There are tons of online resources and tools to help you find and form chords. But what if you can't have access to them all the time? This is a practical guide aimed at the beginner who wants to be able to play chords when only their name is given or to name chords when the shape is given. What I won't discuss is theory subjects like how to put different chords together to form tunes. I leave that to the experts.
 
The guide is divided in 4 parts.
In part 1 we'll go through the major scale, which is the standard by which all chords are named and we'll learn the different shapes of a major chord.
In part 2 we'll introduce some more simple 3-note chords that are easily related to the major chord.
In part 3 we'll introduce 4-note chords like the popular "7th" chord and its derivatives.
In part 4 I'll show you the 9th and 11th chords, the "added note" chords and discuss some aspects of chord nomenclature.
At the end there's a printable quick-reference sum-up.
Disclaimer:

THAT'S QUITE A BOATLOAD OF CHORDS THERE AND SOME ARE QUITE TRICKY TO FINGER SO DON'T EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THEM ALL TOO SOON!
 
 
PART 1
 
If you don't know where all the notes on the fretboard are, now is a good time to learn them. Follow the link to a previous entry of my blog:
http://www.guitar.com/kimonf/blog/tutorial_learn_your_fretboard_finding_the_notes
But for the sake of completeness, here is a chart of the notes in standard tuning:
Note how the pattern repeats itself after the 12th fret. The color code only helps the eye distinguish the octaves.
 
The reference point for describing any scale or chord is the major scale. So before we can move on, we must get to know it:
The intervals between notes are w-w-h-w-w-w-h which I like to show like this:
1 _ 2 _ 3 4 _ 5 _ 6 _ 7 1
"w" means whole tone which is equal to a distance of 2 frets
"h" means half tone (semitone) and is equal to a distance of 1 fret
The notes in the major scale are numbered in order like shown, with "1" being the root (the note that gives its name to the scale/chord) .
Two more symbols you must get familiar with are the "accidentals": The "flat" or "b" which indicates you must lower the note one semitone (move it one fret lower) and "sharp" or "#" which means you must raise the note one semitone (move the note one fret up). These symbols are used to describe the notes that fall between the numbered notes of the scale as well as the notes that have no name (like the note between G and A in the notes chart above).
 
If you chart out the major scale on a fretboard it looks like this:

The pattern repeats itself in both directions. The scale pattern is independent from the actual fret-numbers and can be moved around to fit any root note.
This is the chart that will help us conquer the world of chords :) so be sure to print a copy (along with the Notes Chart if you want) and keep it handy for reference.
 
Our first chord will be the major chord.
A major chord only uses the 1 , 3 and 5 from the major scale. ANY combination of 1,3,5 is a valid major chord. Take advantage of the simplicity of the chord and see how many 3-note (1,3,5) chord shapes you can play, using the scale chart.
 
For the sake of clarity at this early stage, here is a version of the chart where I have kept only the 1s, 3s and 5s. Below the chart I have marked "boxes" whose patterns form some of the simplest major chords in the first three frets. I've added the actual chords in TAB format. You might already be familiar with them.
Please do try to see the similarity of the shapes between the TAB and the respective chart boxes.

By moving these patterns up and down the fretboard you can achieve major chords for all notes. Bold marks the root.

 
Here is an example.
Say you want to form a major G chord. First you locate a "G" on your fretboard (using the Notes Chart if necessary). This will give you the realtive position of the chord pattern on the fretboard. The "G" is now your "1" aka root. Now you have to look in the scale chart for possible 1,3,5 shapes that include your root. It's simpler than it sounds.

Try it on your own and compare notes with the following results. These are all the "boxed" major G chords you can form:

 
Again, the fret numbers are determined by the necessity of the root ("1") to be a "G".
 
Play around with the major chords and come back in a couple of days for the next part.
 
PART 2
 
Hopefully you are starting to get the hang of the major chords and the charts by now.
In this part I'll introduce you to some more 3-note chords. Bring your Major Scale Chart (the simplified version for the major chord will do for now too) for reference and remember what I said about "b" and "#".
Here it goes:

With the major chord as the standard:
-a minor chord occurs when you lower the 3 half a tone, thus being 1,b3,5
-a suspended chord is formed by replacing the 3 with either 2 (sus2) or 4 (sus or sus4).
-an augmented chord is formed by raising the 5 half a tone, thus making 1,3,#5
-a diminished chord is formed by lowering the 5 half a tone, thus making 1,3,b5
The examples in A show you how that works. Apply the rules to the other major shapes by yourself, using the Scale Chart to help you.

 
NOTE: Don't freak out if a chord is named both minor and diminished... Minor affects the "3", diminished affects the "5". Refer to part 4.
 
With the new chord types you learned in this part you have enough material to work on for quite some time, applying the rules to all boxes and you can even write many simple but decent enough tunes with these chords...
 
PART 3
 
If you are still clumsy with the chords discussed above, don't rush yet into this part, as it only gets more complex.
 
A very popular chord in blues and rock (and elsewhere of course) is the 7th. It consists of 1,3,5,b7 (that's right, b7. You do remember what "b" means, right?).
Charted it looks like this:

Evidently adding a note to the pattern makes the chart more complex. Again I've marked the boxes and an example chord that fits each, except this time I didn't tab out the example chords. I trust that by now you are familiar enough with the Scale Chart to be able to use it on your own to form chords.
All you have to do is find groups of 1,3,5,b7 that you can fret together.
NOTE: As you can see, there are usually more than two notes on each string whithin the same box. Which allows you to finger the same chord in more than one ways, thus changing how it sounds. Try that out. Here are two B7 for example:
2--2
0--5
2--2
1--5
2--2
x--x
Below the chart I added some related chords:
-a major 7th (major refers to th 7) is formed by raising the b one semitone, thus making 1,3,5,7
-a diminished 7th is formed by lowering both the 5 and b7 by a semiton, making 1,3,b5,bb7 or simply 1,3,b5,6
-a half diminished 7th (aka "minor 7th - flat fifth") happens by lowering only the 5 one semitone to make 1,3,b5,b7

 
Practice the different shapes of 7ths you can form as they are quite common. That's doesn't mean you should ignore the others.
 
 
PART 4
 
9th Chord : 1,3,5,b7,9 or 1,2,3,5,b7
maj9 : b7->7 ==> 1,2,3,5,7
dim9 : 9->b9 ==> 1,2,3,5,b7,b9
11th : 1,3,5,b7,9,11 or 1,2,3,4,5,b7
 
The 9th chord adds one more note to the chord making them 5 notes. I didn't chart it out because the chart becomes too crowded to be any better than the full Scale Chart. The necessity to have all 5 notes restricts the available possibilities of alternative fingerings for most boxes.
The 11th chords adds yet one more note. With 6 notes that need to co-exist the fingering options are narrowed down to just 4 shapes that I can reach
 
More popular than the 9th and 11th chords are the "added note" chords. Their construction is straight forward. You take the major scale and add whatever note is requested by the name.
Two types of chords stand out in this category:
the add4 or simply (4) and the add9 or (9) which are 1,3,4,5 and 1,2,3,5 respectively. Also the 6th chord (simply X6 where X is the name of the root), which is 1,3,5,6
Basically these two offer some sound qualities from the awkward 9th and 11th chords while remaining easy to fret. Cadd9 is a very popular chord.
 
Nomenclature
Chords can have more than one descriptive modules chained in their name. For instance, all the chords I mentioned where based on the major triad chord. There are however minor equivalents of them. So here is roughly how it goes:
-A chord with no definitions is a major chord.
-"minor" or simply "m" affects the 3 and lowers it to b3.
-"sus" affects the 3 too and can't co-exist with "minor".
-"aug" affects only the 5 and is compatible with other modifiers (except "dim" and "dim7").
-"7" adds a note and is compatible to all above (unecessary for 9th and 11th chords) .
-"M7" or "maj7" affects only the 7 and is compatible with other modifiers (except "dim7")

-9 and 11 add notes each and are compatible with modifiers for 3,5 and 7
-"add" or "(...)" adds a note and is compatible with other modifiers and with itself.
- "X/Y" where "X" is any chord and "Y" is a note or chord means "X chord with a Y in the bass". "Y" can be part of the chord (but not the root) or not.
 

 
BACKWARDS OPERATION:
When you start writing songs and experiment with chord fingerings, you will find yourself in the position of needing to know what a certain chord fingering you like might be named. In that case, you take the full Scale Chart and try to fit the chord shape over it by using every fretted note as a possible "root" on the Chart (of course if you suspect what the root is the process will be quicker). The winner is whichever root note suggestss the less complex naming for the chord and has the less notes implied by the name "missing" (like an 11th chord is not really an 11th if say... the 5 and 9 are missing from what you play).
 
 
 
There.
Hopefully this enough info to get you going with your own creations as well as reading and playing chord-sheets without going looking for chord charts all the time.

 
 
Enjoy!
- RG -