Major Scale Chords – Guitar Keys of C,A,G,E,D

  • Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 15:34
  • 489,575 views
  • 47 comments

Note: A PDF document for the Major Scale Chord Chart in this lesson can be found here.

In a previous post, I presented a Guitar Harmony Chart for twelve major keys. In teaching guitar I find that there are five keys that are far and away the most common. In fact, any one of these five might be used more than the remaining ones put together! These keys are C major, G major, D major, A major and E major. If we reorder the key note names we can call them the ‘CAGED’ keys – C,A,G,E and D.

The following chart shows the chords for the five most common guitar keys. Simply find the key you want to work with and then read left to right to get the chords in that key. The roman numerals at the top show the position and quality (major or minor) of each chord in key.

Learn Guitar Online - Step by Step Beginner's Guide

Major Scale Chords

The above Major Scale Chord chart shows a major chord for ‘VII’ rather than the diminished chord indicated by the previous harmony chart. While technically out of key, in practice this is a common substitution for the diminished chord in a major key: go down a half-step from the diminished chord and play a major chord in its place. This is a ‘borrowed’ chord from the minor scale or Mixolydian mode starting on the same key note and is a very common substitution in rock and pop styles.

Storm

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  • Roberto

    Maybe I’m missing something, but why did you put a flat VII major chord instead of actually putting the diatonic VII diminished, which is actually correct? What you’ve put here is not the chords in a major scale, but rather the chords in Mixolydian mode which has a dominant function.

  • http://www.guitarteacher.com Storm

    @Roberto: Right. If you read the text near the bottom of the post (below the chart) I describe what you point out. I have a chart of true diatonic progressions for twelve keys @ http://guitarteacher.com/2009/02/04/guitar-harmony-chart/

  • Mike Jones

    Maybe a stupid question, but I’m a beginner. Do you do a different tuning for the different keys or put a capo  and what are the tunings or capo positions for such things. thanks

    • http://www.guitarteacher.com Storm

      @Mike Jones – It is not a dumb question. Finding an ideal tuning or capo position for a tune is something that advanced guitarists could argue and have different opinions on.

      Open strings allow easy access to the notes to which they are tuned. As such, many songs in ‘standard tuning’ tend to favor keys that include those notes (i.e. ‘C,A,G,E,D’). If you are playing in different keys and want easier access to those notes, that is when capos or alternate tunings can be helpful.

      A resource on-site that might help is the Capo Transposition Chart lesson.

      I hope that helps and thanks for asking!

  • Dave

    Hey there,
                 Im still quite a beginner in alot of aspects of guitar playing. Im currently working on some soloing however Im having diffculty moving around the fretboard finding where certain keys are played. Is there a sheet like the one you have here showing what frets would/could be played in a certain key?

  • Anthony

    I am requesting the cords for the facelable or Do-Ray-Me of the guitar please?

  • http://www.guitarteacher.com Storm

    @Anthony – If you mean solfege, just replace as follows:

    C=Do
    D=Re
    E=Mi
    F=Fa
    G=So(Sol)
    A=La
    B=Si(Ti)

    • Dan

      Thank you for took me that. Hey can you tell me a
      Do
      Re
      Mi
      Fa
      So
      La
      It
      For minor like am,Bm,cm,dm,em,fm,gm, please

  • http://guitarteacher.com Dave G

    I am a confused novice. I am not following where you say go a half step half-step from the diminished chord and play a major chord in its place. How does this create a major chord?

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  • http://www.guitare-books.com robby adnan

    Ok, tank you about your information

  • http://turrentineguitar.com Zebulon Turrentine

    This is a great way to teach diatonic harmony to aspiring folk and rock guitarists. Thanks for sharing this practical chart!

  • robinson

    Hey Storm, really great teaching…but i was wondering if you could also put up chords for the other keys too?

    • http://www.guitarteacher.com Storm

      @robinson – Check out the Guitar Harmony Chart post to see if that gives you what you’re looking for. It has the chords for all keys spelled out there. No chord diagrams though. Just remember, in that chart upper case letters represent major chords and lowercase minor chords. Hope that helps.

      Thanks for the comment and the complement!

  • kyawswar

    guitar

  • Nick

    I would highly recommend looking at the circle of fifths and understanding how that works and you should have a more of an understanding about music theory.
    I am a begginner too and i have had a few guitar lessons and the way it was explained to me helped me out loads.
    A rule for major scales: Maj, Min , Min , Maj , Maj , Min , Dim ,
    If you look at the circle of fifths you can see what progressions you can use for different keys.
    Also a good way to remember the circle of fifths is: -Father Christmas Goes Dodgey And Enters Boy, ie F C G D A E B.
    Hope that helps, please tell me if im wrong as i said im just learning it all.. :)

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  • Dave

    Hi:
    Thanks for the good information. Is there I way I can legally print out or save your helpful cord chart? I can pay a fee if that is how you like to do it.
    Thanks, Dave

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  • Ashish

    Is there a similar chart for chords in all Minor Scales?
    (most commonly used minor scales maybe?)

  • malisa najw

    i like play guitar…huhu!!!!!!

  • http://www.guitarteacher.com solex

    I love this site they what u want and only few site do that.thank guitar teacher, more grace 2ur elbow

  • bob

    Isn’t the key of C- CDEFGABC. your key scale confuses me a little.

  • gman

    All you novices stop looking a this you need to start on something much more basic.

  • galvatron

    I just happened to pass this site real good. I been getting used to circle of fifths and It says the key of G has one F# which makes it key of G. when i seen your chart i got a little confused. The song i been jamming uses just power chord versions of E(ebe), F#,A,B and D. So i figured it is the key of G since im using one # and its F but when i see your chart the key of G has no F# chord but the key of D has one, am I wrong or what im confused now.

  • http://no bobby

    I whant to know more about minor keys

  • Shatfu

    what happend to the 7th degree? 

    It’s all messed up.

  • Samson

    Pls where do I place my finger on key F

  • syrone

    @Storm – CAN YOU GIVE ME A ‘LEGEND’ IN THAT CHART BECAUSE I CANT UNDERSTAND IT BECAUSE IM A BEGINNER

  • http://dogs;lovecats finn

    i want D flat 7 in the key of A, E, or C

  • carl

    Bob,,, YES the key of C is CDEFGABC,,, but what I believe he has show in the chart is that there are 3 major chords and 3 minor chords plus the 7th (Dim ) that make up the keys.
    your I-IV-V are the majors, the II-III-VI are the minors so he just added the minors to the chart to save you time on figuring it out. please advise if any of this is incorrect !!

  • Hooper

    Why is the 7th chord of G major listed as F major and not F# minor flat 5?

  • Hooper

    …never mind, I just found the other chart with the correct chords.

  • Hooper

    … I meant F minor 7 flat 5

  • Eric

    Rock on Storm. I love your site. I started http://GuitarChordsChart.co but I learned great scale chords from you.
    Thanks,
     Eric

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  • arka roy

    plzz…. tel me about circle of fifth…

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    He thanks a lot for nice article, its good for beginners. 

    Thanks
    Dhanesh Mane

  • troy

    If you are going to post information, at least make it correct. The information posted here is incorrect. There is no G chord in the key of A major, for example. Get your facts straight, or leave it off the web.

  • KingOfChickens

    Cool, but not based on the major scale. The 7th chord shouldn’t be bVII, it should be vii diminished

    • Northwoodguitar

      Yea I was trying to figure out why this was done. Why put a dominant 7th in there instead of a major 7th?

  • Bigboyalli

    this is great have this info love this lol!!!

  • fattyz

    Ummm why are all the 7th chords wrong again ? In spite of the open chords being better I wonder is there a universal chord chart for the scale maj and min in barre chords. This would be really helpful for figuring out songs.

  • Bliss

    Um, newbie question: why is there no scale for B or F?

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