Root
Type
Shape
Key
Shape
Fit
diatonic
borrowed / modal
Fingering (low E → high e)
Notes
Fits in these keys
diatonic
borrowed / modal
What makes it interesting
Sounds like
Each progression is shown in the Nashville Number System. Select a key and the chord names update automatically. Click any progression to expand the voicings used. When a specific voicing isn't in the library the chord name is shown so you can look it up or use a standard shape.
Harmonic function guide
what works at each scale degree · major keys
Every scale degree has a natural chord quality and a set of extensions that reinforce its function. Tap a degree to expand. Use this when deciding which voicing from the library to reach for at a given position in a progression.
The bVII degree is borrowed from the Mixolydian mode — it doesn't exist in a pure major key but shows up constantly in southern rock, Americana, and indie rock. When you see a major chord a whole step below the I (F in G, C in D, G in A), that's bVII. It gives a progression that unresolved, slightly modal quality that Lenderman and DBT lean on heavily.
Key:
Every chord is built from a stack of intervals measured from the root note. The numbers below are scale degrees — 1 is the root, 3 is the major third, b3 is the minor third, and so on. The "on guitar" column shows what actually gets played once you account for six strings and ten fingers.
Interval drop priority — most expendable first
1st5Almost always omitted first. Implied by the root, adds no color. Freeing this string up is almost always worth it.
2nd1The bass player covers the root. In a band context guitarists drop it constantly to make room for extensions.
3rd9Expendable when voicing is tight. The chord implies it and the ear fills it in.
4th11Often omitted entirely — clashes with the 3rd (only a semitone apart). Only include it when the 11th is the point.
5th3 / b3Almost never dropped in tonal music — it defines major vs minor. Only omit intentionally (power chords, sus chords).
6th7 / b7Never drop from a 7th chord — it is the defining note. Drop it and you no longer have a 7th chord.
Triadsthe foundation
| Chord | Full formula | On guitar, typically play |
|---|---|---|
| Major | 1 · 3 · 5 | 1 · 3 · 5 all three fit — nothing dropped |
| Minor | 1 · b3 · 5 | 1 · b3 · 5 all three fit — nothing dropped |
| Diminished | 1 · b3 · b5 | 1 · b3 · b5 all three fit — nothing dropped |
| Augmented | 1 · 3 · #5 | 1 · 3 · #5 all three fit — nothing dropped |
| Sus2 | 1 · 2 · 5 | 1 · 2 · 5 all three fit — the 2nd replaces the 3rd entirely |
| Sus4 | 1 · 4 · 5 | 1 · 4 · 5 all three fit — the 4th replaces the 3rd entirely |
7th chordsadding the 7th degree
| Chord | Full formula | On guitar, typically play |
|---|---|---|
| Major 7 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 7 | 1 · 3 · 7 drop the 5th |
| Dominant 7 | 1 · 3 · 5 · b7 | 1 · 3 · b7 drop the 5th |
| Minor 7 | 1 · b3 · 5 · b7 | 1 · b3 · b7 drop the 5th |
| Minor maj7 | 1 · b3 · 5 · 7 | 1 · b3 · 7 drop the 5th |
| Half dim (m7b5) | 1 · b3 · b5 · b7 | 1 · b3 · b5 · b7 keep all — the b5 is the defining color |
| Diminished 7 | 1 · b3 · b5 · bb7 | 1 · b3 · b5 · bb7 keep all — symmetry is the point |
Extensionsadding color above the 7th
| Chord | Full formula | On guitar, typically play |
|---|---|---|
| Add9 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 9 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 9 fits without dropping — no 7th means fewer notes |
| Major 9 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 7 · 9 | 1 · 3 · 7 · 9 drop the 5th |
| Minor 9 | 1 · b3 · 5 · b7 · 9 | 1 · b3 · b7 · 9 drop the 5th |
| Add11 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 11 | 1 · 5 · 11 drop the 3rd — clashes with the 11th (one semitone apart) |
| Major 6 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 6 | 1 · 3 · 6 drop the 5th — the 6th is the color, keep 3rd for major quality |
| Minor 6 | 1 · b3 · 5 · 6 | 1 · b3 · 6 drop the 5th |
13th chordsthe full stack
| Chord | Full formula | On guitar, typically play |
|---|---|---|
| Dominant 13 | 1 · 3 · 5 · b7 · 9 · 11 · 13 | 1 · 3 · b7 · 13 drop 5th, 9th, 11th — keep the shell and the color note |
| Major 13 | 1 · 3 · 5 · 7 · 9 · 11 · 13 | 1 · 3 · 7 · 13 drop 5th, 9th, 11th |
| Minor 13 | 1 · b3 · 5 · b7 · 9 · 11 · 13 | 1 · b3 · b7 · 13 drop 5th, 9th, 11th |
A full 13th chord contains 7 notes — more than a guitar has strings. The 5th goes first, then the 9th and 11th. What remains is the shell: root, 3rd, 7th, and the 13th. Note that the 13th is the same pitch class as the 6th, just an octave higher — which is why the 6th chords in this library (A6, E6, G6) are essentially major triads with the 13th on top, voiced without a 7th.
Motor skill learning is biologically different from memorizing facts. A new chord shape goes through three phases: initial encoding in the motor cortex, offline consolidation during sleep and rest, and long-term storage as procedural memory in the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Each phase responds to different practice strategies.
Core principles from motor learning research
01 · Spacing
Spread it out, don't cram
Your brain consolidates new motor patterns in the background — including while you sleep. Practicing a new chord shape for 10 minutes across three days builds stronger retention than 30 minutes in one sitting. Revisit a chord just as it starts to feel slightly rusty — this forces reconstruction, which deepens the encoding.
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve · spaced retrieval
02 · Interleaving
Mix chords, don't drill one at a time
Practicing one chord repeatedly feels productive but produces shallow encoding. Interleaved practice — switching between several chords in random order — is harder and feels worse during the session, but fMRI studies show it generates significantly stronger connectivity in the premotor cortex and better long-term retention. The difficulty is the point.
Contextual interference effect · Shea & Morgan, 1979
03 · Rest intervals
Take short breaks during practice
Brief rest periods of 10–20 seconds between practice attempts produce roughly four times more skill consolidation than overnight sleep alone. During these pauses, the hippocampus replays the just-learned sequence and binds it into the motor cortex. After playing a new chord transition 5–6 times, put the guitar down for 15 seconds. Don't fill the gap with your phone.
Waking hippocampo-neocortical replay · NIH, 2021
04 · Slow practice
Go slow enough to get it right
Motor memory encodes what you actually do, not what you intend to do. Practicing a chord transition sloppily at speed encodes the sloppy version. Slow practice at a tempo where every finger lands correctly builds clean motor programs. Once clean at slow tempo, bring the speed up in small increments.
Motor program theory · Schmidt, 1975
05 · Chunking
Build from small units up
The brain organizes motor sequences into chunks — small groups of movements treated as a single unit. For a chord change, the chunk might be "fingers 1 and 2 land together, then finger 3." Identify the hardest part of a new voicing, isolate it as a 2–3 finger sub-chunk, practice that chunk until it's fluent, then reconnect it to the full shape.
Sequence chunking · skill binding research
06 · Mental rehearsal
Visualize the shape without the guitar
Motor imagery activates nearly identical neural pathways as physical practice. Studies consistently show that mental rehearsal alone produces measurable skill gains. Use it during commutes or before sleep. Vividly imagine placing each finger, feel the string pressure, hear the chord ring.
Motor imagery · Debarnot et al.
07 · Sleep
Sleep is when consolidation happens
Procedural memory consolidation is heavily sleep-dependent. Practicing something new the evening before sleep produces significantly better next-day retention than the same practice in the morning. Don't cram new material right before a gig — you want sleep between learning and performance.
Sleep-dependent consolidation · Walker et al.
08 · Variation
Practice in different musical contexts
A chord practiced in only one key and one strumming pattern is stored as a very context-specific motor memory. To make it generalize — so it comes out automatically — practice it in varied keys, tempos, and rhythmic feels. The more varied the contexts, the more robustly it gets stored as a general motor pattern.
Transfer-appropriate processing · variability of practice
Spaced repetition schedule for a new chord
| When | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 (evening) | Learn the shape slowly. Get all fingers landing clean. 3 sets of 6 reps with 20-second rests. Interleave with 2 chords you already know. | Initial encoding. Evening timing means sleep consolidation follows shortly after. |
| Day 2 | Brief 5-minute review. Can you find it from memory without looking at a diagram? Play it in a short progression. | First retrieval attempt while fresh. Strengthens the trace. |
| Day 4 | 10 minutes interleaved with other new chords. Try it at a slightly faster tempo. | Second retrieval at the edge of forgetting. Spacing is starting to work. |
| Day 8 | Play it in a real song. If it breaks down, slow back down and clean it up. | Contextual transfer — moving from isolated practice into musical use. |
| Week 3 | Use it in a different key or style. Play it as part of a progression you don't normally use. | Variability encodes it as a general pattern, not a context-specific habit. |
| Month 2+ | It's in long-term procedural memory. Occasional use in new songs maintains it. | The basal ganglia and cerebellum own it now. Motor procedural memory is highly durable. |
Sample 20-minute session
20-Minute Session
For integrating 2 new voicings into existing playing
- 0–3 minWarm up with 2–3 chords you already own.
- 3–7 minChord A (new): slow isolated practice. 6 reps, then 20-second rest. Repeat 3 times. Focus on finger placement, not speed.
- 7–11 minChord B (new): same process. Identify the hardest finger and practice that sub-chunk alone first.
- 11–17 minInterleaved: randomly cycle through Chord A, Chord B, and 2 known chords. No set order. If it feels messy, it's working.
- 17–20 minMusical context: put Chord A or B into a real 4-bar progression. Play it like you mean it.
Myths vs. what the research says
Myth
"More practice time always means faster learning." Long unbroken sessions produce fatigue and shallow encoding. The rest intervals are when consolidation happens.
Reality
Shorter sessions with rest outperform long ones. 15 minutes practiced correctly with micro-rests and spacing beats 60 minutes of blocked drilling in long-term retention.
Myth
"Master one chord before moving to the next." Blocked practice feels productive because you improve within the session — but the gains evaporate faster.
Reality
Interleaving produces messier sessions but stronger memory. The confusion forces your brain to reconstruct each motor program from scratch, deepening the encoding.
Myth
"You have to practice something 10,000 times to own it." Raw volume matters far less than the quality and spacing of retrieval attempts.
Reality
Fewer, well-spaced repetitions beat massed drilling. Practice at the edge of forgetting is exponentially more effective than practice while you still have it perfectly in mind.
Watch list · Trevor Wong
Trevor Wong is a Canadian guitarist and YouTube educator whose chord content overlaps directly with this library — open voicings for midwest emo, shoegaze, and post-rock in standard tuning. Watch these and note any shapes that jump out, then bring the fingerings here to add them.
25 Twinkly Open Emo Chords In Standard
Trevor Wong · 231K views · Midwest emo / post-rock / math rock
25 open chord shapes for midwest emo, post-rock, and math rock. The primary source for voicings to potentially add to this library. Watch with your guitar and note fingerings for anything that catches your ear.
Chords For Colourful Shoegaze And Indie Rock
Trevor Wong · Shoegaze / indie rock / Mixolydian
Chord progression with emphasis on the V/Mixolydian sound — more colourful and less dark than straight minor shoegaze. Likely to contain maj7 and add9 voicings that aren't in this library yet.
The Most Beautiful Post Rock Chords
Trevor Wong · Post-rock / vi-I-IV-V / Explosions in the Sky style
Explores the classic vi-I-IV-V post-rock sound used by Explosions in the Sky and similar bands. Open voicings with a cinematic, spacious quality — crossover territory with the Americana / Isbell side of this library.
9 Incredible Open Emo Chords In Standard
Trevor Wong · Midwest emo / open voicings
9 unique open chord shapes, each containing multiple open notes for a big, expansive sound. Tighter and more focused than the 25-chord video — good for identifying the highest-value shapes to learn first.
7 Licks That Teach You Midwest Emo In Standard
Trevor Wong · Midwest emo licks / standard tuning
7 short licks that isolate the core movements of midwest emo — hammer-ons, open string pulls, chord-tone runs. The bridge between knowing the chord shapes and actually playing them as music.
4 Licks That Will Teach You Midwest Emo
Trevor Wong · Midwest emo licks / tropes
More focused than the 7-lick video — four essential licks that capture the characteristic tropes of the genre. Good companion to the 7-lick video; start here if you want the most distilled version.
Watch list · Creating licks from chords
The next step after learning chord voicings is turning them into melodic licks — using chord tones as the basis for single-note lines. These videos cover that translation directly in the emo, math rock, and post-rock context.
How to Write Licks With Chords For Math Rock and Emo
Let's Talk About Math Rock (Steve) · Standard tuning · Chord-to-lick translation
The most directly relevant video for what you're after — shows how to combine chord shapes with licks to write actual song parts, all in standard tuning. Covers the mechanics of pulling single-note lines out of the chord voicings you already know.
7 Beginner Math Rock Licks That Will Teach You How To Write Riffs
Math rock / riff writing / chord-to-riff
Takes essential chord shapes and shows how to transform them into angular riffs — exactly the chord-to-lick pipeline. Beginner-accessible but the concepts apply at any level.
The Easiest Way To Write A Killer Emo Progression
Trevor Wong · Emo chord writing / progression building
Focused on the chord side rather than licks, but covers the underlying logic of why certain emo progressions work — useful context for understanding which chord tones to pull when building licks over them.