Basic chord theory and construction....page 3 of 4

Now that we know the notes in the chord we can now construct the A major Triad Chord.

Look at the chord window on the right which shows  a Caged /Open A Major chord.

You can see we start with the ROOT note ( open A string), then we play E (5th note of the major scale), then A again, then C# (3rd note of the major scale), then finally E again.

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Now lets suppose we want to play the A Minor chord. Also written as  Am. The A minor chord has a chord formula  1  -  3(b)  -  5.

This means the 1st note (ROOT), the flattened 3rd note and the 5th note of the Diatonic A Major Scale.

Therefore, we know the 3rd note is C# so by flattening it, the note becomes C instead. So the new chord notes become   A  -  C  -  E and the new chord window for the Caged / Open A Minor (Am) Triad Chord window will look as below.

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