Lesson 7: Chord Construction Made Easier (part 2)

I should be able to figure out all the notes that are used in a major scale to make up a chord...
Looking back at the first part of lesson 7 and a (major) scale as numbers 
gives me 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 from a given the root note.
By placing my fingers on the guitar at the root note shown in the image below

A table of notes in a scale is constructed from the scale pattern above where 1 is the root note starting point and then looking at the distance between the notes. 1 to 2 is one step/tone, 2 to 3 is one step/tone,  3 to 4 is half a step/tone etc.

I should be able to figure em out and draw them all up in the table below (and I'm going to force myself to do it to make sure I get it!)

1

root

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

2

minor

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

3

minor

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

4

major

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

5

major

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

6

relative minor

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

7

major (can be flattened for a blues sound)

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

8

octave

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

HTML table ALERT :) 

it has been a long time since I've done one of those!

Now to make the Major chord you need the 1, 3, & 5th notes in that scale.
Easy so far!


To make the Major 6 you need the 1, 3, 5 & 6th notes in that scale.
I'm still following! 


To make the Major 7 you need the 1, 3, 5, & 7th notes in that scale.
Yes, thankfully, it is that easy :)


To make the Minor chord you flatten the 3rd so you need 1, 3b & 5th notes in the scale.


Minor 7 is 1, 3b, 5 & 7thb


Suspended 2 is 1, 2 & 5th


Suspended 4 is 1, 4 & 5th


C or D is an easy one to try that out on. Play the D and then try to add those notes in and magically you will be making those chords.
I like magic!


To be sure there are plenty of other chords but this is a good of enough start for me in my effort to rule the world and understand the beginning of chord building on a guitar.

Lesson 7: Chord Construction Made Easier (part 1)

Lesson 6 was a bit too much in the deep end. So I was after something to help me understand it in a more structured way, something with numbers (which for me was going to be a simpler way).

To find the notes that make a chord:

• Put your 2nd finger on the root note. That's note 1 in the sequence. So in the key of C, and the chord of C, you need to find the root note on the top, fat, E string. That's going to be the 8th fret on the top E string. This puts your fingers in a good starting point for the notes that make up the chord of C.
• The next note in the sequence is 2 frets up, where your little finger is sitting over the 10th fret. That's going to be a D and it is note 2 in the sequence.
• That sets you up for the note pattern shown blow (in red crosses). The rest of the notes look like this:

X marks the spot to the pattern to the notes above.

Also numerically (where it makes sense for me!)

To build a (MAJ) chord you want to take the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the (MAJ) scale.

So in C you want 1 - C, 3 - E & 5 - G.

If you now finger a C chord down at the zero fret you will see that those are the 3 notes that make up a 'C'.

Next time will go into how other notes modify a MAJ chord.

Lesson 6: Chord Construction

This lesson was my first step into looking at how guitar chords are put toegher.

It was lots of fun 'cause strangely enough it was making some sense!

Trying to make some sense of my notes from that lesson, one week later is, proving to be more difficult... OK so diving in without a safety net - here goes!

Short Story: 

Major chords: constructed from 3 notes (1st, 3rd, 5th) in the scale.

Minor chords: constructed from 3 notes (1st, flattened 3rd, 5th) in the scale. 

Long Story: 

Major chords are made up of 3 main notes, the 1st, 3rd and 5th note in the scale.

In the C Major scale:

1 = C

2 = D

3 = E

4 = F

5 = G

6 = A

7 = B

So C, E and G are the ones!

As a bar chord on the 8th fret: 

 

To make the Minor you flatten the 3rd note of the major scale. 

In the Cminor from the Major scale:

1 = C

2 = D

flattened 3 = Eb

4 = F

5 = G

6 = A

7 = B

C minor barred on the 8th fret:

Grokking that? 

Just remember that Major is 1,3,5 notes from the scale. 

To make a Minor from a Major chord you just flatten the 3rd note in the scale.

More next time in part 2 of chord making.

Lesson 2: Rhythm (my lack of it) in C

Wiki defines Rhythm as "any measured flow or movement, symmetry" and mine SUX.

So the Geezer was getting me to sit in 3 cords that can be used to play under a lead in the Cmaj scale from the 'notes' shown in lesson one.

The cord progression was: Amin7, Dmin7, Emin7

Amin7 & Dmin7 played from the bar cord at the 5th fret and the Emin7 played from the the bar cord at the 7th fret.

(To make it easier then the bar cords below you could just play Amin, Dmin, Emin, with or without the 7ths, at the zero fret).

7ths were used for 'colour' and we were also changing, without losing the Rhythm I was told!, to the non barred versions at the zero fret.

 

For additional variation dropping into something that looked like this:

 Yes that IS supposed to be your index finger on the 8th fret! So it was like and Emin at the 7th fret with a root C added?

Looks weird sounds good!

That cord shape was played at the 7th, 0 and 12th frets.

 

At the end of the lesson we were playing the Amin based cords above and doing some really rough Cmaj soloing over those. Well he wasn't rough but I really was...

Guessing Amin based cords sound 'good' against Cmaj scale notes as Amin is the relative min to that scale.
Remember that putting your little finger on on the 'C' on the 8th fret of the top 'E' string is the note 'C' and since it is your little finger that sets you up for Cmaj and automatically your index finger will be on the relative minor - which in this case is A(min). That sets you up for the 'lead' in Cmaj.

Next lesson was some tango!