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Step 1
Get your major chromatic scale written down. For the key of C, it goes like this: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. The key of C is easy because there are no sharp or flat scale notes in the major scale. Other key scales may include more sharps or flats.
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Step 2
Select your first scale note. The first scale note is the note the key is "named" after, so for the key of C, it's the low C note, the first one in the sequence. You'll be adding this note to your major chord.
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Step 3
Add your third scale note. The process is easy, once you've drawn out your chromatic scale: just skip two notes up and select the third note in the scale--in this case, E.
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Step 4
Find the fifth scale note. Again, you just want to count your scale notes from the left and select your fifth one.
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Step 5
Take these 3 notes and add them to your fretboard. In all cases, your notes will repeat themselves, because to build a true major chord, you want only these notes and no others. Find a note on each string that corresponds to one of these selected notes, or leave strings out of your chord. Either way, you're building the major chord of your selected key.
