please help me, I am chord stupid...

[travis0127]

I do NOT understand chords, at all.

O.K. I know they are two or more notes sounded together (usually 3 or 4).

I know "major" chords are the first third and fifth notes of a major scale. But what the heck are all the intervals and "minors" and "7ths" and all that junk?

What do all those terms mean, "Dominant" and "perfect", etc., etc.?

Is there hope for me?

[StoneDragon]

If you know the majors as well as you do, then there is hope.... plenty of hope.

It takes a while to get all the nomenclature down, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of logic to the way things are named. You just have to remember it by rote, a piece at a time.

If you dig around through the theory lessons (http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/), you'll find most of this information, and I'm planning to do a lesson on the complete breakdown of chords. Until then, here is the Readers Digest version. (all examples use the key of C, but the same formula applies to any key)

First, you have the scale:

C D E F G A B C

Each note of the scale is numbered:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

These numbers represent the degrees of the scale and the distance between each note as it appears in the original scale represents the intervals.

Scale degrees and intervals are really the same thing for the most part, but the names are used to point to different things.

Each Degree has a name:

1=tonic, 2=supertonic, 3=mediant, 4=subdominant, 5=dominant, 6=submediant, 7=leading tone, 8=tonic (octave higher).

Each interval also has a name attached to it:

1 4 5 8 = perfect
2 3 6 7 = major

Now, when chords were first invented, only the 1 3 5 intervals were used to build these chords. The resulting chord was called a triad, because it was built with three intervals.

Sometimes, the triad sounded good if you lowered the third interval a half-step (C Eb G instead of C E G). So there needed to be a way to tell the two apart. since the only difference is whether you include E or Eb, the easiest way to name the chords was to adopt the interval name of the 3rd.

Thus the minor interval was born. It was decided that any major interval could be made minor by lowering that interval a half-step. So, if the triad contained the major third, it was considered a major chord. If the triad contained the minor third, it was considered a minor chord.

In certain cases, it sounded good to lower both the 3rd and the 5th (C Eb Gb). Since the chord with a lowered 3rd already had the name minor, this new chord took it's name from the 5th.

So, the diminished interval came into existence. It was decided that any perfect interval could be made diminished by lowering it a half-step. The triad containing both the lowered third and the lowered 5th, is called a diminished chord.

About the same time, it was discovered that you could build a triad using each degree of the scale as the root of the triad. Each triad was given the name of the scale degree from which it was built:

Cmaj(C E G)=tonic, Dmin(D F A)=supertonic, Emin(E G B)=mediant, Fmaj(F A C)=subdominant, Gmaj(G B D)=dominant, Amin(A C E)=submediant, Bdim(B D F)=leading tone

(See my chord scale lesson (http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/chord-scale.html) for all the details)

Each of these chords were used in certain ways, but it was the chord built from the dominant degree (G B D) that became the most important of the bunch. This was because the chord built from the dominant degree seemed to have a natural tendency to lead to the tonic chord. This natural tendency could be further accentuated by adding an F note into the chord (G B D F).

If you compare this new chord to the G major scale (G A B C D E F#), you will see that the F note is a minor 7th interval, so a b7 was being added to a major triad. The name for this new chord was taken from the 5th degree of the scale from which it was built.

Thus the dominant chord came into existence. Henceforth, any major triad with a minor 7th interval added to it became known as a dominant chord.

Now, since the dominant chord was the only chord at the time that was built with four intervals (1 3 5 b7), it was easier to just call them 7th chords (G7, C7, B7, A7 etc...). To this day, you will still hear people refer to chords as "majors, minors, and 7ths.

Now, along with the major scale and the chords built from that scale, composers were also on occasion using the natural minor scale (A B C D E F G A see my relative minor lesson (http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/relative-minor.html)).

The minor scale uses the same chords as the major scale but starts from the submediant of the major scale:

Amin(A C E)=tonic, Bdim(B D F)=supertonic, Cmaj(C E G)=mediant, Dmin(D F A)=subdominant, Emin(E G B)=dominant, Fmaj(F A C)=submediant, Gmaj(G B D)=leading tone

The problem with the minor scale was that the dominant chord built from that scale is a minor chord (E B G), and the minor dominant chord doesn't have the same tendency to to lead to the tonic that the major dominant chord has. So a new scale was invented.

The harmonic minor scale came into existence when it was decided that the dominant chord within the minor scale should be major (E G# B) instead of minor (E G B). So the new minor scale became A B C D E F G# A. If you add the 7th to the dominant chord of the new minor scale you get E G# B D, which, again, is a major triad with a minor 7th added to it.

What does this have to do with anything?

First off, changing the G to G# effects not only the dominant chord, but also the mediant(C E G# instead of C E G) and the leading tone (G# B D instead of G B D). That gives us a new chord to have to deal with.

C E G# has a major 3rd, but it also has a raised 5th. We have to come up with a new name for that one. Let's see... since lowereing the fifth is called diminished, how about calling the raised 5th augmented (diminish means to take away from, augment means to add to).

So, now we have the rule that any perfect interval made larger by a half-step is called augmented. The major triad with a raised 5th takes its name from the raised 5th, so 1 3 #5 (G E G#) is called augmented.

Luckily, we already have the leading tone chord covered. G# B D = R b3 b5 which we already know as the diminished chord.

Eventually, composers began to wonder if the 7th interval couldn't be added to other chords within the scale. Why should the dominant be the only chord that gets to have any fun?

Well, between the major scale and the harmonic minor scale, a whole slew of 7th chords are possible:

major scale - tonic and subdominant=1 3 5 7. supertonic, mediant and submediant=1 b3 5 b7. dominant=1 3 5 b7. leading tone=1 b3 b5 b7.
harmonic minor scale - tonic=1 b3 5 7. supertonic=1 b3 b5 b7. mediant=1 3 #5 7. subdominant=1 b3 5 b7. dominant=1 3 5 b7. submediant=1 3 5 7. leading tone=1 b3 b5 bb7(6).

This gives us seven different combinations to have to name:

1 3 #5 7(C E G# B) = augmented7 or major7#5
1 3 5 7(C E G B) = major7
1 3 5 b7(C E G Bb) = 7 (dominant7)
1 b3 5 7(C Eb G B) = minor/major7 (has a minor3 and a major7)
1 b3 5 b7(C Eb G Bb) = minor7
1 b3 b5 b7(C Eb Gb Bb) = half diminished7 or minor7b5
1 b3 b5 bb7(C Eb Gb A)= diminished7 (bb7 or "double-flat" 7 is the same interval as 6 but is called bb7 to maintain consistency in chord intervals.)

As you can see, things are getting out of hand, but so far, major intervals have only been lowered (made minor), perfect intervals have been raised and lowered (made augmented and diminished) and the only intervals used in chords are combinations of 1 3 5 7.

Never satisfied with what they have, composers began to experiment with adding extensions to the 7th chords. Extensions come from "extending" the scale into the next octave:

C D E F G A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

This allows chords to include the 9 11 and 13, so now you get to deal with things like Cmaj7#11 (1 3 5 7 9 #11) and C7b9#11b13 (1 3 5 b7 b9 #11 b13). Are we having fun yet?

Other scales were also being explored. These scales included major intervals that were raised. Uh oh... we gotta come up with a new name. Well not exactly. People must have gotten lazy at that point, because major intervals are called augmented when they are raised.

Whew!!! that's a lot of little details to keep straight http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/eek.gif

(Please keep in mind that while this little story is pretty close to accurate history, certain liberties have been taken for the sake of clarity and/or entertainment purposes.)

So, we have major intervals and perfect intervals. Major intervals are minor if they are lowered and augmented if the are raised. Perfect intervals are diminished if they are lowered and augmented if they are raised. That is all you have to know about intervals.


Triads are the most basic chords. They are built from the 1 3 5 of the scale. Triads come in four flavors:

major - 1 3 5 (C, F, G etc.)
minor - 1 b3 5 (Cmin, Fmin, Gmin etc.)
augmneted - 1 3 #5 (C+, F+, G+ etc.)
diminished - 1 b3 b5 (C-, F-, G- etc.)


There are two other commonly used 3-note chords which are built by replacing the 3rd with either the 4th or the 2nd. Technically, they could be called triads, but they are not usually included in discussions about triads. These cords are called suspended:

sus4 - 1 4 5
sus2 - 1 2 5


When it comes to chords with more than three intervals, you have to know the basic construction of the three chord families. Each of the three families are dictated by the 3rd and 7th intervals:

MAJOR chords have both a major 3rd and major 7th. No matter what the other intervals are doing, the major 3 and major 7 qualify the chord. These chords will be designated by M, Maj or sometimes a triangle before any numbers are added (Maj7, Maj11, Maj7#11 etc.). As far as I'm concerned, augmented 7th chords belong in this family, although most people argue about that point.

MINOR chords contain the minor 3rd interval. Most often the 7th is also minor but can also be major (m/M7). Minor chords will be designated with m, min or sometimes - (min7, min9, min7b5 etc.). The rule of thumb for minor chords is that unless otherwise specified with the m/M designation, the 7 is assumed to be minor. As far as I'm concerned, any chord with a minor 3 is minor, therefore diminished chords belong to this family. Most people want to lump them in the next category.

DOMINANT chords are characterized by a major 3rd combined with a minor 7. Without those two intervals working against each other, you don't get the dominant sound. This is why I don't consider the diminished chords to be dominant.

Now, the thing with dominant chords is that they are designated by adding a number only. But that number must be 7 or greater. C6 (1 3 5 6) is not a dominant chord, neither is C6/9 (1 3 5 6 9) or Cadd9 (1 3 5 9). Just remember that the chord MUST have the combination of the major 3rd and minor 7th to qualify as a dominant chord. So, C7 )1 3 5 b7), C9 (1 3 5 b7 9), C11 (1 3 5 b7 9 11), and C13 (1 3 5 b7 9 11 13) are dominant chords. So is C13b9#11 (1 3 5 b7 b9 #11 13).


The final point of this way-too-long post is that chords normally include every other interval up to the highest extension. That means that a CMaj13 should contain 1 3 5 7 9 11 13, but there is no way to get 7 notes on a 6-string guitar with four fingers. Instead, we have to leave some notes out of the chord. So, how do you know which notes to leave out?

Think about which notes really define the sound:

1 - this is the root of the chord. Unless the bass player or the piano player or another guitarist or whoever is playing this note, it needs to be included.

3 - This note defines the difference between major chords and minor chords. It's pretty important.

5 - Unless this interval is augmented or diminished, it doesn't really do much for the chord. This interval will usually conflict with the 11 and 13 as well, so this is usually the first note you can drop out of a chord.

7 - if the chord is minor, this note can be left out without confusing the sound of the chord. For major and dominant chords, this is the note that defines the difference between the two families. Without the b7, dominant chords will sound like major chords. A good rule of thumb is to include this note in both major chords and dominant chords if it is practical, but it can be left out of major chords if necessary. Don't leave this note out of a dominant chord if you don't absolutely have to.

9 11 13 - When it comes to the extensions, the only one that is critical is the one that is named in the chord. For a C13, no harm is done if you leave out the 9 and/or 11. If, however, you have a C13b9, the b9 is an important note and cannot be left out without harming the sound of the chord. A good rule of thumb is to include any extensions that are specifically named in the chord, but leave out whichever intervals are not named in the chord.

So, if we get back to our CMaj13 chord, this chord can be reduced to 1 3 7 13 by leaving out the 5th and any unnecessary extensions (9 and 11).

That's it for now... hope this post doesn't give anybody nightmares http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/moo2.gif

[Strat-n-Paul]

Actually Stone, it's good basic review for anyone! Thanks for taking the time to type it out; (better save it somewhere for the theory section!)

[ghodaddyyo]

I'm going to print this page out, fold it up and keep it in my guitar case. Thanks Stone.

[geoffreyt]

Yea, thanks! Good material! In a concise format.

[haddocg]

I don't ever remember any thing in Reader's Digest being that long.

It's still good stuff.

Glen
http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

[StoneDragon]

heh heh... I had the best intentions of keeping it short... but as those who know me will testify... once I get going, its hard to get me to shut up http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/talker.gif

[Strat-n-Paul]

That usually turns out good for the rest of us lacking in Theroy background though! http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/wink.gif

[travis0127]

Yeah, thanks stone, I'm printing it out too.