Jeep Man

You work out chords on any instrument by drawing a picture of the fret board showing all strings and frets up as far as you want to go.

Now plot the name of each note - C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B - against each fret position of each string.

Photo copy this.

Now mark the notes of the scale you are interested in using a coloured pen. For E minor, mark E, G and B. For A minor, mark A, C and E.

When you have marked these all the way up the neck you will see patterns of chords emerging.

You can use this for any chord as long as you know the scale. Any chord consists of three basic notes, except for ornamented chords (e.g., ninths) where there is usually one different note in a 6 string guitar chord. I am not that hot on theory, so others may be able to give a better explanation.

You can also change the character of a chord by varying the note composition of a chord - say two As one C and one E will sound different to one A, two Cs and one E etc.

Regards
Chris