As you know, there is a formula for everything! Nothing is random — even when playing by ear…

 

From the most basic triad (or three-fingered chord) to the largest thirteenth chord, there are easy, systematic ways to remember ALL chords, regardless of size.

 

Let’s start basic and then I’ll show you how to remember larger chords.

 

If you have the 300pg course, page 50 displays a chart like this:

 

# of notes	Type of chord
Three	Triad
Four	Seventh
Five	Ninth
Six	Eleventh
Seven	Thirteenth

 

 

… If you’re just starting out, don’t be confused by these names and numbers.

 

Simply put, three-note chords (like a Cmaj or Fmin) are called “triads.”

 

As you add tones to the basic triad, you form “sevenths” and “ninths” — and all the others. We will get into this in a moment.

 

Key Rule: By knowing major scales, you can figure out any triad, seventh, ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth.

 

I always talk about major scales so I won’t waste time listing them here. You can find newsletters on them at my new archive site www.pianoweekly.com or in the 300pg course (chapter four).

 

But for now, I’ll show the C major scale:

 

C D E F G A B C

 

Basically, to form various chords, you just take notes from the C major scale. Keep in mind that each note of a scale is played individually, one after the other (don’t confuse scales and chords).

 

On the other hand, when you are playing chords, you are holding down multiple notes at the same time.

 

In order to apply these simple principles below, you’ll have to convert the major scale above to numbers. We’ve discussed techniques like this in prior weeks (www.pianoweekly.com) .

 

C = 1

D = 2

E = 3

F = 4

G = 5

A = 6

B = 7

 

So…

 

Once you know your major scales as numbers, you can apply these formulas to make any chord you want:

 

Major triads (Ch 5): 1 + 3  + 5

Minor triads (Ch 8): 1 + b3 + 5

Diminished triad (Ch 9): 1 + b3 + b5

Augmented triad: 1 + 3 + #5

 

Major seventh (Ch 10): 1 + 3 + 5 + 7

Minor seventh (Ch 10): 1 + b3 + 5 + b7

Dominant seventh (Ch 10): 1 + 3 + 5 + b7

Half Diminished seventh: 1 + b3 + b5 + b7

Diminished seventh (Ch 13): 1 + b3 + b5 + bb7  (or just think of it as “6″)

 

Major ninth (Ch 11): 1 + 3 + 5  + 7 + 9

Minor ninth (Ch 11): 1 + b3 + 5 + b7 + 9

Dominant ninth (Ch 11): 1 + 3 + 5 + b7 + 9

 

and so on… (eleventh chords, thirteenth chords, altered chords, major sixth, minor sixth…)

 

 

Now… let me help you to apply these formulas:

 

In the key of C major, let’s say you wanted to play a C maj chord (aka “C major triad”). Since the formula is 1+3+5, simply take the first, third, and fifth tone of the C major scale and play them together.

 

What’s the 1st tone of the C major scale?  Answer: C

What’s the 3rd tone of the C major scale? Answer: E

What’s the 5th tone of the C major scale? Answer: G

 

C major triad: C E G

 

It’s that simple.

 

If you’re just starting out, you may have run into a problem with the “b3″, “b5″, or “bb7″ and — that’s understandable (I’d be confused too if I were just starting out). Let me explain.

 

Whenever you see a “b” or “#”, that simply means to lower or raise the note a half step.

 

“b” means to lower the note a half step. So if you see b3, that means to take the third tone of the scale and lower it one-half step.

 

So if a minor chord is 1 + b3 + 5, in the key of C major, that is:

 

C Eb G

 

Why Eb?

 

Because we simply took the third tone of the scale and lowered it one-half step.

 

With that said, you should be able to figure out all the chords above:

 

Major triads (Ch 5): 1 + 3  + 5

Cmaj: C E G

 

Minor triads (Ch 8): 1 + b3 + 5

Cmin: C Eb G

 

Diminished triad (Ch 9): 1 + b3 + b5

Cdim: C Eb Gb

 

Augmented triad: 1 + 3 + #5

Caug: C E G#

 

Major seventh (Ch 10): 1 + 3 + 5 + 7

Cmaj7: C E G B

 

Minor seventh (Ch 10): 1 + b3 + 5 + b7

Cmin7: C Eb G Bb

 

Dominant seventh (Ch 10): 1 + 3 + 5 + b7

C7 (aka Cdom7): C E G Bb

 

Half Diminished seventh: 1 + b3 + b5 + b7

C half dim7: C Eb Gb Bb

 

Diminished seventh (Ch 13): 1 + b3 + b5 + bb7  (or just think of it as “6″)

Cdim7: C Eb Gb A

 

 

 

What about the more extended chords like ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths?

 

What if I told you that you could play any ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth chord by knowing just seventh chords?

 

You can.

 

Major Ninth Chords

 

The formula for a major ninth chord is:

1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9

 

The Cmaj9 chord, for example, is:

 

C E G B D

 

But a shortcut is to simply play an Emin7 over C.

 

C bass   *  E G B D (Emin7) on right hand = Cmaj9

 

So, how can we make this a “rule” to apply to all maj9 chords?

 

 

Simply put, take the iii min7 of any major key.

 

1) Start with the keynote of the major scale. So if you want to play a Cmaj9 chord, the keynote would be “C”. Play this on your left hand.

 

2) On your right hand, locate the third tone of the scale and play a minor seventh chord on that tone. So in the key of C, the third tone is E. Therefore, you’d play an Emin7 chord on C bass.

 

For your convenience, here’s a list of all twelve major ninth chords:

 

Cmaj9: C + Emin7 chord (C E G B D)

Fmaj9: F + Amin7 chord (F A C E G)

Bbmaj9: Bb + Dmin7 chord (Bb D F A C)

Ebmaj9: Eb + Gmin7 chord (Eb G Bb D F)

Abmaj9: Ab + Cmin7 chord (Ab C Eb G Bb)

Dbmaj9: Db + Fmin7 chord (Db F Ab C Eb)

Gbmaj9: Gb + Bbmin7 chord (Gb Bb Db F Ab)

Bmaj9: B + D#min7 (B D# F# A# C#)

Emaj9: E + G#min7 (E G# B D# F#)

Amaj9: A + C#min7 (A C# E G# B)

Dmaj9: D + F#min7 (D F# A C# E)

Gmaj9: G + Bmin7 (G B D F# A)

 

Let’s move on…

 

Minor Ninth Chords

 

Minor ninth chords have a similar formula. Instead of taking the 3rd tone of the scale and playing a minor 7th chord on it (like we did above), simply take the b3rd of the scale and play a major 7th chord on it.

 

So it’s sort of like the opposite of the maj9 chord.

 

Maj 9 vs Min 9

 

Maj 9: We took the 3rd tone of the scale and played its minor seventh chord.

Min 9: We will take the b3rd tone of the scale (or the relative major) and play its major seventh chord. Don’t worry about relative major/minor — this would take a few more concepts to explain. For now, just remember the b3 of any key!

 

1) Start with the keynote of the major scale (C for example).

 

2) On your right hand, locate the b3 tone of the scale. That involves finding the natural third tone (E) and lowering it one-half step to Eb. So, to recap, the b3 of C major is “Eb.”

 

3) Simply play Ebmaj7 over C bass and there’s a nice min9 chord!

 

Cmin9: C + Ebmaj7 chord (C Eb G Bb D)

 

You try the rest…

 

Cmaj9: C + Ebmaj7 chord (C Eb G Bb D)

Fmaj9: _______________________

Bbmaj9: _______________________

Ebmaj9: _______________________

Abmaj9: _______________________

Dbmaj9: _______________________

Gbmaj9: _______________________

Bmaj9: _______________________

Emaj9: _______________________

Amaj9: _______________________

Dmaj9: _______________________

Gmaj9: _______________________

 

 

Next week, I’ll teach you easy ways to play eleventh and thirteenth chords using similar formulas.

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At first look, the word “superimposition” may sound like a complex concept… but I assure you, it is easier than it looks!

For a chord to be superimposed on top of another chord means just that! Usually, you’d play one particular chord on your left hand while playing another chord on your right (both at the same time).

Major, Minor, and Dominant Chords

You’d be surprised how many superimposed chords you already know how to play.

In fact, any 7th, 9th, 11th, or 13th chord can be considered two chords superimposed on top of one another. You’ve probably heard the term “polychords” to describe these chords as well. Basically, polychords consist of two or more chords that are stacked to create one larger chord.

Think about it…

What does a Cmaj7 chord consist of? (I don’t know my maj7 chords)

Cmaj7 = C + E + G + B

Well, obviously a Cmaj triad: C + E + G

But you could also play an Emin triad: E + G + B

Combine them together, and you have one C, two E’s, two G’s, and one B.

Cmaj: C + E + G /// Emin: E + G + B

… Now get rid of any duplicate notes and you have: (C E G B)

So playing an Emin over a Cmaj creates a Cmaj7 chord.

…Moving on…

What about major ninth chords? What two chords do they consist of?

(I don’t know my maj9 chords)

Let’s look at Cmaj9.

Cmaj9 = C + E + G + B + D

If you look closely, you’ll see one major chord superimposed on top of another.

If you see Cmaj on the bottom and Gmaj on the top, then you’re absolutely correct!

Cmaj + Gmaj = Cmaj9

What about major eleventh chords? (I don’t know my maj11 chords)

Cmaj11: C + E + G + B + D + F

There are several smaller chords in this huge polychord. It just depends on how you look at the chord.

How many different chords do you see?

Cmaj, Cmaj7, Emin, Emin7, Emin9, Gmaj, G7, Bdim

How many different superimposed relationships?

Cmaj + G7

Cmaj + Bdim

What about major thirteenth chords? (I don’t know my maj13 chords)

Cmaj13: C + E + G + B + D + F + A

Cmaj7 + Dmin

Cmaj + B half diminished

Cmaj + G9

Here is a “cheat” chart for all the major, minor, and dominant chords covered above:

Type	9	11	13
Major	1maj + 5maj	1maj + 7dim	1maj7 + 2min
Minor	1min + 5min	1min + b7maj	1min7 + 2min
Dominant	1maj + 5min	1maj + b7maj	1dom7 + 2min

In order to read the chart above, you will have to know your major scales. I will demonstrate how to use this chart in the key of C major, but feel free to check out my 300-pg course to learn all twelve major scales along with tons of major, minor, dominant, and diminished chords like the ones above!

C major scale

C — D — E — F — G — A — B — C

1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8

If you wanted to play a Cmaj9 chord, you would use the row titled “Major” and the column titled “9.”

Notice the formula for a maj9 chord is 1maj + 5maj.

If you know your major scales, then this will be very simple.

The number in front of “maj” corresponds to the major scale. The “1″ of C major is obviously C. So you’d play Cmaj on your left hand. The right hand chord, according to the formula, needs to be the 5maj chord of the scale.

Count up the C major scale…

C is 1 … D is 2… E is 3… F is 4… G is 5. Ding Ding Ding!

So on your right hand, you’d play Gmaj.

Cmaj9 = Cmaj + Gmaj

*Follow these same steps for all the other types of chords.

Altered Chords

In my GospelKeys 202 video course: “Mastering Worship Chords”, I cover a number of chord progressions that are used in worship music.

If you already have the course, you will know that one of my favorite progressions is the “7-3-6″.

This is a bit more advanced but certainly relevant for this section.

Instead of playing a major or minor chord on the left hand as I’ve demonstrated above, we will play a tritone on our left hand and a major chord on our right hand.

We’ve covered tritones in other newsletters but here is a brief summary:

1) Tritones are made up of diminished 5th intervals.

• From C to Gb would be a tritone interval.

2) Tritones are 3 whole steps apart.

• C to D (1 W) … D to E (2 W) … E to Gb (3 W)

3) Tritones split the piano in half.

• From C to Gb is the same distance as Gb to C. Gb is exactly the middle of C and the octave C.

4) Tritones also create the shell of dominant chords (3 + b7).

• C + Gb is the shell of an Ab7 chord (Ab + C + Eb + Gb). C is the 3rd of Ab and Gb is the b7.

There are twelve tritones but really only six unique ones because they start to repeat. Let me explain…

C to Gb

Db to G

D to Ab

Eb to A

E to Bb

F to B

— repeating starts —

Gb to C

G to Db

Ab to D

A to Eb

Bb to E

B to F

* Notice that the bottom sets of tritones are the same as the top but backwards.

Now… back to the 7-3-6 progression:

Normally, in the key of Db, I’d play a 7-3-6 like this:

Cmin11 —> F7 (#9#5) —> Bbmin9

Cmin11 = C on bass /// Eb G Bb D F on right hand

F7 (#9#5) = F on bass /// A Db Eb Ab on right hand

Bbmin9 = Bb on bass /// Ab C Db F on right hand

For the F7 (#9#5) altered chord, you can actually substitute the shell of F7. Remember, we are calling a “shell” the 3rd and b7th notes of any 7th chord. So the shell of F7 would be A and Eb. This is also called an upper structure voicing.

You should also know from above that A + Eb is a tritone!

So… on your left hand, play the A + Eb tritone.

On your right hand, simply play a Dbmaj chord (or the major chord of the key that you’re in). Wasn’t that simple?

Moving on…

Since the A + Eb can be played either way (with A on top or bottom), let’s switch our left hand to Eb + A instead. I like this sound better.

Left hand = Eb + A.

Now, here’s the trick with any 7-3 progression. We’ve covered the superimposed substitution for the F7 (#9#5) above. But what about the Cmin11 chord right before it? Can that be substituted?

It sure can!

Just take the: Eb + A /// Dbmaj and move it up one-half step.

E + Bb on left /// Dmaj on your right hand. This will take the place of your Cmin11 chord.

… So just to recap:

What used to be:

Cmin11 = C on bass /// Eb G Bb D F on right hand

F7 (#9#5) = F on bass /// A Db Eb Ab on right hand

Bbmin9 = Bb on bass /// Ab C Db F on right hand

Is now:

D major superimposed on top of (E+Bb) tritone

Db major superimposed on top of (Eb + A) tritone

* For the Bbmin9 chord, I would change the right hand to create:

Ab maj over Bb bass.

Here’s an audio example of how this progression should sound:

Concluding…

 

We didn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to superimposing chords on top of one another.

 

Yes, I covered major, minor, and dominant chords but there are series of other combinations that we couldn’t get to because of limits on space in this e-mail.

 

If you are truly serious about learning how to play the piano by ear, I recommend that you check out my newest gospel series: GospelKeys 202 video course: “Mastering Worship Chords”

Also, considering that the holidays are quickly approaching, GospelKeys 202 is a wonderful gift for any aspiring Gospel musician. In fact, since chords and progressions are used across different genres of music, there are tons of chords and voicings in GospelKeys 202 for R&B, jazz, and blues musicians!

Explore these chord types along with the GospelKeys 202 video course:

• Major triads; see pg chapter 5 of 300pg course

 

• Minor triads; see pg chapter 8 of 300pg course
• Major sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Minor sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Seventh (dominant) chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Minor seventh chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Major ninth chords; see pg chapter 14 of 300pg course

Well, I hope you enjoyed my November newsletter and I’ll be back in December! Take care!

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This concludes your November Online Classroom Lesson

If you were intrigued by the online classroom lesson above,

then you would definitely benefit from my course!

*** “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300-pg Course ***

With 20 chapters and over 300 pages, the home piano course provides several resources, techniques, tips, principles, and theories to playing the piano by ear. Along with hundreds of chords and scales, you’ll also learn how to turn them into gospel, jazz and blues chord progressions and better yet, how to use them to play ABSOLUTELY any song you want … IN VIRTUALLY MINUTES! Again, don’t miss this opportunity. I’ve even added an additional bonus if you purchase the course this week — You can read more about the course at:

http://www.hearandplay.com/course

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Yours Truly,

Jermaine Griggs

www.HearandPlay.com

www.GospelKeys.com

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Further References “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300-pg Course [5] Chords & Progressions: pgs 65-78, 105-130, 147-165, 182-227. Do you know what a “2-5-1” or “3-6-2-5-1“ progression is? Or perhaps the famous 12-bar blues chord progression? In this piano course, you will not only learn how to play gospel, blues, and jazz progressions, but how to recognize them in songs. In addition, you will learn the simple techniques to playing these progressions, hymns, and songs in all 12 major keys! … Enjoy learning: The famous “2-5-1″ Chord Progression: pgs 114-120, 153-156, 208, 235-236. I - IV - I - V - I Chord Progressions: pgs 66-70. I - IV - V - IV - I Chord Progressions: pgs 77-78. Techniques behind the famous “5–>1″ progression: pgs 68-72. I –> IV, I –> V Chord Progressions: pgs 74-75. “Circle of Fifths” Chord Exercises: pg 78. Major and Minor Chord Progressions: pgs 105-130. “6 - 2 - 5 - 1″ Chord Progressions: pgs 121-122, 157-159. “3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1″ Chord Progressions: pgs 122-123, 160-162. “7 - 3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1″ Chord Progressions: pgs 124-125, 190-191. Gospel Chord Progressions … ranging from “up-tempo praise” chord Progressions to “worship-oriented” chord progressions: pgs 65-78, 105-130, 147-165, 182-227. Various Blues Progressions … 12-bar, seventh chords, diminished chords … and others: pgs 163-165, 192. Jazz Chord Progressions … using dominant ninth, eleventh and thirteenth chords: pgs 193-240 Study the different types of Root Progressions — closing, opening, circular and other types of progressions: pgs 121-122. Study how chord tones and scale degrees relate to each other [which chord progressions are most likely to be compatible]: pgs 122-130. Learn various “turn-around” progressions [used in gospel music]: pg 213-214. If you don’t have the 300-pg Course, click here to read more about it.

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“The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300pg Course - Learn the secrets to playing literally any song on the piano with a few simple, “easy-to-understand” techniques and principles! Join Jermaine Griggs in learning tons of music theory, concepts, and tricks that will help you to learn piano by ear! Thousands of musicians have already taken advantage of this excellent program … why not you? “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” is full of easy-to-understand tricks, tips, techniques and secrets to playing piano by ear! For this month only, I’ve also been able to throw in a few bonus items (3 additional piano software programs). Click here to learn the secrets to playing absolutely any song on the piano in virtually minutes! You won’t regret it!

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