At the Dallas Guitar Show someone asked: How many chords are there on the guitar? Good question! Six, ten thousand, a million - who knows - but what we do know is that there are only 5 simple shapes from which all chords are created!

Let's imagine a puzzle box. Visualize the picture on the box and see it as a "whole" picture. Next, take a pair of scissors and cut this "holistic" picture into 5 pieces. How hard would it be to put together a puzzle with only five pieces - easy, right? Well, the picture on the puzzle box is your whole "holistic" fretboard, which is the 7 letters of music: A, B, C, D, E, F, G placed horizontally (east and west) on 6 strings and 12 frets.

And, the five puzzle pieces are the five "open" major chords: E, D, C, A, and G. Some say: CAGED. You probably know these shapes already.

Now, to see how these five shapes move and "connect" on the holistic fretboard, we need to know that a chord contains at least three different letters that are played at the same time. Okay? Let's use the F major chord as our example. An F major chord is spelled: FAC, and these three letters may be in any combination, for example: FAC, ACF, CFA, FCA or whatever. Now, let's group vertically (north and south) these three letters as we move up the fretboard, and the five F major chords magically appear!

Having a little trouble seeing them? To help you "visualize" the five shapes more clearly, lets highlight the three letters FAC into the five open major chord shapes.

Congratulations! You now "see" all the F major chords on your holistic fretboard. No one knows any more "vertically grouped" F major chords than you do! There's only five. Now, by simply shifting these five major chord forms (moveable shapes) up and down the fretboard, all other major chords can easily be seen - but that's another lesson.

So till next time, have some fun connecting the five "puzzle pieces" and enjoy playing the beautiful "holistic" picture.

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