-- Posted by penumbra at 8:01 pm on July 10, 2009 I play guitar. I have a question... Well, there are hundreds of guitar chords... When a guitar player is listening to a song and trying to figure out the chord progression, how does he figure out what a chord is if its really obscure? Does he have to have heard the chord before, or can he tell by the sound that the chord is a major or minor, or diminished, or w/e and what key the chord is in? Like lets say in a chord progression theres a Asus4. How does the guitarist figure out what chord it is? DO they have to have heard it before or is there a certain technique to decipher what chord it is? Thanks! -- Posted by Fishboner at 8:02 pm on July 10, 2009 You find the root note, and then reconstruct the sound using the theory of 5th, the dominant, and then by ear. -- Posted by Fishboner at 8:04 pm on July 10, 2009 Well, the theory of intervals, more like. -- Posted by Sky6695 at 8:04 pm on July 10, 2009 i play piano, sorry :( -- Posted by renegade riot at 8:06 pm on July 10, 2009 you just look up the notes or you check the tuner and see if it gives you the interval. -- Posted by what shall i do at 8:14 pm on July 10, 2009 when a guitar person is trying to figure out a guitar chord by listening to it, they pretty much have to have heard the chord before many times.  a guitarist can tell easier if it is a major, minor and all them easier because of the way they sound. A major is happy sounding and minor is sad.  but knowing just from a chord what the letter name of it is is very difficult. If you have a chord that is weird you use your theory of intervals i guess as porn store stiffi said. like a major chord has a root, a major third and a perfect fifth note in it and those notes are played multiple times in a guitar because you have six strings to go through. if this is pretty much going over your had you can just pm me and ill try to help you out with your questions -- Posted by MaryLin at 8:50 am on July 11, 2009 I didn't think anyone would have problem to tell the difference between a major and a minor. -- Posted by Nerdandproud at 12:30 pm on July 11, 2009 I make sure ive got the root note right, then just try and work it out by ear. experience with music helps -- Posted by KiteLaboratory at 8:56 am on July 14, 2009 Quote: from Nerdandproud at 12:30 pm on July 11, 2009 I make sure ive got the root note right, then just try and work it out by ear. experience with music helps This. I can tell majors and minors fairly easily, but more often than not I end up sounding out the whole chord by intervals. Sometimes I just happen to get it right the first time, once I've identified the root note seperately from the rest of the chord I just begin picking apart the other pieces. I do this in my head though. Like if I hear a chord I can hear that it is a mix of several tones and not just one thing. In my head I'm going "do fa ri ma so" and then putting it all together to see if it sounds the same, but not necessarily like that I just try to hear the seperate tones as they sound from the guitar rather than actually saying "do fa ri ma so".