Free Kids Guitar Lessons - Chords in the Keys...

Chords in the Key of G Major (G, C, D7)
Ultimate Kids Guitar Lessons Tip: Wondering how to read these chord diagrams? Go to our article Chord Diagrams to learn how.

Chords in the Key of G Major:
The next key we will be concentrating on will be the Key of G Major. If you remember we have one key for each note name. So going through our lists of notes...A B C D E G G, we would have a key for each of these notes. For example we would have A Major, B Major, C Major, D Major and so on.

Also if you review the article on Accidentals, we will have a key for each of these names too. For Example...Ab Major, Bb Major, Db Major, Eb Major and so on.

The key of G Major does have one sharp and that note is the F sharp. In the music you will see it identified in the Key Signature as a # symbol where the F note would be.

You may also see other notes sharp or flat, but it will be shown directly before the note head. In the Key of G Major, you will not see any F notes with the sharp symbol.

The key signature takes care of that for you.

Each and every key has a set of 3 chords that belong to that key. In the case of G Major, we have the chords of G, C and D7th. Additionally each Major key has a related Minor key - it is really called a relative minor key.

Key of G Major:
Try to think of these keys and chords as members of your family. The Key of G Major would be your immediate family.

The G chord would be you, the C chord your brother and D7th chord your sister.

Since you are around your family you see your brother and sister all the time and they see you all of the time.

This is just as it is with the G Major chords. You see them all the time and play them all the time in the Key of G Major.

Relative Key of E Minor:
Lets think of the Key of E Minor as your Uncles' family and the three chord in the key of Em minor are Em, Am and B7th. These are your three cousins. You don't see them nearly as often as your brother and sister, but they are around every once in a while. This is as it is in the Key of E Minor. They are related but you don't use them all of the time in the key of G Major.

Note: Whenever you see just a "7" like E7 you still say E Seventh. When you see a little "m" like Em you say E minor.

The Chords:
So wrapping this up, in these chord diagrams, you have 2 keys:
Key of G Major
Key of E Minor (Relative to G Major)
The chords are as follows:
G C D7
Em Am B7