The recipe(s) for chordal success

Guitarists are notorious for not knowing what the heck we are doing. "Just show me where to put my fingers and I'm good" seems to be the basic mantra of most guitarists. Independence, spontaneity, and creativity can be greatly enhanced when you understand the "recipes" for building chords (not just picking up your meals in the drive-thru everyday).

The numbers used for the following chords represent the scale degrees of the chord name.
For instance...

7 = 1,3,5,b7  ex.  C7 = C(1), E(3), G(5), Bb(b7)

C Major Scale C, D, E, F, G, A, B

So in order to get a proper 7th chord, the 7th degree of the scale (B) is flatted (Bb) according to our chord recipe.

Other chord recipes (Using C as the sample key)

C = 1,3,5
Cm = 1,b3,5
C7 = 1,3,5,b7
CMaj7 = 1,3,5,7
Cm7 = 1,b3,5,b7
Cm7b5 = 1,b3,b5,b7
Cdim7 = 1,b3,b5,bb7
CmMaj7 = 1,b3,5,7
C+ = 1,3,#5 (augmented)

So the question becomes, "What if I don't want one of these wonderful C-type chords?". That is where a functioning knowledge of the Circle of 5ths (key signatures) comes in handy.

Let's say you need to make a Bbm7b5 chord. First look at the notes in Bb. (The key of Bb has 2 flats)
Bb,C,D,Eb,F,G,A
Now plug this into our recipe for the prescribed chord 1,b3,b5,b7
Bb,Db,Fb,Ab
You've got yourself your very own Bbm7b5 chord.

Throw in a little neck mapping and you can start to see how chords can be constructed and placed anywhere on the neck of the guitar.