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

Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 15:34
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22 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.

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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22 Comments on “Major Scale Chords – Guitar Keys of C,A,G,E,D”

Roberto wrote on 30 March, 2009, 15:48
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.
Storm wrote on 30 March, 2009, 16:04
@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 wrote on 21 April, 2010, 18:47
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
Storm wrote on 21 April, 2010, 21:23
@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 wrote on 20 July, 2010, 13:55
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 wrote on 29 July, 2010, 8:47
I am requesting the cords for the facelable or Do-Ray-Me of the guitar please?
Storm wrote on 29 July, 2010, 14:07
@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)
Dave G wrote on 9 November, 2010, 21:15
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?
robby adnan wrote on 26 December, 2010, 18:36
Ok, tank you about your information
Zebulon Turrentine wrote on 13 February, 2011, 7:45
This is a great way to teach diatonic harmony to aspiring folk and rock guitarists. Thanks for sharing this practical chart!
robinson wrote on 28 June, 2011, 14:17
Hey Storm, really great teaching…but i was wondering if you could also put up chords for the other keys too?
Storm wrote on 29 June, 2011, 7:15
@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 wrote on 20 July, 2011, 6:20
guitar
Nick wrote on 3 August, 2011, 1:45
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..
malcolm maynard wrote on 4 August, 2011, 14:37
i went to now home to play giter
Dave wrote on 14 September, 2011, 21:21
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
nnamdi obioma nnamdi wrote on 26 September, 2011, 7:22
guitar the world of the genius
Ashish wrote on 14 November, 2011, 23:04
Is there a similar chart for chords in all Minor Scales?
(most commonly used minor scales maybe?)
malisa najw wrote on 19 December, 2011, 5:03
i like play guitar…huhu!!!!!!