Guitar Chord Chart

(credit to Reddit user nrs5813 for putting this awesome chart together!

The Circle of Fifths

The circle of fifths is helpful for finding the key signatures. You start at the top with C major, which has no sharps (#)/flats (b) in the key (so a C major scale has the notes C D E F G A B). As you go clockwise, you start adding sharps, and as you go counter clockwise, you start adding flats.

There is a specific order for sharps and flats:

Sharps: F C G D A E B (Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle)
Flats: B E A D G C F (Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father)

So if you wanted to know the notes for E major, you'd start at C and go to E. Since it's the fourth note going clockwise from C, you take the first four letters from the order of sharps, F C G D.

So now, you just list all 7 of the musical letters starting from your key: E F G A B C D

Now, you add a sharp to each of those four letters I mentioned earlier: E F# G# A B C# D#

And that's the E major scale.

The notes on the inside are the relative minor scales. So notice how C# minor is below E. That means that the C# minor scale and the E major scale share the same notes.

If you're the kind of guitarist that can only solo using the pentatonic box, this also means that if someone tells you the song is in E major, you can solo using the C# minor pentatonic scale and you'll be in key.

(credit to Reddit user ITalkToTheWind for this great, simple explanation)