built. This will be the note at the start of the chord name, so that chords such as Bm7, B6, Bsus2 all have the note B as their root note. This means that a scale based on the note B (usually the B major scale) is used to define the notes that make up these chords.
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For guitar chords based on a chromatic root note (B♭, F♯ etc), the chords are always listed under the equivalent sharp note. This means that B♭ chords are listed as A♯, E♭ chords are listed as D♯ and so on. For example, to find chord shapes for B♭sus4 look under A♯sus4 (the chord shapes for B♭sus4 and A♯sus4 are identical).
If you're not sure of the equivalent sharp and flat notes use the table below.
| Flat note | Equivalent sharp note |
|---|---|
| B♭ | A♯ |
| D♭ | C♯ |
| E♭ | D♯ |
| G♭ | F♯ |
| A♭ | G♯ |
| Ambiguous or invalid chord name | Correct chord name | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Amsus4 | Asus4 | Suspended chords do not contain a 3rd so are neither major nor minor. |
| Amsus2 | Asus2 | Suspended chords do not contain a 3rd so are neither major nor minor. |
| Am7sus4 | A7sus4 | Suspended chords do not contain a 3rd so are neither major nor minor. |
| Am7sus2 | A7sus2 | Suspended chords do not contain a 3rd so are neither major nor minor. |
| A2 | Asus2 or Aadd2 | The 2nd of the scale can either be added to a basic triad (e.g. Aadd2) or it can replace the 3rd (Asus2). |
| Aadd5 | A or A5 | The 5th of the scale is already present in an A chord, so either a simple A chord is needed, or a so-called power chord A5, where the 3rd is removed (leaving just the root note and the 5th). |
Remember also that for "slash chords", the first part of the name gives the basic chord and the second part gives the bass note. So an Am chord with a G in the bass should be written as Am/G. If you're looking for a chord such as "G/Am" the transcriber has got things the wrong way round.
For altered and jazz chords, the chord names often contain symbols such as ♯, ♭, + and -, for example E7♯9. When the symbols are immediately followed by a number (e.g "♯5", "+9") then ♯ is the same as + (E7♯9 is the same as E7+9). Similarly, the symbols ♭ and - can be used interchangeably (E7♭9 is the same as E7-9).
Sometimes the symbols aug and dim are used in the same way (e.g E7aug9). In this context, ♯ is the same as aug and ♭ is the same as dim.
The chord name conventions used on these pages always use the symbols ♯ and ♭, so if you're looking for chords that use +, -, aug or dim simply convert to ♯ and ♭ as appropriate.
ExamplesIf you can't find the guitar chord you're looking for and the answers above haven't helped, it may be that the chord type you're after isn't included in the set used to generate all the different guitar chord shapes. I've tried to list all of the most commonly used guitar chord types in these lists, but if you can't find the one you want in the list of chord types below then let me know.
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To generate all the different guitar chord shapes a list of 75 chord types is used (sus4, m7, add2, 7#9 etc). For each of the 75 chord types, 12 chord names are created (one for each of the 12 semitones A, A#, B, C, C#...). For each chord name (e.g. Asus4, A#sus4, Bsus4) a list of different chord shapes is then generated.
I've tried to include all basic chord types and as many of the less common altered/jazz chord types as possible in the list of chord types used to create this guitar chord dictionary. I've also included some slash chords, i.e chords in which the lowest note in the chord is not the root note (D/F#, Am/G etc). The number of possible slash chords is immense: for each possible chord type, there are 11 slash variants. For this reason I've limited the slash chords to those based on the simple major and minor chords.
The list of chord types used to generate the guitar chord shape lists is shown below.
(major) m sus2 sus4 add2 add9 add4 madd2 madd9 madd4 add2add4 madd2add4 aug dim dim7 5 6 m6 6/9 m6/9 6/7 m6/7 maj6/7 7 m7 maj7 7sus4 7sus2 7add4 m7add4 9 m9 maj9 9sus4 11 m11 maj11 13 m13 maj13 13sus4 mmaj7 mmaj9 7#9 7b9 7#5 7b5 m7#5 m7b5 maj7#5 maj7b5 9#5 9b5
In addition to the above chords, 11 slash chords are included for the major and minor types (e.g A/A#, A/B, A/C, ..., Am/A#, Am/B, Am/C, ...).
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A7 === Spelling: 1, 3, (5), b7 |
The chord spelling is a listing of the notes of the major scale that are used to build the chord. For example, a major chord is made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th of the major scale, hence the spelling is: 1, 3, 5. Optional notes are given in brackets. For example, in a 7th chord the 5th is usually considered to be optional, and so the spelling is shown as: 1, 3, (5), 7.
Each chord is described by the fret numbers where you need to place your fingers, with the fret number for the bottom E string on the left and the fret number for the top E string on the right. A zero means an open string. For example, an E major chord shape might be written as:
0 2 2 1 0 0 |
The six numbers give you the fret positions needed for each string. The number at the left is for the bottom E string, the number at the right for the top E. The above shape means use the open bottom E, B and top E strings, and fret notes at the 2nd fret A string, 2nd fret D string and 1st fret G string.
Muted strings are indicated by an x in the chord shape, for example a D major chord might be written as:
x x 0 2 3 2 |
This means the bottom E and A strings should be muted (not played), and the chord is made up of the open D string, 2nd fret G string, 3rd fret B string and 2nd fret top E string.
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For any given chord name, there are many different chord shapes that can be used on the guitar. The shapes listed in the guitar chord dictionary are grouped first into three categories:
Within each of these groups, the chords are ordered so that the shapes that are easiest to play should appear first. If a number of chord shapes are judged to have the same level of difficulty, other criteria are used to determine the ordering. These include:
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Last updated: February 2011
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