B Major Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukulele – How to Play it

The B major chord is built from a root note (A), a major third (C), and a perfect fifth (E):

B chord [Musical explanation]

The B major chord is a major triad with formula 1 – 3 – 5. Therefore, to build it we need B (1), D# (3), F# (5):

This is due to the fact that a major chord is made up of 2 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the B chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that the B major chord is defined by:

Root (B) – Major Third (D#) – Perfect Fifth (F#)

B Guitar Chord

The B major chord guitar has the following shape on the fretboard:

Let’s analyze in detail this chord diagram above to make sure that we understand how to play the B on guitar:

Let’s start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 4 (D), 3 (G) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 2 (middle), 3 (ring finger) and 4 (pinky). In this case we need to play a barre chord, so we have to use as well the index finger (1) to press down the strings from 5 to 1.

Note by the way the number 2 in black on the left that indicates on which fret we start playing the chord.

On the other hand, at the top we see that we have the characters:

X  B  F#  B  D#  F#

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  1  3  5

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the B chord on guitar. But it is highly recommended to know it in order to understand the musical theory behind each chord.

Other ways to play the B guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the B chord in the following fretboard positions:

B major triad chords and inversions

Triads

First Inversion (B /D#)

Second Inversion (B /F#)

What chords are in B major?

The B major scale harmonized results on the following chords:

B (I) – C#m (ii) – D#m (iii) – E (IV) – F# (V) – G#m (vi) – Aº (viiº)

B Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the B uke chord diagram:

B Piano Chord

To play the B chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Music scales in which the B major chord can be found

• B major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • B D♭m E♭m E G♭ A♭m B♭dim
• F# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F# G#m A#m B C# D#m Fdim
• E major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E G♭m A♭m A B D♭m E♭dim
• F# minor natural scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G#m A#dim B C#m D#m E F#
• D# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • D#m Fdim G♭ G#m A#m B C#
• C# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C#m D#dim E F#m G#m A B
• E harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Em G♭dim Gaug Am B C E♭dim
• D# harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • D#m Fdim G♭aug G#m A# B Ddim
• F# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F#m G#m Aaug B C# D#dim Fdim
• E natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Em G♭m Gaug A B D♭dim E♭dim

B Major Chord PDF

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