[Metal Ken]

Basic Chord & Scale Construction.

The most important aspect of music is the Major (ionian) Scale. Everything is derived from this, all chords, all scales, everything. They can be traced back to the Major Scale.

The Major scale is constructed of a repeating patteron of Whole steps and half steps, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole,Whole, Half. When you start it on C, it is C D E F G A B C. For the majority of this lesson, i'll be using C Major since its the best for explaining, with no sharps and flats. Now once you this know this, the concept of modes is really basic. A Mode is just a major scale with a different altered note to give it a different sound.

In C Major, your modes are:

C Ionian - Major
D Dorian - Minor
E Phrygian - Minor
F Lydian - Major
G Mixolydian-Major
A Aeolian - Natural Minor
B Locrian - Half Dimished

That's pretty simple. If you know a C Major scale and emphasize a different note, you get that respective mode. If you play a C major scale from E TO E,
You get a phrygian mode, which is minor and pretty egyptian sounding, so its cool. You can also apply a Formula to make modes from the major scale, to see
how each mode relates to each other.

The FORMULAS for modes are:

Ionian - Straight Major
Dorian - 1, 2, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 7b
Phrygian - 1, 2b, 3b, 4, 5, 6b, 7b
Lydian - 1, 2, 3, 4#, 5, 6, 7
Mixolydian - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7b
Aeolian - 1, 2, 3b, 4, 5, 6b, 7b
locrian - 1, 2b, 3b, 4, 5b, 6b, 7b

Now what this means is if you take a major scale and apply that chart to the above notes you'll get that scale, For example, you start out with an A Major scale:

A B C# D E F# G# A

Now you take the Aeolian formula, which you flatten the 3rd,6th and 7th notes. In The A Major scale, those are C#, F# & G#. So You flatten those notes. What do you get?
A B C D E F G A. Thats an A Aeolian/Natural Minor scale!

Now for the chords. Once again, as with scales, Major is the basis for all of our chord construction. The most basic chord you can have is a Major triad. A Triad is simply 3 notes (And a Dyiad is a harmonic relation, like a power'chord'). A triad is the smallest possible chord. A Major triad is simply the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of any major scale.

For example:
A C Major triad is simply the first, third and fifth note of a C Major scale, So:

Our Major Scale:

C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Our chord will be 1-3-5, so:

1(C)-3(E)-5(G). On guitar that looks like:

E----
B----
G-0--
D-2--
A-3--
E----
B----


The Minor Triad/Chord formula is ALMOST the same as the Major, except you take the 1st, FLAT 3rd and 5th of the major scale.
So for A Minor, you have your major scale:

A B C# D E F# G#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Our Chord is 1-3b-5, so:

1(A)-3b(C)-5(E). The C# becomes a C Natural. On guitar that looks like

E----
B----
G----
D-2--
A-3--
E-5--
B----

Extended chords are just as simple. A Seventh chord is just the 1st,3rd,5th, and SEVENTH note of a major scale.
So lets take a look at a C Major 7th chord.

Our Major Scale:
C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Our chord will be 1-3-5-7, so:

1(C)-3(E)-5(G)-7(B). On guitar that looks like:

E----
B-0--
G-0--
D-2--
A-3--
E----
B----

So here's some chord formulas:

Chord Type Formula
Major - 1, 3, 5
Major7th - 1, 3, 5, 7
Major9th - 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
Major11th- 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11
Major13th- 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13

Minor - 1, b3, 5
Minor7th - 1, b3, 5, b7
Minor9th - 1, b3, 5, b7, 9
Minor11th - 1, b3, 5, b7, 9, 11
Minor13th - 1, b3, 5, b7, 9, 11, 13

Later on if anyone wants, i can write about Augmented, Dimished,suspended & Dominant Chords. this is just a brief skim over the stuff i did up by request of
Goliath, so i hope he enjoys if no one else. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

[telecaster90]

Originally Posted by HateBreeder

Later on if anyone wants, i can write about Augmented, Dimished,suspended & Dominant Chords. this is just a brief skim over the stuff i did up by request of
Goliath, so i hope he enjoys if no one else. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Good post.

What's the deal with Augmented, Diminished, Suspended and Dominant? Isn't Dominant a major triad with b7?

[Metal Ken]

Pretty much. a Dominant will naturally fall on the V chord of any key as well.
Augmented chords a stacked triads of major thirds, Dimished are stacked triads of Minor 3rds. Sus chords are chords like 1-2-5 or 1-4-5 instead of 1-3-5. You suspend the third in favor of anothe scale tone.

Theres a whole other mess of rules for usage of Augmented and Diminished in chord substitutions and all kinds of stuff. If you want, message me on AIM andi can break it down for ya.

[telecaster90]

IM'd

[macalpine88]

Originally Posted by telecaster90

Good post.

What's the deal with Augmented, Diminished, Suspended and Dominant? Isn't Dominant a major triad with b7?

as hatebreeder said it is 2 major 3rds stacked on top of each other, instead of the normal major 3rd than minor 3rd. diminished is 2 minor 3rds.

a few scales you can play that have an augmented 5th are, lydian augmented,1-2-3-#4-#5-6-7 which is the 3rd mode of the melodic minor scale, Ionian #5 same as the scale above except without the #4th, it is a mode of the harmonic minor scale. and the whole tone scale which is 1-2-3-#4-#5-6-b7, it is composed of all whole steps. chord construction is 1-3-#5

diminished chords are usually viio unless your in a minor key than its iio. some scales you can play over a diminished chord are locrian - 1-b2-b3-4-b5-b6-b7 which is a mode of the major scale, locrian natural 2nd and locrian b4 which are modes of the melodic minor scale.locrian natural 6th and alterd double flatted 7th 1-b2-b3-b4-b5-b6-b7 which are modes of the harmonic minor scale, and a very dissonent sounding one is the Locrian bb7 which comes from the harmonic major scale. the triad is 1-b3-b5 depending on the sound you want you can use any of these scales over it.

sus2 and 4th are not minor or major but you can play i minor, major scale or any scale with a 1-2-4-5 in it

dominant chords are built off scales like lydian dominant(1-2-3-#4-5-6-b7 and mixolydian(minus the #4) the usually are 1-3-5-b7 you can add a #4 and it is the so called Hendrix chord

holy hell i can ramble on, if i over complicated somethings i can correct them i

[Drew]

Originally Posted by macalpine88

1-3-5-b7 you can add a #4 and it is the so called Hendrix chord

Not to call you out, but, well, er, I guess I'm gonna call you out on that. The "Hendrix" chord is actually a 7#9, not a 7#4. The voicing everyone knows is the one from Purple Haze:

|---|
|-8-| G - augmented 9th
|-7-| D - minor 7th
|-6-| G# - major 3rd
|-7-| E - root
|-0-| E - root
|---|

It's an incredibly tense chord because, enharmonically, a #9 is the same pitch as a b3, so you're playing a dominant chord with both a major and a minor third.

As such, it makes an awesome turnaround - check out Jimi's "Villanova Junction" at the end of thr Woodstock album, an Am jazzy blues groove, where in one of the turnarounds, he arpeggiates that voicing. It sounds beyond badass.

-D

[macalpine88]

ooops, sorry. it was late when i wrote that and i wasnt thinking properly i just remember it was derived from the melodic minor scale

[Drew]

You can also see it as a natural extension of the blues scale and blues harmonic context: essentially, blues harmony can be understood as dominant chords functioning as tonic chords, so in a minor blues you're seeing a harmonic context that implues 1-3-5-b7 over a chord that'd normally be 1-b3-b5. If you wanted to distill this tension down to a single chord, then a 7#9 is about as pure as you're going to get.

-D

[7StringofAblicK]

i really need to learn how to read music effectively, more music theory. I've been playing for 7-8 years but never took the time to really undergo the theory.

nobody lives near northern kentucky who wants to give free lessons do they?

[Drew]

No, but we're more than happy to oblige here...

If HB'er ever gets off his ass and sends it over to me, he's contributing a chord theory lesson to our lessons page (http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/view.php?pg=lessons). If not, I'll just write one up myself.

I've been meaning to start writing theory lessons, but busy as fuck at work lately...