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How chords work
I hope The wired. will be posting soon. 
Comments
The first thing one should know about building chords is the difference between whole-tones and semi-tones, a semi-tone is the distance from on fret to the next such as from B to C or from A to A#. Whole-tones are a two fret distance on a guitar, such as from A to B.
Part 2: Scale formulas.
Scales follow a simple formula which anyone can memorize, as an example I'll use a key of C, just because there's only natural notes.
C D E F G A B C
| | | | | | | |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
R
O
O
T
There's a pattern there which will be repeated on every single major scale.
Whole-tone, whole-tone, semi-tone, whole-tone, whole-tone, whole-tone, semi-tone.
That's it, that's that pattern that's followed on a major scale, it's pretty much the backbone of music to make an analogy.
Start on any key, C,B,D#, you name it! and if you follow the pattern than you will see you just made a major scale!
The pattern for the minor scales is as follows: whole-tone, semi-tone, whole-tone, whole-tone, semi-tone, whole-tone, whole-tone.
Part3:chords
Many people ask "what does scales have to do with chords?" the answer is: everything.
Chords are basically segments of scales!
Get any scales, let's use C again, and play the first, third and fifth notes in it. You will probably notice that makes a chord!
Will post the next part in a jiffy.
This is a hard question with a simple answer: harmony.
Harmony is the reason scales sound the way they do, it's the reason chords don't sound like a jumbled mess.
To put it in layman terms harmony is what makes two (or more) notes sound good to the ears, there's many kinds of harmony, each name derived from the distance between one note and it's succession.
Third, fifth, seventh and ninth: do they sound familiar? Of course! third and fifth harmonies along with the root of a scale makes a basic chord, which you can add seventh a ninth or an eleventh (which is a stupid name for a third that's on the next octave,) to make a juicier sounding chord.
Part5: but I want to play super fast, non-melodic speed metal!
Many players choose to go with the path of shredding, playing single notes and 300 miles per hour and having no regard for song structure whatsoever. Many people think it's an excuse not to become "fluent" with your chords, well think again! If you play in that style then it's more important that you know how to play chords, what do you think an arpeggio is? It's a chord played one note at a time! there's also the fact that rhythm can get you that extra step to become even better, and chords is the lay bed of rhythm!
Want me to stop or go deeper?
I learned the mayor scales imagining the fret board as a piano, since there is no black key between E and F that means I only need half a step, same goes for B and C, no black keys between those.
Still don't take my word for it, I'm still learning.
oh... and if you are starting, always work with a metronome to build speed and rhythm(it really helps a lot)
The Wired can correct me if I said something wrong
The first thing a beginner should learn is his guitar, from what parts it's made of, then the name of the strings and then you should give them some "exercises" to help him/her build strength, then go to the simple chords and then to scales.
I've gotten a job at my local music school to teach guitar lessons. Since this is more professional than all the other teaching jobs I've had so far I want to start with scales from the very beginning. Now my question would be, with which scales should I start? I was thinking of just starting with C and then going upwards, but I'd be happy to hear other ideas.
But I also want to minor in photography.
But I'm also probably going to double major in IT and Japanese.