A chord is any group of notes that match a scale. Chords can be formed using triads and can include additional seventh notes for greater complexity – these differences between chord types (Major, Dominant and Minor) make different types of music possible.
To add depth and complexity to their chords, musicians sometimes also include “Flavor Tone” notes outside the triad – this adds more complex chords known as Diatonic Harmony.
Scale
As a beginning musician, understanding scales and chords is a fundamental skill. Doing so will allow you to compose melodies, licks, or your own music; also helping with improvising unique sounding chord progressions. There are various methods of creating chords; two of the most prevalent being triads and seventh chords – in order to grasp these, it is vitally important that you know which key you’re in for optimal understanding.
The C major scale is a diatonic scale composed of seven notes. For those beginning their musical studies, this scale makes an excellent starting point as there are no sharps or flats present in it. To master it quickly and efficiently, use music notation programs to memorize these notes as you memorize their names on a sheet of music featuring C key music notations notes as a first step to learning this scale.
Each note in a scale has a name that describes its relationship to its tonic (first) note of that scale, known as the tonic or root note. For instance, C represents the tonic (root) note for C major scale; its surrounding notes include D, E, F G A and B which can form chords individually but more frequently combine into triads and seventh chords.
As you ascend the scale, remember that each step upwards is equal to one whole tone and each step downwards is half tone. Additionally, distance between piano keys also counts as one tone; thus ensuring C and D represents one whole tone while D and A represent two semitones.
As you progress up the scale, be mindful to modify your left hand fingerings accordingly. For instance, when reaching F5, move your thumb underneath your fingers for correct fingerings of F chord. When ready, move onto another note in your scale.
As you descend the scale, the names of the notes reverse; for instance, in C major scale the eighth note would become D and seventh note would become C. To add even more flavor and variety to your chords when performing them, extensions provide extra notes that add new sounds – giving them greater character!
Chords
Chords form the cornerstone of most chord progressions. Each major key usually has three “primary” chords constructed using only its first, fourth, and fifth notes of its scale; you can use these chords as building blocks to construct all kinds of voicings and progressions using these basic structures; additional chords may also be found by adding or subtracting notes to these basic structures – for instance a diminished chord is simply a minor chord with its upper note lowered an octave for a darker and more emotive sound.
Intervals, or the distances between notes of a chord, are essential components to creating sound chords. Understanding these relationships when starting out can make building chords much simpler; understanding their significance makes each one truly identifiable. Intervals can be divided into major, minor, and augmented categories, where major and minor differ by note type alone while adding other notes from within its key (commonly known as color tones) can add another level of color and interest.
Example: Add note D to a C chord; this note lies an octave above C and creates the same effect as changing key by one half step. Furthermore, other notes can be added to create inversions of same chord; such as having its 3rd in the bass instead of its 2nd and vice versa – this changes intervals between notes which is considered inversion of original chord.
A triad is created by stacking three intervals together, starting with its root note as its lowest note and proceeding up through root, third and fifth to create three notes in total – the latter three having distinct characteristics depending on whether they’re major or minor chords – the distance between third and fifth determines this. If it is major then its sound has happy associations while if minor, its sounds sadder.
Beyond these basic triads, you can add on to them to form more complex chords. Many of these involve seventh chords – created by adding an extra note at the top of a triad – while there are also non-triad options such as 9th and altered chords that offer different sounds; experiment and find which you prefer!
Intervals
Intervals are the distances between any two notes, which determine how a chord sounds. For instance, major chords consist of three scale tones spaced one-third apart while minor chords feature four or more tones spaced further apart. Understanding intervals will enable you to craft your own chords as well as understand songs written outside a particular key.
Interval names can be determined by counting up from the lower note and comparing to a major scale built around its tonic (the first note of the key). For instance, C to D constitutes a perfect fifth interval because it lies within C major scale; C to E is called diminished fifth due to being one half step smaller than perfect fifth.
One important thing to keep in mind about intervals is that they can either be major or minor in scale. A major interval will produce happy and consonant sounds while minor intervals produce sad dissonant ones. Furthermore, an interval can either be augmented or diminished depending on whether it raises the bottom note higher, making the interval larger; or reduced by lowering its top note lower making the interval smaller.
Example of Major Seventh Chord
Each interval has its own name and can be represented using letters of the alphabet. Additionally, its quality – whether major, minor, or diminished – can also be identified using temporary accidentals to change.
C to D represents a major second because it consists of one generic second on the staff and two half steps on the keyboard; however, moving this interval up to C sharp makes it into a diminished sixth because its perfect interval has been reduced by half step.
Key signature
A scale’s key signature provides information on how many sharps or flats there are in its key, which in turn determines which chords can be played within that key. For instance, C major has no sharps or flats, meaning only notes from its scale may be used to construct chords in it. Each major scale offers three primary chords constructed off its first, fourth and fifth notes – these will serve as the basis of most chord progressions; if more chords are necessary than these three primary ones can be created using the process known as octatonizing.
Chords can be decorated in many subtle ways to produce various sounds. One popular method of ornamenting chords is adding notes outside the key signature, changing both key of song and altering chord sound. Another approach involves suspended chords which use all three notes found in regular triad but shift one third away – an example is C7(Dom).
There are other types of chords that can be found in every key, aside from octatonic. Some are diatonic – comprised of only notes found within that particular key; others feature additional tones like augment or diminish which add a different sound to each chord.
Non-diatonic chords, which contain notes from a scale different than the key of the song, include diminished seventh chord (Db), augmented seventh chord (Aug), and ninth chords (C9). While these non-diatonic chords add great colors and depth to music composition, their use should only be done sparingly due to being more challenging to play.
Each major scale has its own relative minor scale that shares the same key signature and notes, for instance C major has A minor as its relative minor scale – both scales share one key signature, making them interchangeable and used interchangeably; some songs start in major key and then transition to relative minor keys to change both chords and melody.