Diatonic Guitar Chords: Guitar Tab

Harmonized major scales and diatonic triads

This resource is a visual aid to learning key guitar chords and concepts. Written visually in guitar tab, the dots on the grid represent where the guitarists should place their fingers on the strings 1-6 and at which fret. Where the chords are further down the frets this is indicated by numbers e.g. 3rd which means place the fingers at the 3rd fret.

Chords are constructed within scales by stacking notes two steps up or down. If you do this in the C major scale there are seven variations of scales. The first is called the tonic, the second, the super tonic, the third mediant, the fifth sub-dominant, the sixth, dominant, the seventh sub-dominant and the eighth sub-tonic. These numbered scales can be referred to as degrees, 1st degree, second degree and so on. These scale degrees are the same for any key and the chords in this learning resource support the learning of the harmonizing chords within the 12 major scales on acoustic guitar.

Place your fingers where the dots are, don’t strum the strings marked with an X above, to form each chord working left to right. Enjoy practicing these diatonic chords with easy guitar tab, to help support the learning of chord shapes!