Introduction To G, C, A, and F Major Guitar Chords
This post will cover four of the most commonly used major chords.
These are G, C, A, and F major chords. However, there are a few more important Major chords to be learned down the road, such as E, D, and B.
These chords (to exclude B Major) are all open-voicing shapes. Later in your studies, after mastering the basic shapes, you will probably get familiar with barre shapes that will introduce you to sharps (#) and flats (b) Major chords.
G major guitar chord
This is what the G major guitar chord looks like:
If you don’t understand how to translate what you see here
to the guitar’s fretboard, check out the “guitar fretboard diagrams” lesson here,
And come back later to this article.
Some G Major guitar chord insights:
- The G major guitar chord is written in songs with a capital letter (G) with no signs or numbers to its right.
- It’s a very common chord in rock and most popular western music.
- The G Major chord is the first in songs like American pie, White Christmas, The A team, and Stand by me, for example.
- It is a Major triad which means it’s built out of three notes—G, B, and D.
- The G Major guitar chord can appear as a first degree in the G Major scale, a fourth degree in the D Major scale, and as a fifth-degree in C major scale.
- The relative minor of the G Major scale is E minor scale.
Songs that contain The G Major chord:
C Major guitar chord
The C Major guitar chord looks like this:
Some C Major guitar chord insights:
- The C Major guitar chord is written in songs with a capital letter (C) with no signs or numbers to its right.
- It is the first chord in songs like All I want, and let it be, for example.
- It is a major triad that is built out of three notes. C, E, and G.
- The C Major guitar chord can appear as a first degree in the C Major scale, the fourth degree in the G Major scale, and as a fifth-degree in F major scale.
- The relative minor of the C Major scale is the A minor scale.
Songs In The C Major scale:
A Major guitar chord
The A Major guitar chord looks like this:
Some A Major guitar chord insights:
- The A Major guitar chord is written in songs with a capital letter (A) with no signs or numbers to its right.
- It is the first chord in songs like Tom Petty’s Free Falling and Tears in heaven (Clapton).
- It is a major triad that is built out of three notes—a, C#, and E.
- A Major guitar chord can appear as a first degree in the A Major scale, the fourth degree in E major scale, and the fifth degree in D major scale.
- The relative minor of the A major scale is the F# minor scale.
Songs that start with the A Major Chord:
F Major Guitar Chord
The F Major guitar chord looks like this:
This is how the f major guitar chord will sound like when strummed once:
Some F Major Guitar Chord insights:
- The F Major guitar chord is written in songs with the capital letter F.
- It is the first chord in Hey Jude.
- It is a Major triad built from three notes -F, A, and C.
- The F Major guitar chord can appear as a first degree in F major scale, the fourth degree in C major scale, and as a fifth degree in Bb major scale.
- The relative minor of the F Major scale is the D Minor scale.
Songs that start with the F major chord:
Check out how to overcome the guitar f chord challenge here.
Summary
As you can see, mastering these four guitar chords will significantly benefit your playing. Moreover, thousands of songs contain one or more of these chords, so mastering them in your early stages of playing is an excellent investment.
