Chord and Scale Formulas

Below are tables listing the most common chords and scales you will use for Rock, Blues and Jazz. They are seperated into four categories as follows: Major chords, Minor chords, Dominant chords, Scales and Modes.

If you don't understand how these are used, visit the Chord and Scale Finder by Interval page for a more intuitive display and further explanation.

Note: I have avoided using the conventional idea of listing intervals as 9th, 11th and 13th in higher octaves. This was done in order to make it more understandable for guitarists. Since we are limited to only six notes (one per string), we usually wind up having to fit the 9 (or 11 or 13) wherever we can to come up with a feasible fingering for the chord.

So, on this page the formula for a 9th chord would be listed as 1, 2, 3, 5, b7, instead of the conventional 1, 3, 5, b7, 9. The notes are the same and, for our purposes, we'll still end up with the same chords.