Hey,

For this lesson i'm going to keep it real simple, so if your an arpeggio master probably best to move on, but this is still a pretty valuable warm of for experienced players looking to cover the basics in an interesting way.

Lets start with C, a nice note, I'm sure you know that we could build a major scale on it using notes that go in an order of tone tone semitone tone tone tone semitone (DEFGAB)

So we have our C Major Scale (CDEFGAB) still with me? cool.

Now we can make a C Major chord using the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of this scale (CEG)

cool, Now we have what is the first thing people usualy get taught on guitar, the C MAJOR chord. we got there in the end
as any beginer guitarist how to play a C and they will usualy play this :

e-0-
b-1-
g-0-
d-2-
a-3-
e-0-

well only 3 notes are being played but some more than others, from low to high we have

E C E G C E,

cool, and great for getting max amount of sound out of your guitar, I mean, if you can use a string, why not hey? but it is always good to have tools up your sleeve, if you play just 3 strings you can gt a nice pure C chord with equal volume for each note (in the C above, there are 3 times as many e's being played as g's)

I'm going to show you 12 shapes that you should play every day, they are the 3 closed inversions of c major on 4 different combinations of strings

an inversion simply means the order of the notes from low to high, CEG is a normal C chord, if you were to play the C an octave higher and have EGC that would be called the first inversion as E is now the bottom note, when g is on the bottom (GCE) that is a second inversion

Here you go,

C Major
-------------3--
---------8---5--
-----0---9---5--
-6---2--10------
-8---3----------
-9-------------- These are all CEG going from low to high
 
C Major 1st Inversion
--------------8----
----------1---8----
------5---0---9---
-10---5---2--------
-10---7------------
-12-----------------These are all EGC going from low to high
 
C Major 2nd Inversion
--------------12----
----------5---13----
------9---5---12----
-2---10---5--------
-3---10------------
-3-----------------These are all GEC going from low to high

you can move all of these inversions up and down the neck anywhere you want, wherever you put the root note (bottom note in normal major, top for 1st Inv and middle for 2nd Inv) you will get that note as a major chord.

ie:

---                                               ---
---                                               ----
---                                               ----
-5- (Cmaj) moved up 2 frets to   -7--  becomes Dmajor
-7-                                             -9--
-8-                                            -10-

but whats next?

in one easy move you can learn all the minor, diminished and augmented triad inversion shapes too!

For a Minor triad all you need to do is take a Major triad, Take it's 3rd degree or middle note (bottom note for 1st Inv and top note for 2nd Inv) and move it DOWN A SEMITONE (or fret)

IE:

C Minor Triad
-------------3--
---------8---4--
-----0---8---5--
-6---1--10------
-7---3----------
-9-------------- These are all CEbG going from low to high
 
C Minor Triad 1st Inversion
--------------8----
----------1---8----
------5---0---8---
-10---5---1--------
-10---6------------
-11-----------------These are all EbGC going from low to high
 
C Minor Triad 2st Inversion
--------------11----
----------4---13----
------8---5---12----
-1---10---5--------
-3---10------------
-3-----------------These are all GEbC going from low to high

the last thing to do is lean these shapes for augmented and diminished triads.

Augmented triads are simply a Mjaor triad with a raised (by a semitone) 5th while a diminished triad is simply a Minor triad with a Lowered (by a semitone) 5th. This gives them a much more jarring sound than the major and minor chords, making them great for metal licks, jazz and waking your parents up at 3am.

Here are the shapes for the Augmented Triads:

C Aug
-------------4--
---------9---5--
-----1---9---5--
-7---2--10------
-8---3----------
-9-------------- These are all CEG# going from low to high
 
C Aug 1st Inversion
--------------8----
----------1---9----
------5---1---9---
-10---6---2--------
-11---7------------
-12-----------------These are all EG#C going from low to high
 
C Aug 2nd Inversion
--------------12----
----------5---13----
------9---5---13----
-2---10---6--------
-3---11------------
-4-----------------These are all G#EC going from low to high

C Diminished Triad
------------  -2--
---------  7---4--
-----11---8---5--
-5---13--10------
-7---15----------
-9-------------- These are all CEbGb going from low to high
 
C Diminished Triad 1st Inversion
---------------8----
----------13---7----
------5---11---8---
-10-- 4---13--------
- 9---6------------
-11-----------------These are all EbGbC going from low to high
 
C Diminished Triad 2st Inversion
--------------11----
----------4---13----
------8---5---11----
-1---10-- 4--------
-3---9------------
-2-----------------These are all GbEbC going from low to high

Also if you feel daunted by learning all the shapes, just lean the major ones and remember the formula of what finger to move to get the others... it's that easy...

keep on rocking!