Originally Posted by: weemikeyI do a lot of counting on my fingers to figure out chords. It's good to learn the 1-7 counting concept. Like A is the 4th of E and B is the 5th of E etc. The tutorials are a great help, but just a basic understanding of what a chord IS makes all the difference.

You mentioned the 1, 3 and 5. That makes a MAJOR chord. Move the 3 down a single fret and you have a MINOR chord (which is just the 1, a "Flat" third and the 5). Guess what happens when you replace the 5 with the 7? A SEVENTH chord! It takes a bit of thought, but you'll get it.

Try searching on 'diatonic chord structures' for this sort of stuff - there's loads out there, and it'll help you understand the structure of the chords, as well as progressions and to an extent the modes (at least how they fit in).

Also, a seventh chord is created by fretting the seventh as well as the fifth, not instead of.... it's a four note chord instead of a triad...