No musician can avoid being exposed to chords. Chords are an integral component of Western music and used within melodies to provide harmony and create beautiful soundscapes.
Simply speaking, a major chord consists of three notes – its root note, major third and perfect fifth. This structure is commonly known as a triad.
Keys
Songwriters tend to focus on only a handful of major chords. Chords built out of the diatonic scale of any key sound great together and are easy to work with; for example, C F G in C Major and D G A in D Major are identical progressions.
C minor seventh chords differ slightly from D major sevenths in that their notes consist of B – D – F instead of A – E, while extensions such as flatted seventh or major seventh add an extra note or two to these basic chords; typically used to form 7th chords.
To play these, all that’s necessary to learn them is memorizing their basic shapes and names – either through memorization, or learning their formulae (like 4-3 ), such as this: 4-3
Triads
Major chords consist of three notes – the root, major third and perfect fifth. They are often referred to as “mother” chords because they provide the basis of most other chord progressions.
Voice a given triad in various ways to recreate its sound; if all three sound the same chord. For instance, when playing C major chord, its notes could be played using any combination of C E G, CG or even EG; all sound great!
Extended chords extend beyond simple three note triads in that they feature one or more tones that extend past their octave root, such as flattened 7th tone.
Minor/Major 6th chords and Half-Diminished 7 are two forms of extended chords commonly found in popular music. Both contain a diminished triad on their bottom note with a major 6th above, making this chord popular as an alternative to Major 7th chords.
Inversions
Based on a chord’s shape and notes contained within, you can alter its sound by switching up its components – known as inversion.
Chord inversions help make chord progressions sound smooth/fluid and easier to play, while altering the feel of each chord slightly and heightening emotion in music.
Example 1: C major chord in its root position can be altered into its first inversion by shifting its bottom note up an octave for C F A; this creates a different feel while altering its bass note sound.
Inversions are represented by writing the name of a chord followed by an forward slash and its bass note; for instance C/E. Learning inversions will help expand your chord vocabulary and gain a better grasp on fretboard layout – also making composition simpler!
Scales
A major scale consists of seven notes (with or without sharps and flats added as necessary). Each note in a major scale is known as a scale degree; chords may be built using them all.
Common chords include triads, which consist of the root note, third note and fifth note from any scale. Triads play an essential part of music composition and should always be included when possible.
Most songs feature an intricate progression of chords that allows listeners to experience various emotions as the song progresses.
Chords can often be written using symbols representing an augmented (a), diminished (b), and slash symbols (). A major scale consists of CDEFGABC notes; thus these symbols can represent different kinds of scales.