Chord & FretB · Cavaquinho
Think of the sound of getting home and closing the door behind you. That's B major, in three notes. Hit play below and see if your body doesn't agree.
Listen first
What you just heard
Now listen to the arpeggio, one note at a time. There are only three: B, D# and F#. Keep your ear on the middle one. That's the major third, and it's what gives this chord its wide-open-day face — file that name away, because in a minute we'll move exactly that note and you'll hear the weather change.
Now it's your hands' turn
On the cavaquinho, four steel strings tuned D–G–B–D pack the chord into a small, bright space — every finger counts. So start with the first position below — the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. One tip from someone who's watched a lot of people get stuck: play the notes one by one before strumming. If one sounds muffled, a finger is touching the next string. Adjust, try again. Everyone goes through it; it doesn't last.
2 more shapes of this chord on the neck
That's over 200,000 voicings and inversions in Chord & Fret Pro, ready to play.
Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · use it in Chord & Fret
Above, the same B, higher up the neck. No rush — but the day a song wants this chord brighter and tighter, you'll already have the address.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is B?
B: B Major. The notes are B, D#, F# (fixed-do: Si, Re#, Fa#) — the degrees 1–3–5.
Where this chord lives
In real music, where does it earn its keep? Almost always as VII in C# minor, VI in D# minor, III in G# minor. Don't memorize that — just notice that the same shape plays different roles in different songs, the way a word changes meaning with the sentence.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · see it in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · try it in Chord & Fret
Real songs pass through here: Rock · blues frame · Blues · twelve-bar
Where it tends to go
Treating B as the home chord (I) of its key, it usually moves toward the pre-dominant (C#m / E) or the dominant (F# / A#°) — and the dominant pulls back home. It's a tendency, not a law.
Every shape of B lives in Chord & Fret Pro — 4 instruments, 16 tunings, 41 chord types and 57 scales, in every key. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. 100% offline. No ads, no trackers.
When you want to go further
When it's time to improvise over it, B Ionian (B C# D# E F# G# A# · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: the plain major scale, where everything starts); B Lydian (B C# D# E# F# G# A# · 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7: the major scale with a raised fourth — one extra step of daydream) fit entirely. The swaps below are for when your ear gets bored of the obvious.
B Ionian
4 more scale positions on the neck
Part of over 35,000 mapped scale shapes in Chord & Fret Pro — see and play every one.
The same B Ionian in its main shapes along the neck — pick whichever position sits under your hand. The rings mark the guide notes (the 3rd and 7th) that carry this chord's color.
Scale — The whole scale on the neck — in boxes or 3 notes per string; on the major modes, on guitar in standard tuning, with the CAGED forms named · see it in Chord & Fret
Improvising in context
To improvise over B as home, the B Ionian scale fits entirely — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (F#) pulls back, the leading tone Bb is the note that wants to resolve home.
Swaps that work:
- Abm7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
- Ebm7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · open in Chord & Fret
B is home. And home makes more sense once you step outside for a minute: B7 is the door — go see what's out there.