What notes make up a chord?
Most chords are built from three notes pulled from a scale - the 1st, 3rd, and 5th. This three note combination is called a triad and is the foundation of nearly every chord you'll play in worship music.
The G major scale includes the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, and F#. Count out the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes and you get G, B, and D. Those are the only three notes in a G chord. On a chord diagram you'll play a note on every string, however they are just repeats of the 3 notes.
GFull
This is true of any major or minor chord. It's always a 1-3-5. What changes between major and minor is which version of the 3rd you use. See major versus minor chords for how that works.
Related glossary terms
- Root note - the 1 in the 1-3-5
- Major versus minor chords - how the 3rd changes the sound of a chord
- Chord voicing - how those same three notes get arranged differently across the strings