>NOTE: To learn ALL the techniques and strategies to
playing chords and patterns in songs, go here:
http://www.hearandplay.com/products
After last week’s e-mail, I received the most replies ever.
Here’s another one I think will really help you (VERY IMPORTANT
STRATEGIES BELOW).It’s from a gentleman named Mark.
***Comment From Mark H.***
Hi Jermaine,
Last week’s e-mail was totally awesome! This number system
stuff is quite new to me but you’ve totally made it plain. You
certainly have a knack for breaking stuff down and I want to
thank you for taking the time to do this.
On one of your blog posts, you talked about primary and
secondary chords. You also talked about how each tone of the
scale has its own chord that is usually played.
I’m having a hard time remember all these chords and where they
go. Let’s not even talk about all 12 keys because I can’t
remember even one key. Please help!
Mark H Dallas, TX
>>> My Comments and explanations back to Mark (read closely as
you can get a lot out of what I had to say to him):
Hey Mark,
Appreciate your positive feedback!
I have a really easy way for you to remember all the primary
and secondary chords and it won’t take that long to master it.
All it takes is for you to know your major chords. Like I
teach musicians all the time, you can play both minor scales and
minor chords by understanding major chords and their
relationships to minor chords.
Don’t worry, I’ll explain…
Since you mentioned primary and secondary chords, let me
touch on those for a minute.
Every major key has what we call primary and secondary
chords. The primary chords of any given key are the 1st, 4th,
and 5th chords. These numbers come from the scale. In the key of
C, C is the 1st tone of the scale, D is the 2nd tone of the
scale, E is the 3rd tone, and so forth.
So the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of the key of C major are C,
F, and G (in that order). They are always major chords. These
chords will occur in music the most. The 1st chord of the scale
is the key that you’re in so it’s always going to feel like
“home.” This chord will begin and end your songs. When a
non-musical audience hears the 1-chord, they know to clap
because the song feels at rest… at home… at peace. It’s the
end and they don’t have to be musically-inclined to know that.
The 4th chord of the scale, the next primary chord, is like
being away from home but at a close relative’s house. It’s ‘home
away from home.’ There is a very strong connection between the
1st tone (real home) and the 4th tone (home away from home).
That’s why countless songs go from “the 1 to the 4.” It’s one of
the MOST POPULAR movements in music, hands down.
So, if the 1 is ‘being at home’ and the 4 is being ‘away from
home,’ then the 5 is ‘coming back home.’ The 5 has a strong
connection and tendency to lead back home to the 1st chord. When
you tell your kids to get in the car because we have to go home,
that’s the 5 coming home to the 1 in music.
So now that you have a good understanding of the primary
chords (1, 4, 5), the secondary chords are EVERYTHING ELSE…
That literally leaves the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th tones of
the scale. And the good news is three of those are simple minor
chords that can be played by understanding the three primary
major chords we just covered.
Let’s go to the key of C major:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
You already know that C major, F major, and G major are
primary chords.
But what you probably don’t know is that the three minor
secondary chords are relatives to the primary chords. They are
like sisters and brothers, if you will.
(Now this is like 5 chapters of a music theory book covered
in one e-mail but let’s go for it.)
Every major key has what you call a relative minor. In other
words, every major key has a minor key that “pairs” with it.
This minor key has the same notes in its scale as the major
key… it has the same sharps and flats as well.
You can pretty much call them brother-sister scales. One
being major and one being minor. They share EVERYTHING.
For C major, that relative minor is ‘A minor.’
Now before we delve a little deeper into this, let’s look at
the C major and A minor scales:
C major
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
A minor
A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Do they use different notes or the same notes?
Answer: same notes
Do they both have the same number of flats and sharps?
Answer: Yes, because C has no flats/sharps and A minor has
no flats/sharps.
They are relatives, that’s why! They are closely related. They
share the same house, sort of!
Every major scale has one of these. In fact, you can create the
“A minor” scale just by understanding the C major scale.
Here’s what you do:
(I started to make bullet points but this is too simple so I’ll
just say it)…
Just go to the 6th tone of your major scale. That’s it. Just
play your major scale starting on the 6th tone until you get
back to that same 6th tone.
C major
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Ok, this is the C major scale. I’m just going up an extra
octave with this example (that’s why you see double the notes).
What tone is the 6th tone?
Answer: A
So what do you do?
Answer: Play this same scale without changing ANY notes from A
to A. Like this: A B C D E F G A
What does that give you?
Answer: The “A minor scale”
Bam! You’re done! Now you know how to play the “A minor” scale.
And the best part is that you don’t have to remember any new
scales. You can “piggy back” off what you already know.
That’s why it’s important to know the number system because
shorctus like this are EVERYWHERE. This is what I cover in my
Starter 702 course. If I were you, I’d pick it up. It’s only $17
bucks.
http://www.hearandplay.com/playbyear.html
So now let’s go back to this whole ‘primary and secondary chord’
stuff.
Basically, just how you learned the “A minor” scale from
knowing your C major scale, you can do the same with CHORDS.
You just take a C major chord (C+E+G) and put “A” on your bass
and you’ve got yourself an “A minor 7″ chord. How cool is that?
Just how you piggy-backed on the C scale to play the “A” minor
scale, you do the same to play the A minor 7 chord. Crazy huh?
You can do this with any major chord.
F major chord = F+A+C
6th tone of F major = D
Playing D on your left hand as the bass and F+A+C on your right
hand creates a D minor 7 chord.
G major chord = G+B+D
6th tone of G major = E (if you were in the key of G, this
would be the 6th tone — gotta know your scales and numbers
like we talked about in my last e-mail).
Playing E on your left hand as the bass and G+B+D on your right
hand creates an E minor 7 chord.
It’s simple. So if you know all 12 major chords, now you should
easily know all 12 minor chords by doing this easy exercise.
The magic number in this case is “6.”
Note: There are magic numbers for other stuff too. But for minor
relationships, it’s 6. See my course below for details.
So if C major, F major, and G major are the primary chords of
the key of C, then you can apply this same idea to learn your
minor secondary chords.
1st, 4th, and 5th = primary chords
2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th = secondary chords
And as you now know, the primary chords help you to play the
secondary chords.
2nd tone = D… but all you gotta do is play an F major chord
over D to play a D minor 7 chord. Easy!
3rd tone = E… but all you gotta do is play a G major chord
over E to play an E minor 7 chord. Even easier!
6th tone = A… but all you gotta do is play a C major chord
over A to play an A minor 7 chord. Bam!
So in other words…
The 1st and 6th tones pair up.
The 2nd and 4th tones pair up.
The 3rd and 5th tones pair up.
That takes care of EVERY tone of the scale pretty much. The
only one left is the 7th tone of the scale. That won’t be a
major or minor chord… it’s a diminished or half-diminished
chord depending on whether you’re going to use 3 or 4 notes to
play it. But unfortunately, I’ve spent way too much time on this
and won’t have enough time to cover it.
However, check out this very affordable course to get the low
down on all this…
To learn other unique techniques and strategies you can use
to master chords and take your playing to the next level, go to
the link below. I recommend either my 300-pg course or my
Starter 702 audio course (or BOTH). The Starter 702 course is
cheap… a steal… $17 bucks and covers much of what I’ve
talked about here… but with my VOICE and piano explaining
everything. If you’re serious, check it out:
http://www.hearandplay.com/playbyear.html
If you were a bit helped by the words I’ve written here,
then this audio course will REALLY be helpful because you’ll
hear me talking about all this stuff for 2 whole hours,
reinforcing every little concept over and over. You’ll like it.
Talk soon,
Jermaine
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This episode of the game was inspired by my good friend Rodney. He posted it as a comment on 
