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Let’s get right to work!

Yesterday, I left off by showing you how to add the 3-chord to your songs. We stuck with the basic E minor chord and we inverted it so the melody “G” was on top:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

I promised yesterday to show you something else you could do with the 3-chord on the word, “that.”

As you learned on Thursday, substituting major for minor can sound much better at times. It doesn’t work all the time but it’s usually worth a try.

If it sounds worse, you just revert back to using minor… it’s that simple!

The reason it works is because it’s sort of operating like a 5-chord temporarily. And if you’ve learned just one thing from me, it should be that 5-chords have very strong pulls back to their tonic chords (that is, the “1-chord”). So when you take a 3-chord (in this case, “E minor”) and change it to an E major, it’s temporarily operating like a 5-chord to the next chord, which is A minor. E is the 5th tone in the key of “A.”

So let’s substitute E minor for E major and see what happens:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G#)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

That sounds good!

Only one problem though…

By switching from E minor (B+E+G) to E major (B+E+G#), we’ve gotten rid of our melody note, which is “G.”

Here’s a perfect introduction to altering chords to make them sound the way you want.

And truth be told, it’s the way I found out about a lot of the altered chords I learned when I was 11 years old and playing for a bunch of churches (A long long long long time ago, hehe!)

Basically, new chords that you’ll learn that are not the “obvious” ones come out of dilemmas. Just remember that.

Usually, the story goes something like this.

Darn! That chord sounds good there but how can I play that chord but also keep the melody on top? How can I include the same notes of the chord that pulls to the next chord a lot smoother but still include my melody on top?

These are the questions you ask yourself. And here’s how to get to an answer…

Let’s take the E major chord (B+E+G#), which sounds great, and alter it so that we keep the melody on top.

Since “G” is the true melody, G# would overshadow it because G# is higher than G. So first, I need to invert this chord so that G# is on the bottom. This will leave room for me to play the “G” up top.

E major

G# + B + E

Now, I’m going to put my melody note up top…

G# + B + E + G

(This is a weird chord because it has both a major third and what appears to be a minor third. What you can do is change the “G” to “F##” but that gets really really technical. That would make this chord an E major #9. For the purposes of keeping this post simple, I’m just going to call it a “G” rather than the true #9, “F##” ok? I just wanted you to know how I’d go about naming this chord).

Now, this chord sounds alright to me but when I hear it, something tells me it can be better.

Since I’m also playing E on my left hand, one thing I can do to make this chord better is NOT play E on my right:

G# + B + G on right /// E bass on left

Here’s another tip…

Whenever you take out the keynote of a chord from your right hand and only play it on your left, check to see if the flat 7th note works, especially if the foundation of the chord is major. This will turn the foundation into a dominant chord.

In this case, we’d add “D.”

This makes the beginning of our chord:

[E on bass] + G# + B + D (that’s an E dominant 7 chord, a.k.a. - “E7″).

Then we add our altered note up top:

G# + B + D + G on right /// E bass on left

I don’t know about you but this chord sounds really good! And it works perfectly in the song because it keeps the melody on top.

Basically, we switched our minor chord to a major chord. Then we inverted the major chord to allow room for the melody note.

Once we heard it, we made little changes by taking out the repetitive “E” on the right hand and only played it on the left. Then, we added the flat 7th degree to create a dominant chord as the foundation.

This gave us our masterpiece:

G# + B + D + G on right /// E bass on left

Let’s plug it into our song.

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E7 #9
(G# + B + D + G / E bass)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

I’m tempted to end the blog post here but I have one more idea for ya! (Don’t ya just love me???) :)

Let’s see if we can make this chord even better.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the years. Whenever you have a dominant chord with a sharp 9 alteration (like this chord), you can also sharp the 5th tone in the chord and it will provide even more pull to your next chord.

G# + B + D + G on right /// E bass on left

In this chord, the 5th degree is “B.”

E major scale
E F# G# A B C# D#

Change that to B# (or for simplicity’s sake, let’s just say “C” for this blog post).

Now you get:

E7 #9#5

G# + C + D + G on right /// E bass on left

Now, let’s try to plug it in…

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E7 #9
(G# + B + D + G / E bass)

-OR-

E7 #9#5
(G# + C + D + G / E bass)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

*I know that’s a big jump from the E chord you just learned to the next one (A chord) but after practicing it, you’ll be fine! The key is keeping that melody on top and since the melody jumps from “G” to “C,” it’s not unusual for the chords to jump to follow it.

Well, that’s all for today!

I’d like to hear what you guys think about these two new chords. Let me know…

Until next time,

Popularity: 26% [?]

Today, we’re going to keep building on what we learned Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

If you haven’t caught up, it might be a good idea to do so now. If not, just keep reading this lesson and if it makes sense, awesome! If not, visit the links above as this lessons builds on prior concepts.

As you know, we’ve been talking about using the number system and how to go from playing “Amazing Grace” with only three chords (aka - the “primary chords”) to adding more interesting chords from other tones of the scale.

On Wednesday, it was pretty simple. We just played a few songs by simply using the 1, 4, and 5 chords of the scale. We learned that those are called primary chords.

Thursday, we added the 2-chord. We also started looking closer at the circle of fifths and how chord progressions work. Like how the 2-chord pulls strongly to the 5-chord. We ended up slipping this chord in Amazing Grace right before the 5-chord and it worked brilliantly!

Then on Friday, we continued to mess with the circle and made a new discovery. That if we can use the 2-chord to progress to its neighbor on the circle (the 5-chord), then we can most certainly use the 6-chord to progress to the 2-chord.

After all, we could easily play Amazing Grace with just the 1, 4, and 5 chord. But the 2-chord made it more interesting by leading to the 5-chord. But we just took it a step further and asked the question: “What if we could pull to the chord that pulls to the 5-chord? How would that sound?” And it worked!

So we added our 6-chord. It led us to our 2-chord.

All of this can be seen on the circle.

Just look for these tones on the circle:

1) First, look for the primary chords of C major: C, F, and G. Notice they are neighbors on the circle. That means they have a very strong connection with each other.

2) Then, look for “D.” Notice that it’s a neighbor to G. That’s how we figured out we could lead to G by using some type of D chord.

3) Why don’t you also look for “A.” That was Friday’s lesson. It opened our eyes to the fact that we could also progress to a tone that progresses to another tone. We also learned another way of looking at the 6-chord (or “A” in this case). It’s commonly used as a tonic substitution, which means it can take the place of a 1-chord when you want to switch things up. And if you pay even more attention to the inner part of the circle, you’ll notice that “A minor” is associated with C major. In fact, they share the same exact slice on the circle at 12 o’clock.

And to be honest, there’s tons more patterns and observations that can be made from the circle. You can learn so much about music just by comparing what you already know about songs to that circle! (Try it when you get some time…)

Now that you’ve gotten my brief executive review of pretty much most of last week, let’s work to make “Amazing Grace” even better.

Here’s how far we got on Friday:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
(In previous lessons, I told you not to play a chord here yet. Today, however, we will!)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

I want to focus on the word “that.”

I know in previous posts, I said I wouldn’t do anything with that chord.

And that’s correct… if you’re only limited to the primary chords, D minor, D major, or A minor.

But if you extend the circle just a little further, then the word “that” becomes a powerful passing tone.

So if the chord right after “that” is “A minor,” what do you recommend playing on “that?”

(Hint: Work backwards… the G chord is where all this leads to… the D chord leads directly to it… the A chord leads to the D chord… so just look at the circle and figure out what leads to A)…

If you guessed “E,” you’re right on track!

Now, I don’t have much time to explain why “E,” (which is the 3rd tone of C) is minor but you can find prior lessons on this.

But just take my word for it…

The third tone of any scale, just like the 2nd and 6th tone, is most likely to be a minor chord.

And it fits perfectly because the melody on the word “that” is G. (Remember what I said about keeping the melody on top?)

E minor:
E + G + B

Simply invert this chord to make G the highest note:

E minor (inverted):

B + E + G

Now, let’s plug it into our song:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Wow, this song is sounding better and better!

I really hope this series of lessons is helping you see the big picture. How to take a song from just three primary chords (which can very well be used to play probably 80% of songs out there but they’ll sound extremely basic) to fully functioning chord progressions.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make this 3-chord (on “E”) even better! There’s a trick you can actually use on 3-chords.

In fact, the 3-chord is one of my favorites.

Until then,

Popularity: 25% [?]

(If you haven’t read Wednesday’s and Thursday’s post, it’d be a good idea to start there as this lesson continues with what we’ve already learned…)

Today, we’re going to keep exploring the number system and circle of fifths and see what else we can do to spice up the primary chords we already know.

Yesterday, we took it a step further and added the 2-chord.

C major

1-chord
(C major)

2-chord
(D minor)
(D major, when needed)

4-chord
(F major)

5-chord
(G major)

Now, let’s see what else we can add to spice up our progressions.

Let’s bring up my little friend…

You’re already familiar with the counter-clockwise motion of the circle and how chord progressions work. We covered that yesterday. In fact, that’s where we got the idea to introduce the “D” chord right before the G chord (because before that, we were only working with primary chords: C major, F major, and G major).

But it goes even further…

If you want to make things more interesting, you can actually lead to the chord that leads to your primary chord. Yes!

Let me repeat…

Like I said before, composers could easily write most songs with just primary chords, the 1, 4 and 5. But that would mean really basic songs.

In fact, songs like “Hallelujah,” “Lord I Lift Your Name on High,” and (I’ll go left field with this one), “Wild Thing” simply use primary chords. And in the regular 1-4-5 order at that!

But as we learned yesterday, you can use other tones of the scale to lead to your primary chords. So rather than having C major (1-chord) go straight to a G major (5-chord), you can slip a D minor or D major (2-chord) to make things more interesting.

But now, I’m going to show you how to take it a step further and determine what to play before the 2-chord, if you wanted to add even more variety:

Observe the circle.

Where’s D?

What does it lead to?

G, right?

But what leads to D?

Bingo!

That’s the chord you’re going to try to slip in… some type of “A” chord (usually it will be minor, but there are times when it’ll be major or dominant).

Let’s see if we can make this work for “Amazing Grace.”

Here’s how far we got yesterday…

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Now, if you had to add this “A chord” somewhere, where would you put it?

On what word of this song would you hit this chord? (Remember, it needs to come before the 2-chord on D).

Answer:

I’d put it on “saved.”

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
(I wouldn’t really play a chord here since this word is like a pickup. Just let the previous chord take care of it).

“saved a”
A minor (2nd inversion) ~~~
(E + A + C)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Notice, I used “A minor” before the 2-chord. Using a major chord there doesn’t work (but always try it in other situations to make sure it’s not the better fit… but like I said, the minor chord is standard on the 6th degree).

There are two reasons the “A minor” works there.

1) “A” leads strongly to “D” as we know from the circle of fifths.

2) “A minor” is actually the relative minor of “C major.” They share the same key signature. They basically live in the same house. They are very close as well. In fact, their triads almost share the same notes:

A minor
A + C + E

C major
C + E + G

2 out of 3 notes are the same.

But something even better happens when you change “A minor” to an “A minor 7″ chord.

“A minor 7″
A + C + E + G

Wow! It’s basically a C major chord, except for “A” is on the bottom.

Yup yup! To form the relative minor seventh chord, you just play the same chord on your right but change your bass to “A” (or the 6-tone).

So any time you have a song that comes back to the 1-chord, try the 6-bass (that is, “A”) on your left hand with the same 1-chord on your right hand and not only do you totally change the feel to a minor seventh chord that easily, but it provides the variety you need!

(The technical term is called the “tonic substitution.” It’s when you substitute chords for the 1 that sound very similar. “A minor 7″ and “E minor 7,” for example, are common tonic substitutions. “A minor” has A + C + E + G (3 notes in common with C major 7) and “E minor” has E + G + B + D (also 3 notes in common with C major 7). So regardless of what key you’re in, try substituting the 6-chord or 3-chord in place of the 1-chord to see what you come up with.

So let’s try the addition of the A minor 7 (which is no change in the right hand, just a new bass note):

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
(I wouldn’t really play either of these chords here since this word is like a pickup. Just let the previous chord linger. In a future post, I’ll introduce the “3-chord.” If anything, I’d put it here but we’ll talk about that later).

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

So there you have it!

You’ve just added one more scale tone to your arsenal!

You started with just primary chords:

C major
F major
G major

Yesterday, you added the 2-chord:

C major
D minor (substitute major)
F major
G major

And today, you added the 6-chord to the mix:

C major
D minor (substitute major)
F major
G major
A minor

Practice these and tell me how you like em!

Until next time

Popularity: 25% [?]

Yesterday, we talked about the primary chords of a scale.

We established that the 1, 4 and 5 are the most important degrees of any scale and that you can pretty much play tons of songs with these chords.

In fact, you can play most songs with just these chords.

(Your songs may sound basic but the point is that you can do it!)

But now, I want to take it a step further and show you how to get those other tones of the scale working for you.

Let’s turn back to the C major scale…

C major

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

(Of course, we’ve numbered our scale because this is of no use if we don’t think universally… and numbers allow us to apply this to any key later on so get used to thinking in terms of numbers).

As you know, the primary chords are on the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees:

C F G
1 4 5

But now, let’s take it a step further.

Music loves to move in fourths and fifths.

In fact, the interval between “C” and “F” is a fourth (”perfect fourth,” specifically).

And the interval between “C” and “G” is a fifth.

To find out what interval you’re working with, count the number of alphabet letters encompassed in the interval (that includes the starting and ending notes).

So, between C and F, there is C - D - E - F. Four alphabet letters means this is a fourth interval.

Note: Don’t mix up alphabet letters and notes. When you count white and black keys, there are much more than four notes in this interval. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re solely talking about alphabet letters and not even concerned with anything else.

How many alphabet letters are in between C and G?

Well, let’s see…

C - D - E - F - G

Five! That’s why this is a fifth interval. Get it?

For this lesson, we’re only going to focus on fourths as they are much more common than fifths in popular chord progressions.

See this circle?

We’re going to focus on going counter-clockwise. That is, the direction from C to F to Bb and so on.

These are fourths. Plain and simple.

If you write them out, it’ll look like this:

Memorize this! This is the direction most songs flow in.

And this is what I want to use to help you add flavor to your primary chords.

Question…

What are the primary chords of C?
(This is easy. You already know the answer because it’s at the top of this page).

Another question…

Where do these primary chords lie on the circle?

Bingo! They are neighbors!

C is right in the middle. To its left is F and to the right is G.

That means they have a very close relationship. This circle isn’t just a pretty way to organize keys… it’s a circle of close relationships and the closer notes are arranged on this circle, the stronger they pull and work with each other.

Remember I said that music usually flows in fourths and that going counter-clockwise around the circle will give you fourths?

Well, think about it. In yesterday’s, lesson, I told you that Gmaj has a very strong pull to Cmaj. Now, notice where G is on the circle. It’s to the right of C (as we just learned) and comes right before it, if you’re moving counter-clockwise around the circle.

And pretty much the whole circle works that way.

They key directly to the right side is what pulls the strongest to its neighbor on the left.

So G pulls strong to C.

C pulls strong to F.

F pulls strong to Bb.

Bb pulls strong to Eb.

E pulls strong to A on the other side of the circle.

D pulls strong to G.

Hmm, D pulls strong to G…

(And it works the other way around too. G pulls strong to D as well. But for this lesson, we’re focusing on fourths and the counter-clockwise direction of the circle because this is more common in chord progressions).

I’ve got an idea.

Why don’t we take a song from yesterday and see if we can pull to any of the Gmaj chords by first using some type of D chord?

But first, let’s make sure we talk about the numbers behind this…

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

C F G
1 4 5

Now, we’ve introduced “D.”

C D F G
1 2 4 5

So basically, the “2″ leads strongly to the “5.” (Remember that rule).

In other words, if I’m playing a song only with primary chords and I want to start venturing outside my comfort zone, I can first try out a chord on the “2″ and there is a high probability that it will work to lead to the “5.”

If the circle says it, then it’s right! :)

So let’s take a song from yesterday and see what happens.

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

(Note: It sounds better to play the chord on “ma-zing” rather than on the first syllable, “A”)

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Me”
G major
(G + B + D)

Now what we can do is slip a 2-chord before the G major.

So that means it should come on:

“wretch like”

(…your ear should have told you that if there should be a new chord added, the best place would be here).

Now, normally the 2-chord is minor. You’d have to go to past lessons to get the scoop on that because this post will be super long if I explain each tone and chord of the major scale.

So try minor there first.

See how it sounds to your ear.

“That saved a”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“wretch like”
D minor ~~~
(D + F + A)

“Me”
G major
(G + B + D)

Now, the D minor can surely work there but if it were me, I’d keep fishing for a closer match on this 2-chord.

So let’s try D major…

“That saved a”
C major ~~~
(C + E + G)

“wretch like”
D major ~~~
(D + F# + A)

“Me”
G major
(G + B + D)

Sounds much better doesn’t it!?!

I know this is a beginner post but keeping the melody on top is very important.

And the melody on “wretch” is the note, “E.”

But “E” isn’t in the D major chord so there are two ways you can do this to spice up your chord movement.

1) Try to add “E” to the chord as the highest note

OR…

2) Try to rearrange chord so that you can add “E” on top.

Right now, adding E on top of “D + F# + A” is kinda hard.

But that’s where possibility #2 comes in.

What if we invert this D major chord so that D is on top? Again, I can’t really talk about inversions here or this post will be super long. Just use the search box up top to search for posts that talk about inversions and you’ll be caught up to speed!

So inverting the D major chord to “F# + A + D” (aka - “first inversion”) allows us to put an “E” right on top:

F# + A + D + E

Now, I personally don’t like the sound the “D” and “E” make up top and since I’d most likely be playing “D” on my bass (in the left hand), I’m going to take it out.

That leaves me with “F# + A + E” over “D” bass.

You wanna know what chord you’re playing here?

D major (add 9)
(F# + A + E on right hand / D on bass)

That’s not bad for a beginning lesson!

But do you see how easy it is to naturally start playing more complex chords? One thing leads to another… one requirement leads to the next and before you know it, your ear has taken you to something totally different!

In fact, you can add a C in there and make this a D dominant ninth chord (”D9″ for short).

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D on bass)

The following is Amazing Grace with the added 2-chord and other inversions to keep the melody on top. Pay close attention to the order of notes in each chord as I’ve made some changes:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

(Unless otherwise noted, you can play these chords on your right hand and you can play the keynotes of the chords as the bass notes on your left. Basically, C major means “C on left” and “C+E+G on right.” Or you can play the chords on your left and pick out the melody and play it on your right hand. Try both ways and see what you like best.)

So there you have it! Without getting too deep (because there’s always tomorrow… and the next day… and the next day), we’ve learned how to start using other tones of the scale to lead us to our primary chords.

Until next time!

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If you’ve been keeping up with my occasional “What Key Am I In” posts, then you’re probably familiar with the chords that correspond to the major scale.

For example, the C major scale is:

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

Each one of these scale degrees has a chord that corresponds with it; a chord that is naturally created on each tone of the scale.

1 - C major 7
2 - D minor 7
3 - E minor 7
4 - F major 7
5 - G dominant 7
6 - A minor 7
7 - B half-diminished 7

This can be applied to any scale, not just C major.

1st tone - major 7
2nd tone - minor 7
3rd tone - minor 7
4th tone - major 7
5th tone - dominant 7
6th tone - minor 7
7th tone - half-diminished 7

So if you know all 12 major 7th chords, all 12 minor 7th chords, and all 12 half-diminished chords (which are also known as minor 7 b5 chords), then you can play these 7 chords in practically ANY key!

But that’s not what I want to talk about (you know I’m notorious for writing two blog posts in one… one that could be a lesson on its own, just catching you up to what I want to show you… and then the part of the post that actually shows you what I really want to show you… hehe! I’m sorry, I’m just addicted to making sure I’m very thorough and that no one gets left behind).

By the way, if you are totally lost right now, please click here.

—-

So is it true, Jermaine? If I know my major keys, do I already know my minor keys?

That is absolutely true!

What if I told you that you don’t have to learn anything new to play the chords of the minor scale? Well, that’s true and I’m going to show you how to shortcut your way to being a pro both in major and minor keys in no time!

What you MUST understand about minor keys

Minor keys come from major keys.

In fact, every minor key is related to a particular major key.

Every major key has a relative minor key and every minor key has a relative major key.

So, if you’re in the key of C major, how do you figure out what the relative minor of C is?

Just go to the 6th tone!

Boooooyyyyahhhhh! Done! Over! Simple!

Just go to the sixth tone, that’s it.

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

The 6th degree of C major is “A” — so “A” is your relative minor of C.

If you were in the key of “A minor” and wanted to figure out its relative major, then you’d go to the third tone of the “A minor” scale and that’ll give you “C.”

So C is the relative major of A minor and A minor is the relative minor of C. That’s how that all works.

The circle of fifths (yes I know, I’m a big fan) gives you all the “major-minor” relationships you’ll need to know. Just look inside the circle and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

How does knowing the relative minor of a major key translate into playing chords of the minor scale?

Glad you asked!

If you know that, “A,” for example, is the relative minor of “C major,” then here are some things you need to know about their relationship:

1. They share the same key signature. C has no sharps or flats in its key, nor does “A” minor.
2. They share the same notes. There are no notes in C major that you won’t find in “A” minor and vise versa.
3. They also share the same corresponding chords so if you know the chords for each tone of C major, then you already know the chords for each tone of A minor

In fact, if you don’t know already, you play an “A minor” scale by simply playing the C major scale from “A” to “A” rather than from “C” to “C.” Like I said, it shares all the same notes, just a different starting and ending point.

Well, if that is true, then you do the SAME exact things with the chords I taught you above.

C major scale with corresponding chords

1 - C major 7
2 - D minor 7
3 - E minor 7
4 - F major 7
5 - G dominant 7
6 - A minor 7
7 - B half-diminished 7

Now, let me do something… let me repeat these same chords from the C major scale but instead of stopping at B, the 7th tone, I’m going to keep it going for two octaves.

But I want you to pay close attention to it and you’ll notice something…

1 - C major 7
2 - D minor 7
3 - E minor 7
4 - F major 7
5 - G dominant 7
6 - A minor 7
7 - B half-diminished 7
8 - C major 7
9 - D minor 7
10 - E minor 7
11 - F major 7
12 - G dominant 7
13 - A minor 7
14 - B half-diminished 7

What you see bolded, my friend, are the chords of the A minor scale!

You just change your starting and ending points. You don’t alter anything else!

So with that said, let’s rewrite our chords now based on the minor scale, keeping in mind that all we did was take a chunk right out the middle of our major scale chords:

1st tone - A minor 7
2nd tone - B half-diminished 7
3rd tone - C major 7
4th tone - D minor 7
5th tone - E minor 7
6th tone - F major 7
7th tone - G dominant 7

Or, better yet, let’s apply this to any key:

1st tone - minor 7
2nd tone - half-diminished 7
3rd tone - major 7
4th tone - minor 7
5th tone - minor 7
6th tone - major 7
7th tone - dominant 7

So the next time someone tells you to play in a minor key, figure out the the relative major and you’ll find it a lot easier!

(Note: When you do this, you’re going to find that the 6th tone of the relative major scale seems to act as the tonic, the home base… and it should — because you’re in a minor key! Remember, with my tips here, you’re just thinking in terms of the relative major key to make things easier for you rather than tackling minor scales and chords from scratch).

The first 11 to write out the other 11 minor scale chords will get a chance to win any of our courses! Just post a comment below and I’ll randomly pick a winner once I receive all 11 minor scales and their chords. If someone has already done a scale and its chords, you have to do a new one or you won’t qualify.

Until next time!

Update:

Winner of contest is Freddy, comment #8!

(see live video of how winner was picked)

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Minor chords are pretty simple, if you already know your major chords.

You just take the 3rd degree of your major chord and lower it a half step.

(Half steps are from key to key with no keys in between.)

So if the C major chord is C+E+G, first figure out what the third degree is (because that same chord can be written as “G+C+E” or “E+G+C” so it’s not always the middle note in the chord… it’s the THIRD tone of the scale) — then you just lower it a half step.

C major scale:
C D E F G A B C

“E” is the third tone of the scale, therefore it is the tone that we lower one half step (regardless of where it appears in the chord).

C+E+G now becomes C+Eb+G (root inversion)
E+G+C now becomes Eb+G+C (first inversion)
G+C+E now becomes G+C+Eb (second inversion)

Get it?

There you have it! A quick course on minor chords

Hear and Play 702: Piano By Ear For Starters

The Hear and Play 702 Audio Series is a 2-hour, 2-disc set that specializes in taking you from the VERY beginning all the way to playing basic songs (popular ones at that). You'll study everything from the notes on the piano, scales, and basic chords to melody, harmonization, and even progressions!

If you're a newbie and want to be up and playing in less than a few days, you can't afford to miss this opportunity at this incredible price. Click here to learn more | Buy now

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Yesterday, you learned:

• how to construct the major Interval
• how to construct the perfect Interval

Major Third: Distance between root and (3) degree

Perfect Fifth Interval: Distance between root and 5th

The Major

The (major chord) is created by combining the major third and perfect fifth intervals.

For example, in (C major), a major third interval is from (C) to (E). A perfect fifth interval is from (C) to (G)

Combining these two intervals looks like the following:

(C) to (E) and (C) to (G).

Since the root is used in both intervals and can only be played once, the (C major) chord is:

(C) + (E) + (G).

The Minor Chord

The (minor chord) is created just like the major chord. The only difference is that it utilizes a “minor third” interval instead of a “major third” interval (the perfect fifth remains the same).

If a major third is the difference between the root and (3) degree, what do you think a minor third is?

Minor Third: Difference between the root and lowered (3) degree.

The minor third is a major third interval “squeezed in” by a half step. For example, in (C major), the major third interval is from (C) to (E).

The minor third simply lowers the (E) a half step to (E flat). Thus a minor third is: (C) - (E flat).

Combining a Minor third and a Perfect fifth creates a minor chord:

(C) + (E flat) + (G)

Here are other ways of figuring out a major or minor chord:

Major Chord: Take the (1) (3) and (5) of the major scale and play them all together.

Minor Chord: Take the (1) (3) and (5) of the minor scale and play them all together.

Learning all your major and minor scales will allow you to know all of your major and minor chords!

(In our 300-pg course, we take you step by step through each key and its major scale, major chord, minor chord, and more! Check out the 300-pg course by clicking here.)

Try learning the major and minor chords of all 12 keys! Just use the same exact pattern.

Good job!

Until next time —

Hear and Play 702: Piano By Ear For Starters

The Hear and Play 702 Audio Series is a 2-hour, 2-disc set that specializes in taking you from the VERY beginning all the way to playing basic songs (popular ones at that). You'll study everything from the notes on the piano, scales, and basic chords to melody, harmonization, and even progressions!

If you're a newbie and want to be up and playing in less than a few days, you can't afford to miss this opportunity at this incredible price. Click here to learn more | Buy now

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