Guitar Chord Lesson – Learn to Play BMaj7

The B Major 7 Guitar Chord (also known as B Major Seventh, BMaj7 or B Major 7th), like the other Major Seventh Chords, is a beautiful dreamy sounding guitar chord, but it is slightly more challenging to play than the other major seventh chords. It may take a bit of extra practice to get your fingers used to this chord position.

The B Major 7th Chord is found by locating the 1(root note), 3 , 5 and 7 positions B ,D#, F# and A#) of the B Major Scale: B C# D# E F# G# A#. The chord diagram chart below demonstrates how to play the BMaj7 Chord.

As with most guitar chords, there are several different ways to play this chord.   The chart included below is played a little further down the neck of the guitar starting at the 4th fret. This may be a bit outside of your comfort zone if you are used to playing all of the basic chords down at the first couple of frets.  This is a better sounding version of the B Major Seventh chord in my opinion.

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Chord Playing Tips: Be sure that you are pressing down on the strings hard enough. You should play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right. As I said in the beginning of this post, this chord is a bit more challenging than the other Major Seventh Chords. It is going to feel a bit awkward at first, but hang in there and keep practicing!

Related Blogs

Basic Beginner Guitar Chords – Learn the E Minor Chord

The E Minor Chord is found in the E Minor Scale: E F# G A B C D E. It is made up of the 1(root note), 3 and 5 of this scale. Meaning the notes E, G and B. Now to add more depth to the sound of the chord you add two more E’s and B. The E note is at the root of the chord meaning the top of the chord shown in the diagram below.

E Minor Chord notes: E B E G B E

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

E Minor Guitar Chord Video

Basic Beginner Guitar Chords – The G Major Chord

The G Major Guitar Chord is found in the G Major Scale: G A B C D E F# G. It is made up of the 1(root note), 3 and 5 of this scale. Meaning the notes G, B and D. To add more depth to the sound of the chord you add two more G’s and a B note. The G note is at the root of the chord meaning the top of the chord shown in the diagram below.

G Major Chord notes: G B D G B G

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

The G Major Guitar Chord is one of the most common guitar chords. You will see it in many songs, so it is very important that you learn how to play it. Just like all other chords, make certain that you are pushing your fingers down firmly on the strings. Play each string one at a time to see if the strings are producing a clean sound.

G Major Chord Video

Guitar Chord Progressions – Where Do They Come From?

By Ricky Sharples

Guitar chord progressions are like baby brothers – you cannot escape from them and they take some explaining. Let us do some analysis on the term “guitar chord progressions”. In case you did not know, any time two or more notes are played, this is referred to as a “chord”. You probably know that certain guitar chords sound good together. These are called guitar chord “families”. Guitar chord “progressions” are certain sequences of chords that sound so good together that they are used as the musical basis of songs.

Chord progressions are derived from musical scales like C D E F G A B C. This is the C major scale which is used very often in music. It is just a sequence of notes with no sharps or flats which makes it easy to use to teach music students the principles of music. When we study chord progressions we think of these letters as chords instead of single notes. If we number the chords from one to seven we can work in a practical way with the chords in any key because the basic principles are the same.

If we write out the chords as numbers we have the problem of getting the numbers denoting the chords confused with numbers that are used in the names of the chords. If we are working with the chord B7 we do not want to have to stop and think what “77″ means so we use Roman numerals to number the chords. That way B7 is named VII7. To a newbie that might still be confusing but it is a good way of fixing the problem.

So, now the chords are named I II III IV V VI VII. To save us from getting too bogged down in musical theory, let us take some simple ideas for granted. First, in any key the chord that the key is named after is always the I chord. So now you can go back and look at the notes in the C major scale and check out the new names of all the notes. Not that it will mean much yet.

Another thing we are going to take for granted is that I IV and V are the three most important chords in the scale. When you learn a song or instrumental piece, the chances are that you will be starting the song with the I chord and when you end the song, the chord you finish on is also the I chord. There are exceptions but there is no need to go looking for them. So we can take that fact for granted.

That is all the basic theory we need to learn guitar chord progressions without blundering around like an elephant in an outhouse. There is more you could learn but we are more concerned with playing the chords than explaining them. Now we can take a look at the some chord progressions. The most common progression you will come across as a guitar player is I IV V. You will find these chords referred to in music theory as “tonic” “subdominant” and “dominant”.

You have probably heard that pop musicians only know three chords. This may or may not be true but they do mostly work with one chord progression consisting of three chords. The main variations come when for effect the composer or interpreter of a song might use the V7 or IV7 chords.

This chord progression is the basis of almost all pop, blues and rock songs. Many songwriters have made departures from this basic progression and jazz musicians have long ago abandoned sticking to this, or any basic form.

So there you have your basic chord progression for modern popular music. Other progressions that you could benefit from experimenting with are: I IV I V, I IV V IV, I V VI IV, I V IV V, I VI II V and I VI IV V.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

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7 Things to Do to Get the Most Out of Your Guitar Chords

By Mike P Hayes

People respond to the three basic elements of music in this order: rhythm, melody then harmony. Firstly, rhythm – if we don’t like the rhythm of a piece of music our interest in that music stops there.

Secondly, melody – the melody is the tune of the particular piece of music, it’s the part we hum or whistle.

Thirdly, is the harmony – this is where chords come into the picture and the vast majority of people have difficulty with this aspect of music.

Often, when learning the guitar we often experience a musical brick wall while trying to learning to play chords. I have set out 7 tips to help you avoid the common traps.

1. Make sure your guitar is set-up properly: If your guitar is too hard to play your hands will become tense and tire quickly. Please keep in mind that when you buy a guitar the action of the guitar (the distance of the strings away from the guitar fretboard) will need to be adjusted, regardless of the brand or price range. This true for both new and pre-played instruments.

2. Learn the names of the notes on the guitar: Guitar players generally think in terms of lead guitar or rhythm guitar playing, when in reality chords are simply combinations (vertical stacking) of notes. Each chord has a specific spelling, once you know how to spell a chord you can create many different ways of playing that chord on the guitar … if you know the names of the notes and their location on the guitar fretboard.

3. Create four string grids: By dividing the six strings of your guitar into four string grids each grid consisting of three strings. Grid one – first, second and third strings. Grid two – second, third and fourth strings. Grid three – third, fourth and fifth strings. Grid four – fourth, fifth and sixth strings.

4. Learn the triadic and scaletone seventh versions of chords: By learning both the triadic and scaletone seventh chord structures many chord substitution possibilities will become obvious. Following is an example of the triadic (three note) chord structures in the key of C major – C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B dim. The scaletone seventh (four note version) of the same scale would be: CMaj7, Dm7, Em7, FMaj7, G7, Am7 and B minor 7th flat 5.

5. Pay attention to the strumming hand: The most common mistake guitarist’s make is to focus all their attention on the chord fingering while neglecting the picking hand. Many times the chord formation is correct however unwanted notes are being played by the strumming hand. For example often guitar players incorrectly strum five strings for a D major chord, while this chord sounds fine the sound you are producing with this five string chord is a D/A chord (D major chord with and A bass note.)

6. Learn to play slash chords: A great way to increase you chord vocabulary is to play simple triadic chords with different bass notes. For example a simple chord progression such as A///|E///|D///| could be made more interesting by playing an “A” note in the bass for each chord: A …|E/A …|D/A …

7. Learn to recognize chord progressions: The fastest way to learn to play guitar “by ear” is to train yourself to recall the sound of chord progressions. Many songs are based on standard chord progression templates such as the one, six, four, five chord progression. In the key of “G” this progression would look like this: G///|Em///|C///|D///||

A great many people give up playing because of a poorly set-up instrument or because they can’t seem to get the same sound they hear on the recordings of their favorite artists, by applying these simple tips you will hear (and feel) immediate results.

Mike Hayes develops systems and products to help you succeed in your guitar playing. Find out more about how to learn guitar fast with his popular free ecourse, available at: => http://www.guitarcoaching.com

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