C Major Chord

Chords

Let's talk about chords. A chord is three or more notes simultaneously. Chords are based around a root note. Other notes are classified in terms of the intervals they create with the root note.

There are 4 main types of chords, which can be represented using 3 notes.

Chord Type	1st Interval	2nd Interval
Major	Major 3rd	Perfect 5th
Minor	Minor 3rd	Perfect 5th
Diminished	Minor 3rd	Diminished 5th
Augmented	Major 3rd	Augmented 5th

A major chord is root, major third, and perfect fifth. For a C major chord, that's C - E and C - G. The C major chord is spelled C E G or C - E - G.

Open Position C Major Chord

fig 1
|o|-|-|p|-| E and G
|-|i|-|-|-| C
|o|-|-|-|-| G
|-|-|m|-|-| E
|-|-|-|r|-| C
|o|-|-|p|-| E and G*
 0 1 2 3 4