Scales and chords

[James Oakwood]

To me, what's written below enabled me to understand chords and how they fit together. I reckon most folk on mp3u will understand this but i thought I'd post it anyway.

Easiest key on a piano to play is Cmajor because all the notes are white and they stick out in front of the black notes... C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C (again). Eight notes from C to the C above - that's why it's called an octave.

Forget about the black keys for now - they are not used in the C major scale. From the notes of the C major scale you can develop the following chords: -

Cmaj uses C, E and G (play C, bypass D, play E, bypass F, play G)
Dmin uses D, F and A (ditto comment above and same for below)
Emin uses E, G and B
Fmaj uses F, A and C
Gmaj uses G, B and D
Amin uses A, C and E
Bmin (with a flattened fifth) uses B, D and F

Please note that a true Bminor has an F# not an "natural" F. Bmin can be derived from Gmajor scale (for example) but NOT the Cmajor scale. It can also be found in the Dmajor and Amajor scales but don't worry about this right now because I'm concentrating on the Cmajor scale.

OK the B chord (in the key of C) is written Bmin-5. The "-5" implies the fifth is flattened.

Fifths and thirds. What are they....

In the chords above, three notes are played and using Cmajor as the example these notes were C(first or root), E(third) and G(fifth)

Notes were skipped - we didn't play the 2nd note or the 4th note from the C root. This is all that 3rds and 5ths mean - just the third note and the fifth from the chord root. In this example the chord root is C and it is also the key root because we are playing notes ONLY in the key of C.

Moving on....

The third note (E) in the C major chord is known more precisely as "major third". This is what makes Cmajor a happy sounding chord... count all the notes (black ones too) from C to E and there are 4. These are: -

C to Db (1),
Db to D (2),
D to Eb (3) and....
Eb to E (4)

Now if we examined the Dminor chord it has a minor third... counting all the notes from D to F i.e. from the chord root to it's 3rd: -

D to Eb (1),
Eb to E (2) and....
E to F (3).

D minor has only three black/white notes (or semitones) between the chord root and it's 3rd compared to a major chord which has 4 semitones between its root and its "major" 3rd. This is what gives a minor chord its "sad" feel.

For fifths, the total number of notes (black and white) between the root (first note) and the fifth is 7 with the exception of the Bmin-5 mentioned above (which is 6).

Clear as mud!!!

So what do these chords do for us?

A good example is the 12-bar blues. In the key of C the chords played would be: -

Cmajor (4 bars) then
F major (2 bars) then
Cmajor (2 bars) then
Gmajor (1 bar) then
Fmajor (1 bar) then
Cmajor (1 bar) then finish on
Gmajor for 1 bar

OK there are many variations on this but what I'm trying to say is how chord progressions are derived from simple scales.

OK roots, minor 3rds, major 3rds, fifths and flattened fifths have been covered. It's probably worth pointing out that sometimes flattened fifths are referred to as diminished fifths.

Adding sevenths to the chord. These give chords more "colour" or depth. Using the key of C as the example: -

Cmaj7 - C, E, G and B
Dmin7 - D, F, A and C
Emin7 - E, G, B and D
Fmaj7 - F, A, C and E
G7 (not called major seventh - see below) - G, B, D and F
Amin7 - A, C, E and G
Bmin7-5 - B, D, F and A

Cmaj7 and Fmaj7 both have a "7th" note that is one semitone down from the root note. It's different for the G7 (sometimes referred to as G dominant 7) chord - the 7th note from G is an F which is two semitones down from G.

I think I'll stop here for now. Let me know if you want other things explained "my way" or if there are bits in this article that you don't understand. BTW this applies to any musical instrument.

It might be interesting to focus on chords of other songs to see what major scale they are related to and how these "rules" get broken to develop more complex musical pieces.

It's also interesting to derive the chords from what is known as the harmonic minor scale. I use it often when doing riffs on the guitar. It has that eastern feel. I bet superhuman Dave and iod!ne Rich use it. It yields chords and chord progressions that are not present in the major scale. Strawberry Fields by the Beatles is a prime example of using chords and progressions from a harmonic minor scale.

Andy

[Superhuman]

Nice one Andy, been looking for somethign that actually explains how all of this stuff fits together for a while. Although I understand how it works I haven't a clue about it in theoretical terms. This article makes things a bit easier. Thanks again!

[FXMAN]

your a star man .. thank you