Guitar Chord Composition: Part 3 - Advanced

Since the start of this series, we've already covered concepts like scale degrees, intervals, and the guitar fretboard. But now, for advanced guitar chord composition, Part 3, we're getting straight to the point with the most complex chords.

These chords are the ones most often used at pro composition levels, since they add an impressive richness to the sound. 

So let's take a look at guitar chord composition at the advanced level.

Advanced Guitar Chord Composition

For the advanced level of guitar chord composition, we'll look at five chord families ranging from ninths and elevenths to the half-diminished seventh chord (seventh with a flat fifth). 

These are nothing less than the top-tier chords that every serious guitarist should know and master in order to reach the highest level of guitar chord composition. 

9th Chords

To build this chord, you need to combine the root, the second degree, the major third, and the minor seventh. The chord's name comes from the root plus the combination of the second and seventh degrees, which together form the ninth. 

For example, to build a C9 chord, you'd combine C - D - E - Bb. 

That said, there's a rule that often lets you swap out the major third for the perfect fifth, as is the case with the D9 chord, where we combine D - E - C - A. This change is simply because it's the easiest way to play this chord on the guitar. 

9maj Chords

This chord is similar to the previous one, since we combine the root, the second, the major third or perfect fifth, and the major seventh. 

You'll notice we said the major third or the perfect fifth, because in some cases the chord shape is easier to play with just one of those two degrees. 

Another point worth making here is that the chord voicing should always aim to be as comfortable as possible for your fingers. So we'll leave out one degree or the other depending on what feels most comfortable. 

In the case of Cmaj9, we combine C - D - E - B, and for Dmaj9 we combine D - E - A - C#. So you can see that in C we use the major third, but in D we drop the third and use the perfect fifth instead. 

11th Chords

This eleventh chord is built by combining the root, major third, perfect fourth, and major seventh. 

So C11 would look like this: C - E - F - B. In some cases you can drop the third and use the fifth, or you can leave out both the third and the perfect fifth so you're left with just the notes C - F - B.

13th Chords

We've reached one of the most complex chords, because you may need to play up to five degrees at the same time. But on the guitar, since we only have four fingers to form chords, we have to sacrifice a few of those degrees.

So to build this chord, you combine the root, sixth, and major seventh. That means the C13 chord would look like this: C - A - B, and depending on comfort and ease of playing, you can add either the major third or the perfect fifth, but you won't be able to include both, since we're out of fingers and it would break the comfortable feel. 

Minor 7 Flat 5 Chord (m7b5)

Finally, we've reached one of the transition chords used to move from major to minor keys in a fully harmonic way, with no dissonance or jarring, abrupt shifts. 

To build this chord, you combine four degrees: the root, minor third, diminished fifth, and minor seventh. 

So Cm7b5 would be D - Eb - Gb - Bb, and with this chord you should always aim to include every degree so that you can hear all the harmony it brings to your composition. 

So there you have it: we've walked you through all the chords you can play on the guitar, how they're built, and we've included a downloadable file so you can see exactly where to place your fingers on the fretboard. 

What's next? Practice. It's your turn to put in the work, and feel free to reach out so we can answer any questions you might have.