Chords in a key for beginners

[EkleipSiS]

Thanks very useful...im beginning to learn key and chords and i admit i was a bit lost with the info i found...but this thread helps a lot...thanks

[tamahome]

I remember it like this: 1 4 5
So c major would have C major, F major, & G major (I IV V), and the rest are minor except one is diminished (vii, Bdim).

It works for minor keys too. The 1 4 & 5 chords are minor (like Am Dm Em), and the rest are major except one is diminished (ii, Bdim).

Here's a trick for chord progressions that sound like they go forward. 2nds and 4ths up, and 3rds down.

4ths up: C F Bdim Em Am Dm G C (go up 3)
2nds up: C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C (go up 1)
3rds down: C Am F Dm Bdim G Em C (go down 2)

[nuffink]

It works for minor keys too. The 1 4 & 5 chords are minor (like Am Dm Em), and the rest are major except one is diminished (ii, Bdim).

Only Natural Minor.

[Rajiv]

Thanks, Cyniq... this is a great post. I've discovered a renewed interest in music theory lately and have been reading up on the topic. You covered about five chapters of the book I'm reading in one concise post. Awesome!

One thing that has always been a mystery to me is how to use chord changes to supplement a melody. For example, a very simple song such as Oh Susana can be played very easily using only the I, IV, and V chords of the major scale. However, substituting the IV with the vim and the I with the iiim (etc.) has a tremendous impact on the melody. In fact, with only the chord changes, the melody can be made to sound sad and introspective -- I assume because of the substitution of the major chords with minor chords.

James Taylor does a great version of the song where he adds the 7th and walks up the major scale with substitution chords. It adds a lot of character -- not quite jazz, but not quite folk either.

I'm playing around with the Alphabet song and Mary Had a Little Lamb. It may sound silly to be playing around with kids songs, but a.) I know the melody so well that I can focus on the chord changes whether on guitar or piano, and b.) I have kids! I'll move to more complex songs as this becomes more second nature to me.

In any case, the exercises are fun and educational and your post really helps me understand.

Thanks!

[dark.nowhere]

You need to know the major scales for the rest of the notes so you can extract the chords as we did above. You can find a list of the scales somewhere on the net. Jesus, don't remember them.

You know, this is something that could multiply the power of this post by 2. Then you'd have all the chords in every key. Isn't there math to this as well? If someone knows, or could dig it up, I think it would be appreciated by all, and I know I would.

So far, we have this:
Maj. 1 3 5
Min. 1 3b 5

Applied to the notes in the scale, some math that should be roughly this complex would make working out any min/maj chord pretty simple in any key.

Do all keys have the same "maj, min, min, maj, maj, min, 'maj'" sequence? That would do it, I think.

[pavvel]

Thanks for this post very useful read

[JumpingJackFlash]

You need to know the major scales for the rest of the notes so you can extract the chords as we did above. You can find a list of the scales somewhere on the net. Jesus, don't remember them.

You know, this is something that could multiply the power of this post by 2. Then you'd have all the chords in every key. Isn't there math to this as well? If someone knows, or could dig it up, I think it would be appreciated by all, and I know I would.

So far, we have this:
Maj. 1 3 5
Min. 1 3b 5

Applied to the notes in the scale, some math that should be roughly this complex would make working out any min/maj chord pretty simple in any key.

Do all keys have the same "maj, min, min, maj, maj, min, 'maj'" sequence? That would do it, I think.

See my Introduction to music theory.

Particularly the section near the top on 'Scales' and section near the bottom on 'chords'. All your questions are answered there.
(In major keys, the chords are always Maj, min, min, Maj, Maj, min, dim).

[dark.nowhere]

Thanks, that makes it easier.

[BoyWonder]

I have a small question while we are here. Are there any rules to naming conventions of sharp/flat chords and notes?

For instance, I sometimes see a chord written as A# .... and then another time as Bd. When should each be used?

[lusername]

typically it depends what key you are in, you generally want to avoid having two notes/chords with the same letter name in the same piece if you can, just to avoid confusion. so if you have an A in a given key, you would use a Bb instead of A#

i think thats right anyway, i'm still learnding too

[dark.nowhere]

It really depends on whether you're sharpening an A or flattening a B. The scale will tell you. In C-minor, you will flatten you E to Eb. You're not sharpening the D to D#. Usually the two sound the same, but apparently some instruments sharpen/flatten less than a whole semitone (or was that more than?)

[Caleb]

There's a rule that in every scale each letter must be used once.

Hence in C major you have C D E F G A B.

So when you derive a new scale using the pattern: (tone tone semitone tone tone tone semitone) you can tell whether you're looking for a sharp or a flat.

For example D major, using the pattern would be: D E F# G# A B C#
If you try using flats you'll see that you're breaking the rule previously mentioned - check it out: D E Gb Ab A B Db

There's no F or C in there. And you have 2 different variations on D and two of A. Yuck!



Regards
Caleb

[Quackers]

nice work cynic,I have studied a lot of music theory but I have never seen the chord theory explained like that before. Exellent job. Might I suggest to beginners to try and work with the C major scale C D E F G A B C , easy to work with no sharps or flats.

[lshea]

A minor scale is:

Code: Select all

A B C D E F G# A

No it isn't...

The two minor scales of A are...

Aeolian - A B C D E F G A
Dorian - A B C D E F# G A

[nuffink]

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