aaronckeim
Well-known member
Our mini music theory question in another thread got me thinking. Lets start a music theory Q + A with me as its own thread! Whatever you are thinking about or working on, ask away! To get you thinking, I will post the two items from the other thread. Do you want to know about chords, scales, progressions, melodies, ??? I think I can be helpful to some people and it would be a great way to make me feel like all those student loans for music school were worth it! See below to get you started.
When musicians talk about chords in a song, they often use roman numerals as a shorthand. If every key as 7 notes (do re mi fa sol la ti) then you can assign a numeral to each I ii iii IV V vi vii. because of how our musical scale is laid out, the I IV V chords are major, the ii iii vi chords are minor and the vii chord is diminished. Most two chord songs just use I and V, I and IV or I and vii (but the vii is lowered by a half step, like in shady grove)
That means, if you know your scales, then you can figure out which chords are common in every key!!!!
In the key of C:
C Dminor Eminor F G Aminor Bdim
In the key of F:
F gminor aminor Bb C Dminor Edim
In the key of G:
G Aminor Bminor C D Eminor F#dim
etc....
Chords usually have three notes. the root, the third and the fifth. the distances between these notes (called intervals) are set according to what kind of chord it is. For example, a major chord has a perfect 5th between the root and 5th and a major 3rd between the root and 3rd. this is what makes it sound like a major chord.
A minor chord has a perfect 5th and a minor 3rd, which is one half step lower than a major 3rd. For example, Fmajor has F A C in it while Fminor has F Ab C.
A diminished chord has a flat 5th and a minor 3rd in it. F Ab B
An augmented chord has an augmented 5th in it and a major third F A C#
with this knowledge, you can "figure out" how to build a chord starting on any note. You just have to be able to count frets or piano keys to find the intervals.
Chords with a 7 on the end of it add another note to spice up the chord. So far, to build our basic F chord, we used the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the F scale. to make a 7 chord, we just add the 7th note, which make F A C E or FMajor7.
Remember above where we wrote out I ii iii IV V vi vii ?
Well we can do the same for 7th chords, they all have different qualities that are dictated by adding the notes of the scale. there are four kinds of 7ths that come from the major scale.
Major 7th: major 3rd perfect 5th major 7th
Minor 7th: minor 3rd perfect 5th minor 7th
Dominant 7th: major 3rd perfect 5th minor 7th
Diminished 7th: minor 3rd flat 5th minor 7th
Imajor7 ii7 iii7 IVmajor7 V7 vi7 viidim7 Only the V7 is dominant, its the 7 you hear and use all the time. In the key of F, it is what makes C7 sound so good.
Chords like to move from one to the next, its what makes songs in western music keep moving. 7th chords have one more degree of spicyness or tension in them which makes our ears want them to move even more badly. its what gives jazz, swing, blues, broadway, tin pan etc...its harmonic motion.
SOOOO, to get to gary's question, a G chord on your uke, which you are probably fingering 0232 has the notes gdgb coming out. (notice you have two gs. This happens a lot. there are three notes in the chord but you have four strings) if we switch it to 0212 we have G7 with the notes gdfb. Now we have four notes! Its the F that makes it sound like a dominant 7th chord. g is root, b is 3rd, d is 5th and f is 7th.
When musicians talk about chords in a song, they often use roman numerals as a shorthand. If every key as 7 notes (do re mi fa sol la ti) then you can assign a numeral to each I ii iii IV V vi vii. because of how our musical scale is laid out, the I IV V chords are major, the ii iii vi chords are minor and the vii chord is diminished. Most two chord songs just use I and V, I and IV or I and vii (but the vii is lowered by a half step, like in shady grove)
That means, if you know your scales, then you can figure out which chords are common in every key!!!!
In the key of C:
C Dminor Eminor F G Aminor Bdim
In the key of F:
F gminor aminor Bb C Dminor Edim
In the key of G:
G Aminor Bminor C D Eminor F#dim
etc....
Chords usually have three notes. the root, the third and the fifth. the distances between these notes (called intervals) are set according to what kind of chord it is. For example, a major chord has a perfect 5th between the root and 5th and a major 3rd between the root and 3rd. this is what makes it sound like a major chord.
A minor chord has a perfect 5th and a minor 3rd, which is one half step lower than a major 3rd. For example, Fmajor has F A C in it while Fminor has F Ab C.
A diminished chord has a flat 5th and a minor 3rd in it. F Ab B
An augmented chord has an augmented 5th in it and a major third F A C#
with this knowledge, you can "figure out" how to build a chord starting on any note. You just have to be able to count frets or piano keys to find the intervals.
Chords with a 7 on the end of it add another note to spice up the chord. So far, to build our basic F chord, we used the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the F scale. to make a 7 chord, we just add the 7th note, which make F A C E or FMajor7.
Remember above where we wrote out I ii iii IV V vi vii ?
Well we can do the same for 7th chords, they all have different qualities that are dictated by adding the notes of the scale. there are four kinds of 7ths that come from the major scale.
Major 7th: major 3rd perfect 5th major 7th
Minor 7th: minor 3rd perfect 5th minor 7th
Dominant 7th: major 3rd perfect 5th minor 7th
Diminished 7th: minor 3rd flat 5th minor 7th
Imajor7 ii7 iii7 IVmajor7 V7 vi7 viidim7 Only the V7 is dominant, its the 7 you hear and use all the time. In the key of F, it is what makes C7 sound so good.
Chords like to move from one to the next, its what makes songs in western music keep moving. 7th chords have one more degree of spicyness or tension in them which makes our ears want them to move even more badly. its what gives jazz, swing, blues, broadway, tin pan etc...its harmonic motion.
SOOOO, to get to gary's question, a G chord on your uke, which you are probably fingering 0232 has the notes gdgb coming out. (notice you have two gs. This happens a lot. there are three notes in the chord but you have four strings) if we switch it to 0212 we have G7 with the notes gdfb. Now we have four notes! Its the F that makes it sound like a dominant 7th chord. g is root, b is 3rd, d is 5th and f is 7th.