Chord building (beginning level theory)

[nroberts]

I thought maybe this would be useful for some here. This is a quick and dirty introduction to building chords. If you know this stuff then you can play most chord someone names off (assuming you have a moderate knowledge of the notes on the fretboard).

The Major Scale

The first thing you need to pick up is the major scale. One way to construct the major scale is to use the WWHWWWH step by step construction. I'll show you how this works. Having a good knowledge of your intervals will help as well.

If the first note is C then the next note is a Whole step up from that, D. Another Whole step is E, Half a step is F...you get the picture...in the end you have CDEFGABC. If you want to build any other scale you just work from the note it is named after and build it up.

Scale Degrees

The notes in scales are numbered in 'degrees'. The first octave is pretty straight forward (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) but after that it gets a little odd. You keep counting up from 8 in the next octave but the 1, 3, 5, and 7 don't get changed. So the whole thing ends up looking like: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 9, 3, 11, 5, 13, 7.

On the guitar you often play inverted voicings where the high numbers are lower in octave than the low numbers. That is why often times it is good to think of the 2 and 9 as being the same note when technically they are an octave appart.

The C major scale and its degrees are:
1 (C)
2/9 (D)
3 (E)
4/11 (F)
5 (G)
6/13 (A)
7 (B)
1/8 (C)

Basic Triads

There is no such thing as a chord that does not have the 1, 3, and 5 scale degrees in it. That is the technical definition of a chord. On the other hand, we as guitar players often leave one or more of these out. But for the sake of this 'lesson' a chord has a 1, 3, and a 5. There are 4 types of chords that come out of this: Major, Minor, Diminished, and Augmented. If you think back to what your major scale is and what these numbers mean it becomes very easy to construct all 4 of these types. A Major is the 1, 3, and the 5. A Minor has a flatted 3. A Diminished has both a flatted 3 and a flatted 5. The augmented (which doesn't technically fit into any key) has a normal 3 but a sharped 5.

There are "chords" without the 3. These are the suspended 4th and 2nd. They replace either the 4th or the 2nd, respectively, with the 3rd. There are also power chords or 5ths that leave out the 3 entirely. You can usually choose to interpret them as major or minor on a whim.

The confusing stuff

When you get into chords with more than the 3 chordal tones you start getting confused. This is caused by the 7th. You would think that a 7th chord has a 1, 3, 5, and a 7 from the major scale but this is not so. When people say something like C7 they mean C dominant 7 and the dominant 7th degree is flatted. This is the 5th chord in the 12 bar blues pattern and fits the Mixolydian mode.

Any chord that has a number after it technically contains this dominant 7th unless otherwise specified. So for instance C9 is really C7 with a 9th degree note added to it; C11 is C9 plus an 11; C13 is C11 with an added 13th. Of course it became impossible to play these chords quite a while back, so as guitarists you remove tones; sometimes even the root is ommited (let the bass player do it :P)

When someone wishes to play one of these chords with the standard 7th from the major scale they explicitly state the 7th is major. This is where you get CMaj7; it is a C7 with the 7th from the major scale instead of the dominant 7th. CMaj9 is a C9 with that same major 7th instead of the dominant. There is also the subdominant or double flatted 7th but that is beyond my level.

The way wack chords

That is it for 'standard ' chords were you don't modify any degree. However, that far from spells out any chord. The rest of the chords are created by altering notes in the above scenarios. For instance, C7b9 is a C7 with a b9 added, or a C9 with its 9th flatted. You can do that with any degree and you can get quite rediqulous with it (but really eventually you should think about calling the chord by a different root note). There are also a few notational things to consider. A + after the name of the chord means it is augmented (#5). Some common ones are C+11 which means C11 with a #5. A diminished chord has a degree symbol by it or is labeled Cdim in standard text.

Some composers also label + or - instead of # or b. Altered degrees are put in paratheses usually when this is done: C7(-9) is the same as C7b9. There is of course much more to this than I am going to, or even can, write about here.

When you see something like "add" in the name of the chord it means that we are just adding that degree. So for instance Cadd9 is a stardard C chord with a 9th degree note added, the 7 is not included.

So what?

Well now you are armed with some of the tools for building chords. The chord is named after its root note so start there. Build a major scale from the root note and circle the degrees that are in the chord. Remember that 1, 3, and 5 are almost always there. Then alter the notes that are altered, like the 7th probably. Now find those notes on the fretboard. There you go. The trick is to see these patterns on the fretboard immediately and be able to construct chords on the spot. I am not there yet. Lets try a few:

Fmaj7b5
F Major: F G A Bb C D E F
Degrees included: 1, 3, 5, 7 Notes: F A C E
Alterations: b5 Cb -> F A Cb E (E is left alone because this is 'maj7')

G#add11
G# Major: G# A# B# C# D# E# F## G# (fun)
Degrees included: 1, 3, 5, 11 Notes: G# B# D# C#
Alterations: none

Tough one: B9 sus4
B Maj: B C# D# E F# G# A# B
Included: 1, 4, 5, 7, 9 Notes: B E F# A# C#
Alterations: b7 A -> B E F# A C#

E6
E Maj: E F# G# A B C# D# E
Included: 1, 3, 5, 6 Notes: E G# B C#
Alterations: None

You might want to do your alterations first and spell your scale with the altered notes. Most chords fit into one of the 8 modes. Any chord that is true to a key will fit in a mode, but not all chords are true to any key. For instance, there is no mode that has a #5 in it which means there is no key that any augmented chord is actually a member of.

Hopefully that helps. There is a lot on the net about this stuff including:
http://www.guitarlessonworld.com/les...ategory=Lesson

[The Ulnarian]

Awesome lesson!

[Stiglar]

nice lesson ,

i read through it pretty quickly and it seemed pretty spot on the only thing i would add is that when your playing 11 chords , when you see something like Cmaj11 it's assumed you omit the 3rd ,

the reason for this is that when you go up the scale say Cmajor .. you'll see the 3rd is an E and the 11th is an F .. this makes for a really rank clash between notes , which is why it's assumed to be omitted .. either this or the chord is written Cmj7#11 so that the 11th doesn't clash anymore.

Obviously this doesn't apply with minor 11ths as the 3rd is flattened .

the other thing i can suggest personally is learn piano ! .. it can be really hard to get a grip on this kinda stuff on guitar as it's very hard (if not impossible) to finger root position chords without omissions .. you look at a piano it's all laid out nicely in front of you logically and it will all fit in ...

nice work

Stig

[nroberts]

Originally Posted by Stiglar

the reason for this is that when you go up the scale say Cmajor .. you'll see the 3rd is an E and the 11th is an F .. this makes for a really rank clash between notes , which is why it's assumed to be omitted .. either this or the chord is written Cmj7#11 so that the 11th doesn't clash anymore.

Interesting. I've been told that you never find a 13 in an augmented for the same reason but I never new this one. It makes sense, but what about E7#9 where you are basically playing major and minor 3rds? For instance x7678x and all its friends, the 5 is ommited but the 3rd is left in.

the other thing i can suggest personally is learn piano ! .. it can be really hard to get a grip on this kinda stuff on guitar as it's very hard (if not impossible) to finger root position chords without omissions .. you look at a piano it's all laid out nicely in front of you logically and it will all fit in ...

Yes, I am learning piano as well. There is the fact that it is all laid out in front of you, but you also need to know your keys in piano. Guitar you can get away with just learning patterns and knowing where the root is; you can even identify the rest of your degrees without knowing what the notes are necisarilly. With piano you have to for there are no patterns like that to work with. See with guitar your intervals are very obvious but with piano they are still there but not in your face because they change structure depending on how many black keys are in there.

The hard part I am having with piano though, and it is also a problem in my playing acoustic blues, is playing two different lines at the same time. My teacher is working me on that though and I am hoping it will somehow translate back because I have never gotten it on guitar. I think it is a brain issue that once resolved will be easier done in other instruments; I have to learn to track multiple lines.

I'm glad my lesson has checked out and made it through inspection. Theory is a fairly new thing to me and so I worried there might be mistakes or errors.

[nroberts]

Originally Posted by nroberts

There is no such thing as a chord that does not have the 1, 3, and 5 scale degrees in it. That is the technical definition of a chord.

Apparently there is some debate about that. That is how I was taught chords, maybe I was taught wrong. At any rate, any time you see a chord in named form it probably has the 1, 3, and the 5. Times when it might not are:

C5 -> most people say this is not a chord, but still there is debate. This chord has only a 1, 5, and usually the octave. Most people consider the root and the octave to be the same so don't count them as two separate sounds...a chord requires 3 or more in any definition of the word.

Csus2/4 -> this one replaces the 3 with either the 2 or the 4.

And as Stilgar brought up there are times when one degree may imply the omition of another because the sounds clash. I have never experienced anything like that but it makes sense.

I really can't think of any others. You might come up with some combination of notes and be able to call it a chord of some root and say it has no 3 or 5 but in the end you probably just have the root wrong or it is a voicing of a chord that has those notes but you are not playing them.

Anyway, it doesn't really have much effect on the rest of what I said. Chords that do not follow the standard for chord, if you want to call them chords then, can't be named in the standard way so you won't have to deal with it. They will be written in tab or notation or something, but not named.

[Stiglar]

Originally Posted by nroberts

Interesting. I've been told that you never find a 13 in an augmented for the same reason but I never new this one. It makes sense, but what about E7#9 where you are basically playing major and minor 3rds? For instance x7678x and all its friends, the 5 is ommited but the 3rd is left in..

sometimes the 5 is omitted because the sound of the tonic and 5th together is a very "strong" sound , as for the E7#9 , it's a different kind of clash of notes , just because 2 notes are a semitone apart doesn't mean it will sound shitty , play a simple Cmajor7 chord on your piano the B and C clash but thats what makes it sound good ,it's the other notes around the clash in the chords that make it sound the way it does , i'm tired so i can't really go more technical at the moment lol . .but play a Cmaj11 chord on the piano with the 3rd still in .. it will sound bad lol

Originally Posted by nroberts

Yes, I am learning piano as well. There is the fact that it is all laid out in front of you, but you also need to know your keys in piano. Guitar you can get away with just learning patterns and knowing where the root is; you can even identify the rest of your degrees without knowing what the notes are necisarilly. With piano you have to for there are no patterns like that to work with. See with guitar your intervals are very obvious but with piano they are still there but not in your face because they change structure depending on how many black keys are in there....

Exactly which is why piano is very good for you , you HAVE to know the notes you are playing rather than relying on patterns , it will make all this stuff sink in much more , if you can see the notes and be able to name them as you play each chord rather than using a shape on the fretboard . just learn your major scale in all 12 keys on the piano go up and down each day as your warmup and you'll find you become much much faster at doing these chord things ..

[Stiglar]

[quote=nroberts]but what about E7#9 where you are basically playing major and minor 3rds?.[quote]

That's the other thing , you can't relate that to being major and minor thirds . yes the major third is in there but the other one is a #9 not a minor third , yes it's the same note on the piano but it's theoretically different . it's like the whole Ab/G# thing they're different notes theoretically .it's called being enharmonically correct , .. not trying to be a smart ass here lol , but this stuff can get VERY confusing if you say stuff like that , i didn't think of it till just then but thats why it sounds different to the clash in a major11 chord .

[Stiglar]

Originally Posted by nroberts

Apparently there is some debate about that. That is how I was taught chords, maybe I was taught wrong. At any rate, any time you see a chord in named form it probably has the 1, 3, and the 5..

i wasn't 100% on the theoretical definitions of chords etc so i didn't know whether that was right or not ,

the way i think of it , a chord is just 3 or more notes played together , you could grab any 4 notes together and find some kind of name for it , it would be an inversion of something or maybe a couple of ommissions but it would still be a chord ,

realistically , playing jazz etc where you use alot of these chords your mentioning, you rarely (if ever) play a straight 1 3 5 7 root position chord , your always inverting and omitting things , I for instance never play the tonic when i play chords because it can clash with the bass .

[slimshady842]

Yeah, I play jazz a bit and you see a lot of crazy chords too. Not hard to understand, but sometimes hard to put on the guitar depending on what inversions sound good or what notes you want to put in.

Stiglar, I do the same thing with taking the root out of the chords. I assume the bass is usually playing that at the time. Even if he/she's not, who's going to notice.

Just a question about a maj7b5 chord. What scale relates to it?

[nroberts]

Originally Posted by Stiglar

realistically , playing jazz etc where you use alot of these chords your mentioning, you rarely (if ever) play a straight 1 3 5 7 root position chord , your always inverting and omitting things , I for instance never play the tonic when i play chords because it can clash with the bass .

Yeah, I understand that, but you still call it the same name even though you leave out R, 3, and/or 5 when you play it on guitar. It theoretically still has those notes but you don't play them. This of course can make naming chords pretty damn difficult because you might not even be playing the root of whatever chord you are playing. Someone else might be playing that part of the chord in the music, or maybe not. But from what I understand you are still playing the same chord and it still technically has all the notes you are not playing.

The problem is knowing what to omit. For instance, with that E7#9 with the omitted 5th. You could choose to play the 5th and omit the 3rd instead, but that turns it into an Em and has a totally different sound; times like that make it helpful to understand that m3 and #9 are basically the same note because the #9 now turned into a m3. So if you want the #9 sound you can't leave out the 3rd. You could add the 5th I think and it wouldn't sound too different but good luck getting it in there at least with that fingering :P

Anyway, yeah the article has obvious holes and some minor flaws. It was more or less just a quick and dirty set of directions and I think most of the they will work. Some people spend all their musical lives not learning this stuff and there was a battle about chords were some odd names popped up. I was just trying to help out any bystanders.

I spent 15 years playing guitar not wanting to waste my time learning that theory crap; wanted to "play with my heart, not my brain"...I was mistaken. So now I am learning it and it has only been about a year that I have actively persued theory in my knowledge and my playing.

[nroberts]

Originally Posted by slimshady842

Just a question about a maj7b5 chord. What scale relates to it?

AFAICT no standard key relates to a maj7b5 chord because there is no mode that has a maj7 and a b5. BUT, there are harmonic and double harmonic minors as well as other 'exotic' scales I don't really know yet. I would look there.

Not all chords fit into a key. When you run into them you have to be careful with your leads because now you have no real standard mode you can stick to. If you played a 5 over that chord it would probably sound like shit. Some people advocate learning by focusing on chords instead of scales for that reason.

[Stiglar]

Originally Posted by nroberts

The problem is knowing what to omit. For instance, with that E7#9 with the omitted 5th. You could choose to play the 5th and omit the 3rd instead, but that turns it into an Em and has a totally different sound; times like that make it helpful to understand that m3 and #9 are basically the same note because the #9 now turned into a m3. So if you want the #9 sound you can't leave out the 3rd. You could add the 5th I think and it wouldn't sound too different but good luck getting it in there at least with that fingering :P.

Your right in that as a general rule you don't omit the 3rd , as it really gives the whole character of the chord and whether it's major or minor , that's why you can get rid of things like the 5th because they're the same either way in the major or minor chords .. unless the 5 is altered in the chord name .

It does make it helpful to think the #9 is like a minor third , but don't just because it sounds like Eminor it would still technically be E7#9 , its helpful to really remember that , especially if your bassplayer is playing a walking bassline or somethign that is going over the third .

Originally Posted by nroberts

Anyway, yeah the article has obvious holes and some minor flaws. It was more or less just a quick and dirty set of directions and I think most of the they will work. Some people spend all their musical lives not learning this stuff and there was a battle about chords were some odd names popped up. I was just trying to help out any bystanders. .

Don't get me wrong your article was pretty much spot on with everything , it was just a couple of minor things i noticed . It's good your learning theory and i think you know your stuff pretty well . it will help out alot of people i think so thanks for the lesson

[slimshady842]

Yeah nice job with the theory.

What I do with my jazz chords is I omit whatever seems right at the time. I usually play things like a b5,#5,b9,#9 (altered) with those notes on the top strings to avoid more clashing with the lower strings. It's kind of weird, but you get a good examination of your guitar when you're looking for the notes.

Keep on studying.

[nroberts]

Guitar Noise just released a great article on this subject. Theirs is a little more complete and includes chord patterns on the guitar for application. It is a third part of a series:

Untangling Chord Progressions
http://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=487

Extended chords
http://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=489

(New) Altered Chords
http://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=497