Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Shortcut to Learning Guitar Chords Part-6

CONCEPT 7: Sharps and Flats

The Sharp and Flat Chords are the chords that are positioned in between the 2-steps you move up or down the fretboard in deriving chords.

Sharp is symbolized as #, and Flat is symbolized as b. Sharp means 1-step higher, and Flat means 1-step lower. In formal guitar terminology, Sharp means 1-semitone higher, and Flat means 1-semitone lower ( higher & lower refers to pitch). Ooops, no technical jargons. Ok, in my tutorial, we only use "step", which also means "1-fret". So:

SHARP = # = 1-step UP

FLAT = b = 1-step DOWN


To illustrate clearer, let's take A-to-B derivation. Let me remind that B is 2 steps up from A. See Part-5 if you're getting lost. If you move A 1-step up, you'll have A#. Technically, A# is the same as Bb. Now study the diagram below.


Look at these three chords shown. The first one is B-chord...


Moving 1-step down, we'll get Bb (or B-flat)...



and, moving 1-step up, we'll get B# (or B-sharp); or C-chord as you'll find out after you read some more below.





You should be able to name the chords now in each step up or down your fretboard. If we use an A-chord to derive other chords and we move 1-step at a time up the fretboard, we'd have:

A-A#/Bb-B-C-C#/Db-D#/Eb-E-F-F#/Gb-G-G#/Ab-A

Note the following:
A# = Bb
C# = Db
D# = Eb
G# = Ab

Also, using the E-chord and moving 1-step at a time up the fretboard, we'd have:

E-F-F#/Gb-G-G#/Ab-A-A#/Bb-B-C-C#/Db-D#/Eb-E

Note that there's no B# or E#, because these are C and F respectively. Likewise, there's no Cb and Fb.

And if you have noticed, you can derive 12 chords by now!