Read a few lessons and think you understand everything? Unless you test yourself you won’t know for sure what you really understand and what you need to work on. This little quiz will give you a quick snapshot on how well you know a certain topic on guitar. The topic this month is figuring out chords that fit into keys. Once you fully understand how to do this, your playing ability and understanding will move to a whole new level.

Write out your answers as you go through the questions then compare them to the answers below. There’s no point cheating – you will only set yourself back.

Working out chords in a key

What basic chords (major, minor, diminished) are part of the Key of:

1. C
2. E
3. A
4. D
5. F#
6. Bb

 

Take your time and write down your answers before you even think about checking them below. It’s okay if you need to pick up your guitar and work the answers out by checking if the chords work – it’s all about getting the answer in the end. Over time these answers will come to you in an instant.

 

Answers

1. C Major D minor E minor F Major G Major A minor B diminished C Major
2. E Major F# minor G# minor A Major B Major C# minor D# diminished C Major
3. A Major B minor C# minor D Major E Major F# minor G# diminished A Major
4. D Major E minor F# minor G Major A Major B minor C# diminished D Major
5. F# Major G# minor A# minor B Major C# Major D# minor F diminished F# Major
6. Bb Major C minor D minor Eb Major F Major G minor A diminished Bb Major

 

How did you go?

 

“That was easy!” Great! Many guitarists struggle to answer questions like these so if you got through them easy you should be happy with your understanding.

“I got most of the answers, it just took a while to work them out” Good work. You don’t need to be able to answer the questions instantly. If you understand the theory behind the questions then that’s great. Over time you will get faster at figuring out the answers until it becomes a piece of cake.

“I sort of knew what to do, but didn’t get many right” Don’t stress about it. With practice you will get the hang of it. Being able to answer questions like these is a skill like any other. It may be worth reading up on the theory again to make sure you understand what you need to do (see resources below).

“The questions may as well be written in Greek, I didn’t understand anything!” If you are only starting out guitar, questions like these may seem confusing and hard. But like anything else, you can learn the theory and learn to apply it. If you struggled with these questions, check out the lessons below as they contain all the explanations and exercises to help you out.

 

Resources (to help you get the right answers)

Check out these lessons to learn the theory behind these questions. After reading them, save this post in your bookmarks/favorites and come back to it in a couple weeks time to try out the quiz again.

Understanding guitar chord formulas and the major scale

Working out chords in a key

It’s worth mastering this skill so take your time reading through the lessons and come back to the quiz again to make sure you fully understand how to work out the chords.