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D Major Guitar Chord and Family

D Major Guitar Chord is Part 5 in a 14 part series on Learn to Play Guitar Lessons. We will learn to play a D Major chord and a D minor chord in multiple places on the guitar. We will also learn all of the diatonic chords in the key of D Major.

NOTE: To review the major scale visit C Major Scale.

D MAJOR GUITAR CHORD AND FAMILY

D MAJOR GUITAR CHORD

Again, a triad is a 3 note chord. You need a root, a 3rd and a 5th.

Below is a D major scale. The notes are D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#

Take the 1st note D, the 3rd note F# and the 5th note A. This makes a D Major chord. Often the 1st note (also called the root or the tonic) and/or the 5th note is doubled. The 3rd is rarely doubled.

In the D guitar chord below, the notes are as follows:

Top string - (not played)
5th string - (not played)
4th string - D (root)
3rd string - A (5th)
2nd string - D (root doubled)
1st string - F# (3rd)

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D MINOR CHORD

A minor triad is still a 3 note chord. You need a root, a minor 3rd and a 5th. D minor is the relative minor (VI chord) in F Major.

Below is a D minor scale. The notes are: D,E,F,G,A,Bb,C

Take the 1st note D, the 3rd note F# which is now down a half step (or semi-tone) to F and the 5th note A. This makes a D minor chord.

In the D minor chord below the notes are as follows:

Here the 1st note (also called the root or the tonic) is doubled. The 3rd and 5th are only played once.

Top string - (not played)
5th string - (not played)
4th string - D (root)
3rd string - A (5th)
2nd string - D (root doubled)
1st string - F (minor 3rd)

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DIATONIC CHORDS IN D MAJOR

The reason the next key is D is that it is the 3rd chord in the Circle of 5ths and has 2 sharps, F# and C#.

To review music theory chords in a key visit C Major Chord and Chord Theory and return.

There are 7 chords in a key indicated by roman numerals. In D Major they are:

D Major is the I Major chord
E minor is the II minor chord
F# minor is the III minor chord
G Major is the IV Major chord
A Major is the V Major chord
B minor is the VI minor chord
C# diminished is the VII diminished chord

D Major / I Major

E minor / II minor

F# minor / III minor

G Major / IV Major

A Major / V Major

B minor / VI minor

C# diminished / VII diminished

Thanks for viewing D Major Guitar Chord and Family. Now let's move to our next chord family in the Circle of 5ths, A. It has 3 sharps, F#, C# and G#.

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Continue to Part 6, A Guitar Chords

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