Chords In The Major Scale

OK, so now you know that a Major scale is made upof 8 notes. And that between each note is either a whole step or ahalf step. And that a Major scale has these “intervals”:

W, W, H,W, W, W, H

OK, there’s a new word: “intervals”.

In order to understand chords, you have to understand the concept of intervals:

Let’s take our D Major scale from last time.

E—————– <-- 1st string
B—————– <-- 2nd string
G————-6-7- <-- 3rd string
D——-5-7-9—– <-- 4th string
A-5-7-9———– <-- 5th string
E—————– <-- 6th string

Intervals are REALLY simple. First, you name each note according towhere it falls in the scale.

HERE ARE THE INTERVALS IN THE D MAJOR SCALE:

MAJOR 2ND:

——-
——-
——-
——-
-5-7—
——-

MAJOR 3RD:

——-
——-
——-
-5-9—
——-

PERFECT 4TH:

——-
——-
——-
—5—
-5—–
——-

PERFECT 5TH:

——-
——-
——-
—7—
-5—–
——-

MAJOR 6TH:

——-
——-
——-
—9—
-5—–
——-

MAJOR 7TH:

——-
——-
—6—
——-
-5—–
——-

PERFECT 8TH:
(Also called an “octave”)

——-
——-
—7—
——-
-5—–
——-

Go play these intervals, now so you can start getting the sound of them in your ears.
Now, here’s the great thing…

Once you understand intervals, you’re ready to start playing CHORDS! Because chords are just notes put together in a certain scale.

There are two basic chords in any scale: Major and minor.

And these Major and minor chords are made up of three notes (called a “triad”).

A triad has these intervals of 1, 3 and 5.

So, let’s look at theD Major chord in the D Major scale.

D MAJOR SCALE

E——————————–
B————-2-3—————-
G———2-4——————–
D—–4-5————————
A-5-7—————————-
E——————————–

D MAJOR CHORD

E——————————–
B——————————–
G———2———————-
D—–4————————–
A-5——————————
E——————————–

Notice that the intervals are 1, 3rd and a 5th. Now, you can play these notes anyway you want. Here’s another way they could be played.

D MAJOR CHORD (1st inversion)

E——————————–
B————3——————-
G———2———————-
D——4————————-
A——————————–
E——————————–

Or you could play these notes this way…

D MAJOR CHORD (2nd inversion)

E—————2—————-
B————3——————-
G———2———————-
D——————————–
A——————————–
E——————————–

Congratulations! You now know how to play a D Major chord in allthree of its “inversions.” (More on that later).

Now, you can add as many notes to that chord as you want as long asthey are always the 1, 3rd and 5th of the D Major scale:

You could play…

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

Or…

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

There’s still only 3 notes (the 1, 3rd and 5th of the D Majorscale, I’ve just added a few octaves).
Remember last time I said that music is a lot like math? Well, it’sa lot like riding a bike, too. Once you learn how, it seems like the easiest thing in the world. But before you can ride without yourtraining wheels, it seems absolutely impossible.

The point to this lesson is to show you that from the D Major scale, we get the D Major chord.
What I’m building up to is teaching you how to pick up any book or song be able to play it. How good would THAT feel?

Until next time, take care and practice hard.

Cheers,

Dan Denley

About the Author: Dan Denley began playing guitar in 1989 at the age of 14. Mr. Denley is a self-taught guitarist and classically trained musician. After graduating with honors from the Scheidt School of Music (University of Memphis)with a bachelors degree in Music History, he created the “Amazing Guitar Secrets”course for learning guitar, which is considered by many to be complete and authoritative.

You can learn more about how YOU can become one of his successful students at:

http://www.amazingguitarsecrets.com/special/4

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm and is filed under AmazingGuitarSecrets. 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.