![]() ![]() This is because the C major scale contains all of the open string notes, thereby making chords and melodies in C major easy to play. The low E string is often tuned down to a D in classical guitar music.Īlthough none of the guitar strings are tuned to C, C major is also a very common key for guitar music. It can also be awkward to dampen it if playing other chords. ![]() The reason for this is simply because the lowest string is tuned to E and it is natural to use it as a bass note. In my experience, the most common of these are E (major & minor), D (major & minor) and G (major).Į major and minor keys are very natural keys to start writing with if you actually have a guitar in your hands. The open string notes on a guitar are: E, A, D, G, B and E.īecause of this, many songs and other pieces of guitar music are written in the keys of E, A, D and G. the notes that the guitar strings are tuned to. ![]() ‘Open strings’ means strings that are not held down, i.e. Most of the common guitar keys are based on the open strings of the guitar. However, most music written specifically for the guitar starts out in a guitar-friendly key. Of course, music very often includes key changes, and guitarists will often have to play chords that do not naturally ‘fall under the fingers’. Capos simply change the pitch of the open strings, are comparable to the transpose buttons on electronic keyboards. These devices hold down all of the strings at a particular fret, and allow the guitarist to play in a different key without having to think about where on the fretboard he is playing. Guitarists can also use a capo to transpose the music. However, for more complex music such as classical or fingerstyle pieces, the music may have to be completely rearranged. Occasionally you’ll have to move chords or lines over onto adjacent strings, but even this does not pose too much of a problem. It is often just a case of moving one’s hands up or down the fretboard, and playing the entire song in the new position. basic chords and melodies) on the guitar. It is usually very easy to transpose simple music (i.e. In classical music harmony, chords in minor keys can come from either the harmonic or melodic minor scales. However, I have also included the dominant 7th chords as these are probably used more than the minor chords based on the 5th degree of the scale. I feel that this is more relevant for rock/pop guitarists and songwriters. To learn more about diatonic chords, read this article: Diatonic Chords.įor major keys, I have extended the V chords to include the 7ths, making them dominant 7th chords.įor minor keys, I have used chords taken from the natural minor scale. Listed below are the chords diatonic to each of the main guitar keys. The main reason is simply that the chords in these keys are easy to play on guitar, usually because they include open strings.īear in mind that the above are just the keys that are most suited to the instrument: of course, the guitar can play music written in any key! There are a number of reasons that these keys are used in guitar music more than others. In the next section, we’ll look at the chords in each of these keys. ![]() The most commonly used keys in guitar music, in my experience, are shown below (in no particular order). Please bookmark or like this page, so that you can refer to it in the future. This is useful for composers and songwriters intending to write music for the guitar, whether or not they are guitarists themselves. In this lesson, I identify these keys, and also list the chords in each of these keys. This is due to the nature of the instrument and how it is tuned: some keys are just naturally more suited to the guitar. Two black keys, three black keys.Guitar music is written in quite a narrow range of keys. Notice the groups of black keys going across the keyboard in a pattern. All you need to do is focus in on the black keys. This pattern was created specifically to make it easier to find our way around.Īt this point, don’t worry about memorizing the entire pattern perfectly. It’s all about the special pattern of white and black keys on a piano. But for our purposes, they do just as good as job.) On the other hand, in a way the piano keys really are already sort of color-coded for us! (Okay, technically white and black are not colors. (And trying to color-code your piano yourself using finger-paint is a bad idea, and it will probably end up like these little guys :) Obviously, our goal is to learn to see the pattern on a real piano keyboard, without it being color-coded. So, I’m sure you’ve realized it’s a whole lot easier to spot each 12-note pattern across the piano keyboard layout when the keys are color-coded! ![]()
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