- Hey guitar players, it's Nate here
and a couple of months ago I made a video
called 20 Chords You Need To Know
To Be A Real Guitar Player,
and I had no idea that the response
to that video would be so good
and you'd like a simple resource like that so much.
So much so that I decided to do kind of
a follow up or part two to that,
because I got so many YouTube comments like these.
With that in mind, in this video,
we're gonna go through 20 chords
that I think you need to know if you wanna be
a solid intermediate player.
(guitar strumming)
Let's start off with some inversions.
And if you don't know what an inversion is,
it's just when you play a chord
and a note besides the root of the note
is the lowest note of the chord,
like the third or the fifth of the chord.
This first one is just a D over F sharp.
(guitar chord)
So instead of having a D in the bass
(guitar chord)
where it's the lowest note,
we just have an F sharp in the bass.
And to get that you have to reach
around with your thumb,
which is a little bit awkward
if you've never done that before.
(guitar chord)
For that F sharp, the third in the bass.
And this is kind of a great walk up chord,
all these inversions chords are really.
So from that D over F sharp to a G,
(guitar chord)
or something like that.
(guitar chord)
And this one is movable,
instead of just playing a D over F sharp
(guitar chord)
like this, what you can do is
leave the A and D strings out
and move this shape anywhere
(guitar chord)
and play just a low E string
and then the top three strings.
So if you move this up a whole step,
you get an E over G sharp.
(guitar chord)
Next chord is G over B,
another inversion.
It's just a G, first inversion,
so it has the B and the bass to third
(guitar chord)
instead of the G, the third note.
So all you have to do is take this low G out
of the equation, don't play the low E string.
(guitar chord)
And again this is a really great tool
for kind of walking from chord to chord.
So like from G
(guitar chords)
To a C.
Get that half step walk up in there.
Next inversion is a C over E
and it's kind of the same idea as the last chord.
You just make a C chord
and instead of having the C
as the lowest note there,
you take that out and have the third,
the E
(guitar chord)
as the lowest note in the chord.
And this one is movable as well,
(guitar chord)
You have to make a bar, though.
So if I take this shape minus the C there
and make it with these two fingers
and then move it up and then put a bar down.
(guitar chord)
Now I'll have a first inversion D Major chord.
So that F sharp isn't the base of D over F sharp.
There's another D over F sharp,
so it's kind of two different ways
to play the same chord.
This next chord is really handy for
playing church music or old hymns
because it lends itself from moving
from like one chord,
if you're playing a A to a D.
And all it is is a first inversion A Major chord.
So A over C sharp,
or A with C sharp in the bass.
And not a lot of people know this one,
for some reason, they just don't think about it.
So it's A and then just add your pinky up here
on the fourth fret for a C sharp.
(guitar chord)
Just play the middle four strings.
You can hear how it goes from an A
A over C sharp to a D,
sounds really good.
(guitar strumming)
All right now on to some Sus chords.
This one was a big request in the comments
so if you make a D Major or a D Sus four
all you have to do is put your pinky down
on the third fret of the high E string.
(guitar chord)
It sounds kind of tentative, like it needs
to resolve down back to
that Major straight D Major chord.
So that's one way you can think about that chord.
(guitar chords)
This one is movable.
You don't have to play the low root note.
What you can do is move it up a whole step
if you want to play an E Sus 4,
just play the top three strings.
(guitar chords)
Just think about it like that.
Or if you're ready adventurous.
(guitar chords)
All right, you can't learn a D Sus 4 chord
without learning a D Sus 2 chord,
so let's get that one in there too.
They go together a lot.
So if you have a regular D Major chord
(guitar chord)
D Sus 4
All you have to do to make a D Sus 2
is play the open high E string.
Just take your middle finger off of that second fret
of the high E string.
(guitar chords)
But again it sounds like it
kinda wants to resolve up to the D Major chord.
So these go well together a lot
in different music.
Sus 4, regular Major,
Sus 2, back to Major.
And again, this one is movable,
just like the last one.
So if you wanna make an E Sus 2,
(guitar chord)
just move the whole thing up
a whole step.
Then you can move.
It's a little bit trickier,
but you can do it,
it's a good voicing for that.
(guitar chords)
A Sus 4, kind of the same idea,
you just make an A Major chord
(guitar chord)
Come down with your pinky on this third fret this time,
from the second up to the third fret
of the B string.
(guitar chord)
You can hear how it is kind of tentative
at the beginning, really wants to
(guitar chords)
resolve down to regular A Major chord.
And again, if you want to make this into
a B chord, B Sus 4 chord, for example,
you can just move the whole little A shape up,
bar it, I like to do it like that
(guitar chords)
just play those three strings that
you're actually fretting.
(guitar chords)
Move that third up to the fourth
for B Sus 4.
Or you can do the whole bar chord thing.
(guitar chords)
For a Sus 2, an A Sus 2,
all you have to do
(guitar chord)
instead of playing a regular A Major chord,
just take your third finger off,
and you end up with an add nine quarter
A Sus 2.
And again, these go really well together.
The A to the A Sus 4,
A Sus 2, back to regular A.
And if you want to make this one movable,
you almost have to use a bar,
you don't have to but it makes it easier.
What you can do is play just a regular B bar chord
(guitar chord)
just an A shape.
Put your pinky up, one half step for a Sus 4,
and then for the Sus 2
(guitar chord)
just take your pinky off.
(guitar chords)
(guitar strumming)
That's it for Sus chords,
let's move on to a few Major 7 chords.
That was another big request, so
if you start off with an A major.
(guitar chord)
Just open A Major, what you can do is
take this note right here
with your middle finger,
that's a root note, and lower it about one half step,
to make it A Major 7.
(guitar chord)
And you have to flip your index finger
and middle finger around
if you make an A like I do.
(guitar chord)
And that gives you an A Major 7 chord.
(guitar chord)
So you can hear the difference between
(guitar chord)
the regular A Major
and the A Major 7 is
(guitar chord)
extremely jazzier.
You know
at least it starts to give you
that jazzy sound.
And if you want to make this one movable,
you can just make that A Major 7
(guitar chord)
with these three fingers.
And then move up to wherever you'd like them.
Move the pulse up and bar it
(guitar chord)
I get a B Major 7 chord.
(guitar chords)
So just moving that shape around.
(guitar chords)
It's a really good exercise for that.
Here's another voicing for a Major 7th chord
and this one has,
its root note, the lowest root note
on the six string.
So G Major 7.
(guitar chord)
And this one's kinda weird because
you don't play the A string.
You skip it and kinda mute it with your index finger
right here.
(muted note)
But you do play that low E string,
and then you have,
what looks like an A Minor chord
right there with these three fingers.
(guitar chord)
And then the high E string is muted
to where you just don't play it.
So what I end up doing
is just taking these
the pick and these three fingers,
just kinda plucking, the piano.
(guitar chords)
Leaving the A and high E strings out
and that's my G Major 7 chord,
and this one is fully movable,
super easy, once you have the shape down
(guitar chords)
So if I want to play an A Major 7,
all I have to do is move up a whole step.
(guitar chord)
And there it is.
One more Major 7 chord for you,
this is a D Major 7.
Super easy in the open position too,
all you have to do is bar the top three strings
on the second fret,
and then add in the open D string.
Leave the low E and A strings out.
(guitar chord)
You get a D Major 7.
(guitar chords)
Pretty easy.
And if you want to make it movable,
just make the bar with your third finger.
(guitar chord)
Then move it up a whole step,
and then, also move your root note up a whole step
so it'll be the second fret
of the D string to make it E Major 7
(guitar chord)
So from a D Major 7 to a E Major 7
(guitar chords)
F, F sharp.
Move it around any way you like.
(guitar chord)
Okay, you need some Minor 7th chords
to go along with this
that'll help you start getting into jazz
or other types of music
that use these more complex chords.
So an A Minor 7
(guitar chord)
that's our first voicing for this.
And it's just like an A Minor
(guitar chord)
when you take your third finger off of that G string
and you play it open.
(guitar chord)
That gives you your Minor 7th interval
to make a Minor 7 chord.
So A Minor 7
if you want to make it movable,
make those two notes
with your second and third fingers,
move it up a whole stop
and then put a bar down.
(guitar chord)
That gives you a B Minor 7.
(guitar chords)
A Minor 7.
(guitar chord)
B Minor 7.
All right, six string root note Minor 7 shape,
we'll go with a G Minor 7.
(guitar chords)
This has kinda the same concept as the
G Major 7, and
that we're leaving the A string out
and kinda muting it
with our index finger that's playing the root note here.
And then all you have to do is play
just like you would an A bar chord.
Play the D, G and B strings
with your third finger on the third fret.
(guitar chord)
Leave the high E string out.
So, the pick's gettin' the low E string
and then my fingers are getting
(guitar chord)
the D, G and B strings.
You can strum too if you want.
This A is muted, just be sure not to
play that high E string or to mute it.
(guitar chords)
And again, it's movable.
(guitar chords)
If you want to play an A Minor 7
with this shape,
just move it up two frets.
(guitar chord)
To the fifth fret, and there you go.
Last Minor 7 chord is a D Minor 7
and if you start with just
a regular Open D Minor,
what you want to do is move this note right here,
this root note with your third finger on the B string
back one whole step.
And you end up with this voicing right here.
You're gonna either make a little mini bar
on the first fret of the high E and B strings.
And then play the second fret of the G string.
(guitar chord)
Along with the root note there,
that open D.
Or you can play like this, it doesn't matter.
(guitar chord)
Which ever one's more comfortable for you.
(guitar chord)
So D Minor 7
if you want to make it movable
(guitar chords)
just move it up a whole step,
let's take my index finger down to
compensate for the root note.
(guitar chord)
There you have that E Minor 7
using the D Minor 7 shape.
(guitar chords)
I wanted to give you one other voicing
for a 7th chord to kind of
go with the major and minor 7th chords
we've been going over.
It's this one.
(guitar chord)
It is kind of the same idea
as the other six string root note 7th chords
we've gone over here.
(guitar chords)
This is a dominant 7th, though.
So, your index finger
for a G7 Chord grabs a third fret
(guitar note)
mute the A string, mute the high E string,
and then you have this shape
on the D, G and B strings.
(guitar notes)
Looks like a D,
but it's moved over
on the string set.
And then
(guitar chord)
with that root you get
(guitar chords)
It's like a scaled down version of this
seven chord but it's a little more jazzy.
(guitar chord)
Or use more jazz.
And if you want to make that movable,
(guitar chord)
just get the shape down anywhere you like,
so if we move it up two frets,
end up with an A7.
(guitar chord)
All right, last 7th chord
is just a Minor 7 flat 5.
And this is a really common voicing.
Again, to start getting into jazz
and maybe playing some jazz standard
chord progressions, things like that.
And it's a F sharp Minor 7 flat 5.
(guitar chord)
It's movable, just like all the other
7 chords that we've been going over.
And if you have your middle finger here,
on the F sharp,
that's the lowest root note.
(guitar chord)
Again, the A string is muted.
High E string, don't play that either,
or mute it.
(guitar note)
And then, third finger,
second fret of the D,
(guitar note)
pinky, second fret of the G
(guitar note)
index finger first fret of the B.
(guitar chord)
F sharp Minor 7 flat 5
you want to be able to move it to a
G sharp Minor 7 flat 5
(guitar chords)
move it up two frets.
(guitar chord)
Back to F sharp.
(guitar strumming)
All right, C9, this is the funky chord.
Used all the time in Funk,
but Blues and Jazz too.
(guitar chord)
Really important to have some 9 chords down
if you want to get into that style of music, so
(guitar chord)
Lowest root note, or lowest note,
root note.
(guitar note)
There on the third fret of the fifth string,
the A string
(guitar note)
and the third is right there
index finger, second part of the D string
(guitar note)
Lowered 7th, or dominant 7th there,
third finger.
Third fret of the B,
sorry, G string and then the B string
is third fret as well.
(guitar note)
That's the 9 of the chord.
(guitar chord)
(guitar chords)
So just sliding in from below
is one way to make this chord really funky.
(guitar strumming)
And even some people kind of flatten out
their third finger to grab
the third fret of the high E string as well.
(guitar strumming)
And this one is movable,
you can use all those
(guitar chords)
those two shapes, and move 'em anywhere you want.
If you move it up a whole step,
you end up with a D9.
(guitar chords)
Back to a C9.
(guitar chords)
Once you get your C9 down,
it's gonna be really easy to play a C Minor 9.
Only one note changes,
so if you have a C9
(guitar chord)
index finger, remember I said is a third,
so all I have to is lower that by one half step.
(guitar chord)
So that give you a really cool minor color
to start working into your playing in your songs.
(guitar chords)
If we want to make it movable,
all you have to do,
same thing, just move it to where your root note,
(guitar chord)
in this case it's on the D,
so I'm doing a D Minor 9.
(guitar chords)
I like to call this one the RPG chord,
you'll see why.
It's called a D6
(guitar chord)
and if you've ever played an RPG,
(guitar notes)
oh, enemy's coming, right?
Time to fight.
You won.
Good to go.
So to make this D6 chord,
all you have to do is make a regular D.
(guitar chord)
Take your middle finger off.
Open B string.
That's it.
Top four strings,
and if you want to make it movable,
make the chord with your third and fourth fingers.
(guitar chord)
Move it up a whole step to make it E6
and then bar the top four strings.
(guitar chords)
Very moody chord.
The last chord I have for you is a power chord.
And you may be thinking,
Nate, that should have been the other video,
the one before this.
I hear what you're saying but
this is an important power chord to get down,
'cause not a lot of people make really good use of this.
A lot of people do this
(guitar chord)
for a G power chord or this
(guitar chord)
but using a D shape for a power chord as well
can be really useful,
'cause it gives you a higher voicing
(guitar chord)
that might come in really handy
if you're playing with another guitar player
or piano player
and you need to get out of that
lower register.
So what you're gonna do
is just take a regular D major chord.
That's gonna be your foundation for that
you can move that up
to where your root note with your pinky.
It's on a G,
and then leave the high E string out,
'cause that's the third.
All you're gonna do is
kinda play a D shaped bar chord right here
but leave out the third.
(guitar chords)
Same thing as a power chord,
just add
(guitar chord)
one octave.
If you want to make it movable,
if you want to make, let's say,
an A power chord,
just move it up one whole step.
(guitar chords)
And you're good to go.
So that's a lot of chords to learn,
and let me know,
did you know all these chords already
or are some of them new to you?
And if they were new to you,
which ones did you like the sound of the best?
Was it the Major 7, Minor 7,
Minor 9, 6 Chord,
let me know in the comments below.
See you later.
(light acoustic folk music)
Ah, enemy's coming, right?
Time to fight.
Ah, you won.
Good to go.
- [Man] Oh, you won.
(chuckles)
That was a quick battle!
- Yeah
it's the beginning of the game,
what can I say?
(guitar chord)