# Where to start for learning chord construction?



## Deathbykidd (Jul 6, 2012)

So basically after about wish years of playing and just figuring out notes and stuff from songs, I'm really thinking about learning theory past the major and minor scales. I'm familiar with the caged theory, but it takes me a little to figure out what chord I'm actually playing (I find that using intervals). Im starting to realize that learning chord construction, and progressions will help me learn things like scales better. I've tried learning theory before, but gave up cuz i got tired of playing scales over and over. I heard in a Tosin Abasi interview that it helps to learn theory in a melodic way, I.e. learn a progression, then play that chord progression as arpeggios, and then scales, so your learning the three things at once essentially as well as playing it in key and knowing where to go next in that key. So where would be some good places to go and learn chord construction and the progressions?


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## texshred777 (Jul 6, 2012)

www.musictheory.net

Have your guitar in your hands(or a piano/keyboard around) so you can learn application of the principles and not just memorizing a bunch of text.

My best advice for chord construction is to know your intervals-every chord/scale/mode/progression is based around them. Once you have your intervals down, making any chord in any position becomes pretty simple.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jul 7, 2012)

Deathbykidd said:


> I heard in a Tosin Abasi interview that it helps to learn theory in a melodic way, I.e. learn a progression, then play that chord progression as arpeggios, and then scales, so your learning the three things at once essentially as well as playing it in key and knowing where to go next in that key.



One step at a time, Kemosabe.







That's a note.






That's a third above that note.






That's a different kind of third.






That's a third above the other third. When one third is stacked on top of another, we call it a triad. This is the most basic kind of chord. So you know, this is a Dm triad.






This is another voicing of the same triad. I've moved one note into a different octave. Analytically, it's the same thing as the last chord. These are all different configurations of the same triad:
















It doesn't just have to be three notes, either. Any configuration of a D, an F, and an A, in any proportion, will yield a Dm triad.






You can keep stacking thirds to make more complex chords.






In the first measure, there's a Gm triad with one more third stacked on top, making it Gm7. And, of course, you can jumble up those notes however you please to get different voicings of the same Gm7 chord, as per the other measures.



> So where would be some good places to go and learn chord construction and the progressions?


musictheory.net

Or, I can offer my explanation.


If you harmonize, by thirds, every note in a [major or minor] scale with notes from that scale, then you end up with that scale's harmony.











The harmony from that scale can be ordered into a chord progression.






Start at any point you wish and work from left to right, following the arrows. You can do the same thing with minor keys...






... but it's customary to borrow a couple of chords from the harmonic minor scale.






Specifically, you want everything to be natural minor except for the V and vii° chord, which come from the harmonic minor.






Minor chord progressions follow the same rules as major ones.


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## Solodini (Jul 7, 2012)

You can also give my book a go. The focus is to learn things through using them creatively. Rather than just learning set progressions, there are exercises designed to give you a method with which to try out different things by your own choosing, but without needing divine inspiration. There are links to the book and sample chapters in my sig. 

Let me know if you have any questions about it. If you face any difficulties then I'll happily help.


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## Deathbykidd (Jul 7, 2012)

Thanks for the replies, to Schecterwhore, those diagrams were helpful in seeing it. The inversion stuff I should look into more in-depth, but I knew most of the basic chord construction already. I guess I should have elaborated a bit more. I know the basic major and minor and 7th chords fairly well and all the shapes due to the CAGED theory. But I was talking more about how I should go about remembering the notes in the key and creating chords past the 7th chords. The real reason to learning chord construction past the basic chords and progressions for me is to learn how to come up with leads. I figured learn more complex chords to add more taste to what I'm playing, and learn the notes in each key and play them in progressions around the neck off of different roots. I was hoping that this would eventually cause me to learn so come up with more creative lead ideas. whether it be play arpeggios or tapped licks, or outline those chords in a simple lead. Would I be better off just sitting down with a circle of 5th's diagram and learn the notes in the keys from there? I added that Tosin Abasi comment in because everywhere else i've looked to learn this type of stuff was to, " play the scale over and over to a metronome until you know it." but that got boring and didn't help much. So the whole apply it to a chord progression and play it using different techniques seemed like a completely new idea to me that i haven't really heard anyone say before. Thanks for the comment guys, i'll definitely look into Solodini's book and also that music theory site. Thank you guys for the quick and helpful replies. I've found that this place is a much better place to go forum-wise for help on this stuff.


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## Solodini (Jul 7, 2012)

I think that from my book you'll pick up more use of the theory than playing scales, but to use them musically. Playing up and down is, largely useless. Utilisation is key.


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## texshred777 (Jul 7, 2012)

Check out Solodini's book. It has a pretty simple to understand section on the circle of fifths and would help you to remember which keys have which sharps or flats.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jul 8, 2012)

Deathbykidd said:


> But I was talking more about how I should go about remembering the notes in the key and creating chords past the 7th chords.



Copy this diagram out fifteen-thousand times.






As for chords beyond the seventh, keep stacking thirds. A third above a seventh is a ninth, a third above that is an eleventh, a third above that is a thirteenth, a third above that is just repeating notes that are already there. Worry about non-tertian harmony when you have the tertian stuff down cold.



> The real reason to learning chord construction past the basic chords and progressions for me is to learn how to come up with leads. I figured learn more complex chords to add more taste to what I'm playing, and learn the notes in each key and play them in progressions around the neck off of different roots. I was hoping that this would eventually cause me to learn so come up with more creative lead ideas. whether it be play arpeggios or tapped licks, or outline those chords in a simple lead.



I recommend reading up on voice leading.



> Would I be better off just sitting down with a circle of 5th's diagram and learn the notes in the keys from there?



Well, you should get cozy with the circle of fifths, for sure. Honestly, I don't think about it anymore. It's a pedagogic tool, not the keys to the gates of music. Learn it, then forget it.



> I added that Tosin Abasi comment in because everywhere else i've looked to learn this type of stuff was to, " play the scale over and over to a metronome until you know it." but that got boring and didn't help much. So the whole apply it to a chord progression and play it using different techniques seemed like a completely new idea to me that i haven't really heard anyone say before.
> 
> 
> > I think what he was getting at is this: learn your scales individually, learn your harmony individually, then make it part of your practice routine to mess around with the scales and arpeggios in every way you possibly can. If I was to tell somebody how to go about learning this stuff in a step-by-step fashion, this is how I would put it:
> ...


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## gandalf (Jul 8, 2012)

I have actually created a music theory quizz game which is really a fun way to learn music theory. I will let you know when its online so you can try it


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## Winspear (Jul 8, 2012)

SW - are those drawings implying that one should always follow those arrows? There seem like a very large number of paths there so it's not very restricting. Just wondering if it means that the chords linked by an arrow are the only ones that will ever flow into each other well!


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## Solodini (Jul 8, 2012)

Depends on whether you want flow! There are no hard and fast rules in music, really.


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## InfinityCollision (Jul 8, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> SW - are those drawings implying that one should always follow those arrows? There seem like a very large number of paths there so it's not very restricting. Just wondering if it means that the chords linked by an arrow are the only ones that will ever flow into each other well!


As has been said so many times about so many things, they're more like guidelines. They outline some basic progressions and you can infer some of the common cadences from it, but it's by no means absolute. Think of it more as a starting point (my first theory class covered that chart within the first couple of weeks) from which you can expand into other progressions. This is pretty true of learning theory as a whole. You start simple, in a very limited framework, and gradually peel away the restrictions in an ordered manner by learning how to apply different ideas that build on what you've leaned previously. Ultimately there aren't any real restrictions because everything works in some context (we're talking about art after all), but everything you've learned along the way serves as a guideline for how to express your ideas in the most effective way possible.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jul 8, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> SW - are those drawings implying that one should always follow those arrows? There seem like a very large number of paths there so it's not very restricting. Just wondering if it means that the chords linked by an arrow are the only ones that will ever flow into each other well!



It's a summary of 18th century functional harmonic progressions, and only the diatonic ones at that. I differentiate chord progressions and chord successions. Chord progressions operate in one direction and progress toward a tonic. Chord successions can really be any configuration of chords and may or may not progress toward a tonic. Take a 12-bar blues:

I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I V

V IV is going backwards, according to my chart. One could say it's a chord regression. This sort of thing happens all the time, so I'm not going to say that you should feel discouraged from doing so. I personally don't like the traditional sound. When I was going through my harmony course, I noticed that my progressions either sounded epic or lame, so I started getting away from that chart, as I had determined that to be the cause. (Looking back now, I probably suffered from a bad sense of harmonic rhythm.) Now, I choose chords for their color until I get to a cadence. That's not to say that your progressions are either going to be epic or lame if you use my progression chart - a lot of modern music still faithfully adheres to those changes - but I needed something different for my style.


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