♠ ♣ ♥ ♦

USPS Priority Mail® or USPS First-Class Mail® (under 1lb) for ALL US orders. Get you order in 2-3 days. All US shipping the same flat rate of $4.85 regardless of the size of the order. International orders responsible for any customs or added fees at destination. (more info...)

New USPS Postal Prices Coming May 12, 2008 - BUT MY SHIPPING RATE ARE NOT GOING UP. SUPPORT THIS SITE by visiting an advertiser or purchasing picks, books or my Midnight at the Jazz Cafe CD.

A Guide to Guitar Chords

 

Back to Books...

Guitar Chords
Basic Chords
Advanced Vol I
Advanced Vol II
7 String

If you know exactly what you want visit the Products Order Page for fast ordering.

A Guide to Guitar Chords

Author: Curt Sheller
Publisher: Curt Sheller Publications - (58 pages)
ISBN: NA Published: December 2004
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches (coil binding)
Product Code: BC1GTR
Product Page: www.curtsheller.com/books/BC1GTR.shtml
Press Release: www.curtsheller.com/BC1GTR/PR_BC1GTR.html

Foreword

Introduction

After playing guitar for the past 40 years and teaching guitar for 20 years I saw that most guitar players struggle with movable chords forms and the more advanced chords commonly called “jazz” chords.

Seeing that there was a lack of clear, concise and an organized presentation of material for guiding one through the maze of chords for the guitar. I decided to create just such a text.

This book provides a guide to the common basic open position chords all guitar players should know, an introduction to movable chord forms and more advanced 4-part jazz chords.

This book is designed as a guide to guitar chords. Covering basic open position guitar chords, movable chord forms, rock chords, how to transpose chords, learning the guitar fingerboard and an introduction to 4-part “jazz” chords and more... It is proven material developed over the years from my private teaching and extensive research, study and application.

From a few basic chord shapes and a understanding of how chords are constructed your chord vocabulary can be dramatically increased without memorizing countless more chord shapes. There are too many chord shapes to memorize.

This book will take the mystery out playing and understanding chords on the guitar.

Order book and PDF Download*

* A link to a downloadable PDF file will be emailed to you within 24hrs, holding you over till your hard copy version of the book arrives.

Contents
  • Introduction 3
  • Open Position Chords 7
    • The Guitar Chord Diagram 8
  • Movable Barre Forms 15
    • “E/F” Barre Form 16
    • “A/Bb” Barre Form 17
    • “C/Db” Movable Form 18
    • sus, add9 and Power 5 Chords 19
    • Neutral Chords 20
    • Barre Chords Fret Chart Summary 21
    • Root & Fifth Chart 22
  • Movable Triad Chord Forms 23
    • Major Triads • String Family 1 2 3 & 2 3 4 24
    • Minor Triads • String Family 1 2 3 & 2 3 4 24
    • Diminished Triads • String Family 1 2 3 & 2 3 4 25
    • Augmented Triads • String Family 1 2 3 & 2 3 4 25
    • Tips for Remembering Triads 26
  • Movable 4-Part Chord Forms 27
    • Movable 7th Chords at Fret (1) • String Family 1 2 3 4 28
    • Generic • Movable 7th Chords • String Family 1 2 3 4 28
    • Additional 7th Movable Chord Forms 28
    • Movable 7th Chords at Fret (1) • String Family 2 3 4 6 29
    • Movable 7th Chords at Fret (1) • String Family 3 4 5 6 29
    • Tips for Remembering 4-Part Chords 30
  • 4-Part “Jazz” Chord Forms 31
    • What is a Chord? 32
    • A Few Chord Building Rules 33
    • Creating the 4 Basic Chord Types 34
    • Building More Advanced Chords 35
    • Scale Interval Formula Chart 38
    • Suggested Learning Order 40
  • Transposing Chords & Progressions 43
    • How to Transpose Chords 44
    • Practice Chord Progressions 47
      • Orlando Blues 48
      • WC Swing 49
    • Learning the Guitar Fingerboard 51
      • Reference or Key Frets 51
      • Enharmonic equivalents 53
      • Sharps to Flats 53
      • Flats to Sharps 53
      • Standard Tuning Natural & Sharp Notes 54
    • Standard Tuning Natural & Flat Notes 55
    • Conclusion 57
Book Samples

Click on small images below to view sample pages...

Click on sample images to view larger pages.
Sample pages may appear faded, cropped, or partially obscured. Purchased copies do not include these imperfections.

Related Book Info

Information related to the topics in the book.

Related Books

Books related to the topics, principles and information in this book

The Advanced Guide to Guitar Chords - Volume I

Basic, core string families. How to remember and build any chord you will ever need. This is how the pros do it.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

The Advanced Guide to Guitar Chords - Volume II

Basic, core string families. How to remember and build any chord you will ever need. This is how the pros do it.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

The Advanced Guide to Guitar Chords - Volume III

For 7 string guitar tuned A E A D G B E

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

The Advanced Guide to Chord Progressions for Guitar - Volume I

Common chord progressions and chord sequences.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

The Advanced Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Guitar - Volume I

Volume I cover the keys of C, F & Bb. The key of C includes detailed accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

The Advanced Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Guitar - Volume II

Volume II cover the keys of E, A, D & G. The key of E includes detailed accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

A Guide to Guitar Chords

Covers basic guitar chords for beginning to intermediate students.

$16.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

QuickStart - Chord Progressions for Lead Guitar - Vol I Book & CD

Each track of this CD is devoted to a scale covered in the QUICKSTART Scale Fingerings for Lead Guitar book. There are four background tracks for each scale featuring the chords of that scale.

$16.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

The Advanced Guide to Chord Progressions for Ukulele - Volume I

Volume I features the priniciples of voice leading applied to chord progressions. These priniciples are explained using chords from volume I of The Advanced Guide to Ukulele Chords. Chapters with common major and minor full diatonic, partial diatonic and chromatic chord progressions are also included to further explore voice leading.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

A Guide to Blues Chord Progressions for Ukulele A to Z

The volume covers the key of C major and C minor, including detailed accompanying text explaining the principles behind each progression and the chord substitutions. In “C” and “G” tuning

$17.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele

Commonly referred to as

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

Exploring "Jazz" Chords on Ukulele

Exploring “Jazz” Chords takes the core chords from A Guide to Advanced Chords for Ukulele and shows their use over a variety of common chord progressions based on songs from the standard jazz repertoire.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

Ukulele Chords - “C” Tuning

Mini ukulele chord book of basic open position and movable form chords. Great for your uke case.

$9.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

A Guide to Ukulele Chords

Covering basic ukulele chords that ALL uke players MUST know, movable chord forms, rock uke chords, how to transpose chords, learning the ukulele fingerboard and an introduction to 4-part “jazz” chords and more...

$14.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

Harmonic Analysis for Scale Selection and Chord Substitution

Harmonic Analysis is the understanding of the functional sequence of chords. It is the process used to analyze the harmonic structure of a progression, song or composition. This analysis is then used to make scale selections for improvisation and chord substitution.

$19.95 - Buy Now

MORE INFO and samples...

Testimonials

If you ask, "When I'm playing a solo over a jazz song, how do I know which notes work at any point in the song?" then you may want to have a look at this book (Harmonic Anaylsis for Scale Selection and Chord Substitution)

You can glean this information from many sources, but this is a pithy, direct approach to the heart of the answer you're looking for. I would also suggest, for a broad, comprehensive, and beautifully written "Bible" on understanding jazz, Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book."

James K. Kroger, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University

I wanted to pay you a compliment. (Now don’t get a big head!). I have purchased many books over the past 15 years I have been playing and none of them come even close to having the detailed and easy to understand information yours have. I really got a chance to get some practicing in and am finding your books to be such a great learning tool. I also purchased a timer like you suggested and my practice sessions the past 4 days have been my best in years. Take care,

Nick (Matty) Matyszczak

 

JazzGuitarLife.com

(A review of The Advanced Guide to Guitar Chords Vol.1 by Lyle Robinson of JazzGuitarLife) ...When I received this instructional book for review my first question was, “where was Curt Sheller when I needed him twenty years ago?” If I had access to this book early on I would have most likely progressed quicker than I did, especially when faced with a lead sheet from a fake book with all those “weird” chord names and alterations.

Sheller’s “The Advanced Guide to Guitar Chords Vol.1” provides the beginner and intermediate jazz guitar player with the most common and great sounding chord voicings of all the major, minor, dominant, augmented and diminished chords plus their alterations: 9, 11, and 13ths. As well, he discusses the sus, add, and slash theory of such chord formations.

This is a text that is beautifully laid out and very easy to work through. What little chord theory there is throughout the book is clearly explained and doesn’t bog the student down with too much theoretical discourse. The chord diagrams are clearly defined and there is no confusion about where fingers should be placed. This is definitely a book that you can begin utilizing in a practical playing situation almost immediately. And it’s great for teachers to get their beginning Jazz guitar students to start hearing and playing those wonderful voicings that excited us all early on in our development as Jazz guitar players.

“The Advanced Guide to Guitar Chords Vol.1” is a great beginning for any aspiring Jazz guitarist and I can't wait to check out Volumes two and three.

Thank you Lyle Robinson

(Regarding QUICKSTART Scale Fingerings for Ukulele) ... I was looking for blues chording info but your site came up as jazz chords. I figured soon or later I would need jazzer chords so here I am. Plus nobody else is offering more indepth info on the uke, I liked the scale one the best so far.

Thank you RDGauthier

(Regarding QUICKSTART Scale Fingerings for Ukulele) The ukulele book arrived, it must have been chatting with some Christmas cards somewhere.

The books are great!! I am very happy to wrap the books up, and put them under the tree.

My husband and I are both learning to play ukulele and he is also playing a little bit of guitar.  Thanks also for sending the full catalogue. These look like some of the best materials that I have found so far!

Thanks, Laura C.

contents top

Online Orders & shipping Information

Secure Online Ordering and Fast Shipping

contents
top
top

We have been getting our products to our customers using online ordering since 2000. In all of that time (and across the hundreds of orders processed) our customers have not had one instance of credit card difficulties due to online ordering.

Our online orders are fully encrypted and our e-commerce site is directly provided by ccNow, a secure online retailer. The security technology is state of the art and your credit card information is transmitted only once.

All products are in stock and will normally be shipped out to you on the next business day.

PriorityMail_env.jpg All orders purchased here at CurtSheller.com, JazzGuitarResources.com, UkuleleResources.com UkuleleChords.net and UkuleleForGuitarPlayers.com are processed using a secure shopping cart system and shipped within 48 hours USPS. Allow 7 to 10 business days for delivery. It is not our intention to profit from shipping and handling charges. The rates are an average cost, and intended to cover expenses only. Please do not ask how long it will takes to get your order. All US orders are shipped USPS Priority Mail® or USPS First-Class Mail® (under 1lb) and delivery dates are not predictable. I do not check on an order not received until three weeks have elapsed since it was shipped. Three weeks is not how long it takes to get your order. Rather, it is how long it takes to convince us that something is wrong. Some orders are returned by the USPS and we have to wait to see if that has happened before any action is taken. Thanks, Curt Sheller Publications.

Goods and services provided by Curt Sheller Publications (PA, United States) and sold by ccNow.com.

Other items purchased through Amazon.com and SheetMusicPlus.com are shipped by Amazon.com and SheetMusicPlus.com.

BOOKS AUTHORED BY CURT SHELLER ARE NOT AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM

Close Move
Main Site Navigation Menu

The main site menu is divided into a few sections such as the online store, instrument specific information, online lessons, miscellaneous goodies, contact info and site information.

With over 300 pages of content the various sections and pages within each can be visited using the tabbed interface.

Tabbed section navigation

Each major section on the Curt Sheller Publication web site has additional pages of content that can be visited using the tabs at the top of the page directly above the page title.

Page Sub Sections

Most page sections can be expanded and collapsed. Allowing you to focus on specific content.

All page sections have go to top of page , go to contents and help buttons for quick page navigation.


Popup Views

Indicated as a gray border around an image. Additional information and larger views of samples pages, PDF files and book covers can be viewed in popup windows.

PDF file images and book covers can be viewed larger in a popup view by clickin on the actual image.