Learning the shape of short chords is an important guitar skill because they are useful for playing slash chords (for example, Bb/D) and for playing chord melody solos. Short chords are played on only three strings instead of full chords that use four, five, or six strings.
To start learning short chords, a beginning guitarist should focus on treble-string short chords. Short Chords and Chord Shapes is a handout that presents the basic major and minor chord shapes for these chords.
1. Study the rows in the handout one row at a time to learn these basic shapes that are formed by connecting from right to left the three dots that show the notes in each chord.
Treble-string short chords (Major chords):
(Row 1) Root on 3rd string – checkmark
(Row 2) Root on 2nd string – arrow pointing down
(Row 3) Root on 1st string – up ramp to right
Treble-string short chords (Minor chords):
(Row 4) Root on 3rd string – diagonal right
(Row 5) Root on 2nd string – arrow pointing left
(Row 6) Root on 1st string – line
2. Use the blank chord diagram grids to draw and label three additional chord diagrams for each row.
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