Killer 3 string chords (part 3) – How to add range and diversity to your guitar playing

Johnny Marr at the AIM awards 2019 by Jwslubbock, licensed under (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Welcome, dear Guitar Ninja, to Part 3 of our series of Killer 3 string chords. So far we have learned 4 variations of a killer 3 string chord, learned how to apply rhythm to them, created melodies while playing a chord to create the illusion of two guitars, applied the techniques to a super popular chord progression and learned 8 little ditties using the techniques.

Phew…If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, check them out as you are best to follow this series in order.

Now, it’s time to expand our repertoire and play the different chord types but now with 2 more shapes. This will allow us to truly free up the fretboard and save us from having to make big jumps up and down to play certain chords.

Efficiency as well as killer sounding chords is the name of the game.

Nerd alert!!!

Before we get going on this lesson, now is the time to get nerdy and explain the theory behind what we are doing. Learning the theory makes everything come together in a useful and practical way for y’all.

A killer 3 string chord or a triad is a chord that is formed from 3 different notes. That is the root note (shown in red on the diagrams) the 5th note (shown in black) and the 3rd note (shown in blue).

The 3rd note is the one we are moving up and down a fret to change the name of the chord (Major, minor, sus2, or sus4).

Notice, you move this note up 1 fret to turn a minor triad into a Major triad and vice versa.

If you move the note that makes the chord a Major triad up one more fret, you now have a sus4 chord. This is where the sus4 gets its name. A ‘sus’ chord is a chord where the 3rd note is replaced by either the 2nd or 4th note from the scale.

Let’s take the G Major scale. G, A, B, C, D, E, F#.

A G Major chord is formed from the 1st or the root which is G, the 3rd which is B, and the 5th which is D.

During our chord variations as shown in the diagrams, the 1st and 5th which are G and D do not move. It is the B note that we change to change the name of the chord.

• A G minor chord is formed from flattening (lowering) the 3rd note of B by one fret so it now becomes Bb.
• A Gsus2 is formed by replacing the 3rd note of B with the 2nd note from the scale which is A.
• A Gsus4 is formed by replacing the 3rd note of B with the 4th note which is C.

Notice that when the note on the 2nd string is played at the lowest fret marked on the diagram, the chord becomes a sus2, a fret higher it becomes minor, a further fret higher it becomes Major, and a further fret higher it becomes sus4.

Make sure you are clear on this as it’s a really important concept to be able to grasp.

If you recall, our first shape looks like the following. You may not have seen a chord chart laid out like this before. What I have done for clarity is shown all 4 chord shapes laid out on one chord chart. If you are unsure or want to see the individual diagrams take a quick look over part 1 of this series.

As you can see, the root note on the 3rd string doesn’t move, neither does the note on the 1st string.

If you are happy with shape 1, we will apply the exact same principle and learn our 2nd shape. This is all based on the shape of a regular open A chord.

Our 2nd shape looks like this….

As you can see in shape 2, just like shape 1, two of the notes don’t move. The root note (red) and the 5th note (black) are static, and the notes on the other string (string 3 this time) move up and down a fret to define whether our chord is Major, minor, Sus2 or Sus4. Just by moving that blue note we have 4 different chords. This is all based on the shape of a regular open E chord.

Get comfortable with shape 2 before moving on to shape 3….

With shape 3, the same concepts apply. The notes that don’t move are the root note and the note on the 3rd string. In this instance it’s the note on string 1 that makes all the difference in terms of defining whether or not the chord is Major, minor, Sus2 or Sus4. This is all based on the shape of a regular open D chord.

Once you are happy with all 3 shapes and the all 4 chord types (Major, minor, Sus2 or Sus4) for each shape, the next step is to be 100% comfortable with the root notes and finding your desired chord all over the fretboard.

The root note is the note that tells us what chord we are playing. There is a really useful formula we can use to help us.

The formula is:

The root note of the relevant shape + the chord type = the actual chord

Eg, if you play a Major chord shape with a G root note, you are playing a G Major chord.

To know what chords you are playing you will obviously need to know where all the notes are on strings, 1, 2, and3.

If you don’t already know them, look at our Root Note Finder below, learn them one string at a time, and then apply that knowledge to finding the actual names for where you want to play the chords.

Question Time…

Q1. If I were to play a minor chord using shape 1 with the root note on the 10th fret, what chord would I be playing?

Q2. If I were to play a Major chord using shape 2 with the root note on the 7th fret, what chord would I be playing?

Q3. If I were to play a Sus 2 chord using shape 3 with the root note on the 7th fret, what chord would I be playing?

Q4. If I were to play a Sus 4 chord using shape 2 with the root note on the 12th fret, what chord would I be playing?

Answers at the bottom.

Little ditty 9 (Uses shape 1 and 2)

In example 9 we are starting to use two shapes instead of one to play our chords. Using multiple shapes is far more efficient as we don’t have to make big leaps up and down the fretboard.

Little ditty 10 (Uses shape 1, 2, and 3)

Example 10 is where things get really spicy. We are now using all 3 shapes to create cool sounding progression that has a coool bit of rhythm as well as uses the Major, minor, sus2 and sus 4 shapes. Take your time and get the basic chords of F, Dm, A# and C sorted, then get the rhythm correct and then finally add in the Sus chord variations.

Ok, we a have really stepped it up in part 3 of our series of Killer 3 string chords. There’s been some pretty big concepts bought up, so take your time with this lesson, and don’t forget you can leave a comment below with any queries or comments about this series of lessons.

Listen to the examples….

Download the Guitar Pro files to hear the above 2 examples in action.

Right click HERE and hit ‘save as’, then extract the Guitar Pro files to play them back. You will need either Guitar Pro or the free Tux Guitar installed on your computer to listen back to the examples. Download Tux Guitar here.

Stay tuned for part 4 where we will wrap everything up in a nice shiny little bow with some examples of how to use these ideas like your heroes, one little secret but massive benefit of 3 string chords and more…

Question Time Answers…

Q1. If I were to play a minor chord using shape 1 with the root note on the 10th fret, what chord would I be playing?

F minor

Q2. If I were to play a Major chord using shape 2 with the root note on the 7th fret, what chord would I be playing?

B Major

Q3. If I were to play a Sus 2 chord using shape 3 with the root note on the 7th fret, what chord would I be playing?

F#sus2

Q4. If I were to play a Sus 4 chord using shape 2 with the root note on the 12th fret, what chord would I be playing?

Esus4