To build on the Triads we learned previously, lets look at how these chords were made. To do this we have to look a little deeper into the scale we are learning, G-Major.

Our scale is made up of the following notes:

G – A – B – C – D – E – F#

If we replace these with numbers, we get whats called an interval.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6- 7

Whatever our root note is, the home position for the scale, will always be 1. To construct the basic Major/minor chords, we use the intervals 1, 3 and 5. In order to apply this to the rest of our notes, we can do a little math. If we want to find the note for the C-Major chord, we can apply this same pattern just starting at 4. So it will be the notes at intervals 4, 6 and 1, or C, E and G.

So how do we end up with Major and minor chords then if we are always using the same intervals? Well our scale is made up of only 7 unique notes, but there are a total of 12. Our G Major scale has one flat in it, represented here by the Gb. This Gb is actually the same note as an F# (sharp) and all sharps and flats can be described in either way. With the F#/Gb being the note that exists between the two.

Lets now add another word to our guitar vocabulary, the step. Steps come in whole or half steps. A half step being one fret higher (or lower) and a whole step being 2 frets higher. (or lower) Looking above, we see to get from G to A, we are going up two frets, which is a whole step. To get from B to C, we are moving up one fret, which is a half step

So we now have a new pattern we can describe our scale with. Lets use W for a whole step and h for a half step. So the major scale is Root – W – W – h – W – W – W – h, and this applies no matter which root note we choose. Its this pattern of steps that helps create Major and minor chords, plus our one diminished. For a major chord, to get to the 3, it is 2 whole steps, for a minor chord it is 1 whole step followed by a half step. With the minor chord, this is also known as a flat 3rd or 3b which we will dive into a little later.