Piano Clues

You don’t need a “1000 Chords Dictionary” to be able to read and play chords. You can learn how to form chords on your own, because chords are built using simple formulas.

A chord is three or more notes played at the same time. It’s as simple as that. Of course, the trick is to know which three notes…

Obviously, not all combinations of notes sound good. Particular combinations each have their own name: there are “major” chords, “minor” chords, “dominant-7″ chords, “diminished chords”, and so on. See a demonstration of the different chord types

Of each chord type, there are 12 possible chords: one for each note. So there is a C major chord, a C# major chord (which is the same as the Db major chord), a D major chord, and so on. There is also a C minor chord, a C# minor chord… you get the drift.

The note that names the chord is called the root note. So in the Cmaj7 chord, the root note is C. The chord quality (or chord type) is maj7, which is short for “major chord with an added 7th”.

What’s the difference between all these chord types? The way they sound, of course: each type has its own unique sound. For example, major-7 chords such as the Cmaj7 have a warm sound, while dominant-7 chords like C7 sound very bluesy.

Chord formulas

To form a chord you simply apply a formula to the major scale named by the root tone. This formula tells you which notes from the scale make up the chord. Each chord type has its own formula.

So to build any type of chord, you need to know:

• the major scale for the root tone of that chord, and
• the formula for that chord.

I am assuming that you already can play the 12 major scales. If not, learn the major scales first.

Let’s put this knowledge into practice.

The formula for major chords is: 1 - 3 - 5

We know that the scale for C major is:

If we fill in the numbers from the formula, we get: C - E - G. These are the tones of the C major chord. Make sense? That’s all there is to it.

Tip: When we say: “The 3rd of the chord” we mean the third tone from its major scale, E in the previous example. (So we don’t mean the 3rd note in the chord, but in the scale.)

A major scale only contains 7 unique tones but sometimes we count to 13! We call these extended tones because they extend beyond the octave. The most common extended tones are 9, 11 and 13.

It’s important to realize that note “9″ is the same as note “2″, 11 is the same as 4, and 13 is the same as 6:

There are also formulas that contain the symbols b and #. The b stands for “flatten” or lower by a half-step and # stands for “sharpen” or raise by a half-step.

For example, the formula for a minor chord is: 1 - b3 - 5.

You know that 3 is the third note of the scale, so to get b3 we lower the third note by a half-step.

Likewise, the formula for an augmented chord contains a #5: this is the fifth note raised by a half-step. Any note can be raised or lowered but 3, 5, and 7 are the most common ones.

The chart

Chord naming rules and chord symbols are not always very consistent. Often the same chord can have multiple names. The chart lists the most common symbols.

Note that the numbers in the formulas always indicate positions in the major scale.

Major chords:

Minor chords:

Dominant chords:

Diminished chords:

Augmented chords:

Suspended chords:

Tip: If the chord symbol is some kind of complicated chord, like Cmaj13, and you don’t know how to play all the additional tones, then you can simplify the chord to its basics. In this case, the basic chord is the major chord, so you can get away by playing only 1 - 3 - 5. It might not sound entirely as intended, but it will still sound good.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Chords. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.