One of the best ways to get better at playing mandolin is to learn the various chord shapes for common (and not so common) chords. Below are all the posts regarding Mandolin Chord Shapes from my weekly series on the topic. These cover the basic mandolin chord shapes like Major Triads as well as the more complex chord shapes like diminished chords.
Each post in the below is a detailed dive into that specific mandolin chord shape containing multiple different voicing options for each type of chord. These chords are mostly presented in a movable chord shape, meaning you can use these shapes to play any chord you’d like by just moving the root note appropriately. Once you have these shapes down, check out the bluegrass song chord charts as well as the mandolin song breakdowns.
If you’re interested in learning more about chord progressions, double stops, and various different chord voicing options, check out my Mandolin Primer Volume 1: Chords and Progressions. This primer is filled with great easy to read graphics, a lot of details on how chords are created, and various chord progressions.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions.
Moveable Chord Shape Generator
Before we get to the posts, I’d like to share the ChordForge chord generator – available exclusively here! The below generator allows you to choose up to 5 chords per line and display multiple different voicing options. If you just want to see 1 chord, change the Chords Per Line to 1, and you’ll see that chord nice and big. If you’re working on a progression, you can add up to 5 chords per line so you can see these chord shapes in order. There’s also an easy way to change the position of the chords so they are all low position by the nut, middle of the fretboard, or high position closer to the 12 fret. I’m pretty happy with how this tool is progressing – but it is a work in progress, so there may be errors. Please let me know if you have any issues with the generator!
Chord Progression Generator
Mandolin chord shapes posts
Below is the collection of Weekly Posts on chord shapes. These cover the same template ideas for various chord voicings.
- Major Triad
- Minor Triad
- Dom 7
- Minor 7
- Major 7
- Diminished Triads
- Half Diminished / m7b5
- Diminished 7th (aka “fully diminished”)
- 6th chord
- Minor 6th chord (TBD)
- 9th chord (TBD)
- Minor 9th (TBD)
- 13th chord (TBD)
Basic Mandolin Chord Progression Cheat Sheet
The below is a simple cheat sheet showing a 1 4 5 progression in a few different positions. I also included the minor 6 (vi) and major 2 (II) as those are pretty commonly used. The left side is “low neck” chords and the right side is “higher neck” chords. This chart just shows 2 positions / voicings for each chord – but it’s just the starting point! There’s a lot of different voicing options for each chord. I strongly recommend you try to find them all!!!
Start by playing progressions on one side first. When you’ve gotten that, try the other side by itself. Once you can play both sides alone, start blending them together systematically. So if a song is 16 measures, play 4 measures using the chords from the left side, then 4 measures on the right, etc. After you can do that, maybe add some passing notes / chords as you move between the positions.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions on the posts in the mandolin chord shapes series. If you’d like to be notified when I post new lessons and breakdowns, you can subscribe below:
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I LOVE this chart, this is the simple organization I was looking for learning and keeping track of the common chords in each key.
However, it seems like there are several mistakes. Shouldn’t the II chord be a MINOR chord, not major?
The fingerings seem wrong for many chords too. I am new so I could be reading it wrong, but the D chord in the first line doesn’t sound correct at all when I play it.
I love this chord chart better than other ones I found. Love how it has the root notes, ignores uncommon chords, and sticks to the most common keys. I hope the mistake can be corrected. Thanks for putting it together!
Hey Tim! Glad the chart is working for ya!
For the Major 2 chord – when you’re talking about straight harmonization, yes – it would be a minor 2. However, in bluegrass practice most often the 2 is a major. Songs like Old Home Place, Red Wing, and a slew of other standards use the major 2 Listen to some Jimmy Martin songs as he commonly has a major 2. I included it as a Major 2 as I feel that’s just more useful.
I looked over the chords again in the chart and all the fingerings look correct to me. The D Major you’d omit the high E string – so if you’re playing that chord and letting the high E ring out, that might sound weird (technically it’d be like a Dadd9).
If you’d like to jump on a quick 15 min Zoom, I’d be happy to try to clarify some things. Just reach out via the Contact page if you want to se something up! Happy Picking!!
I was definitely reading it wrong, it sounds fine now. I was curious why that chord shape is listed and not the common 2 finger one that includes all the strings, but this time I read the whole page and see you have a good reason 😁
“These chords are mostly presented in a movable chord shape”
I sent you a message! Looking forward to connecting.