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    Chord Construction Basics

    Uploaded by

    Joe Williamson
    This document explains how to build chords using thirds from major and minor scales. It defines triads as containing the root, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale. A C major triad contains C, E, and G notes. A C minor triad contains C, Eb, and G notes. Seventh chords add the 7th note, so a C major 7 contains C, E, G, and B notes. There are three primary types of seventh chords - major 7, dominant 7, and minor 7 - which differ in whether they contain a major or minor 3rd and 7th.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Chord Construction Basics

    Uploaded by

    Joe Williamson
    150 views1 page
    This document explains how to build chords using thirds from major and minor scales. It defines triads as containing the root, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale. A C major triad contains C, E, and G notes. A C minor triad contains C, Eb, and G notes. Seventh chords add the 7th note, so a C major 7 contains C, E, G, and B notes. There are three primary types of seventh chords - major 7, dominant 7, and minor 7 - which differ in whether they contain a major or minor 3rd and 7th.

    Original Description:

    Basics of makeing triad and seventh chords

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    This document explains how to build chords using thirds from major and minor scales. It defines triads as containing the root, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale. A C major triad contains C, E, and G notes. A C minor triad contains C, Eb, and G notes. Seventh chords add the 7th note, so a C major 7 contains C, E, G, and B notes. There are three primary types of seventh chords - major 7, dominant 7, and minor 7 - which differ in whether they contain a major or minor 3rd and 7th.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    150 views1 page

    Chord Construction Basics

    Uploaded by

    Joe Williamson
    This document explains how to build chords using thirds from major and minor scales. It defines triads as containing the root, 3rd and 5th notes of a scale. A C major triad contains C, E, and G notes. A C minor triad contains C, Eb, and G notes. Seventh chords add the 7th note, so a C major 7 contains C, E, G, and B notes. There are three primary types of seventh chords - major 7, dominant 7, and minor 7 - which differ in whether they contain a major or minor 3rd and 7th.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    Chord Construction Basics

    Chords are built in thirds. This means we go up a scale, starting from the root and selecting every other note until we have all
    we need to make the chord.
    Triads have three notes. Here's how we'd build a C Major Triad:

    C Major Scale C Major Triad


    R 2 3 4 5 6 7 Contains the Root, 3rd and 5th

    & œ œ œ œ œ w
    œ œ w
    w

    If we do this with a minor scale, we get a minor triad:

    C Minor Scale (Aeolian) C Minor Triad


    R 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 Contains the Root, b3rd and 5th

    & œ œ bœ bœ
    œ bœ œ bw
    w
    w
    If we go up another step, and add a 4th note, we get a seventh chord - so called becuase the 4th note is the seventh degree of the scale.

    C Major Scale C Major 7


    R 2 3 4 5 6 7 Contains the Root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th

    & œ œ œ œ œ w
    w
    œ œ w
    w
    If we do the same process with a minor scale, we get a minor seventh chord

    C Minor Scale (Aeolian) C Minor 7


    R 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 Contains the Root, b3rd, 5th and b7

    & œ œ bœ bœ bw
    œ bœ œ bw
    w
    w

    There are 3 primary types of seventh chords which consist of different groups of chord tones:

    C Major 7 C Dominant 7 (C7) C Minor 7


    C^7 C7 C-7

    & nnw
    w
    w
    bw
    w
    w
    bw
    bw
    w
    w w Root, 3rd, 5th and b7
    w Root, b3rd, 5th and b7
    Root, 3rd, 5th and 7

    Here are two other common 7th chords:

    C half-diminished 7 C diminished 7
    CØ7 Cº7

    & bbbw
    w
    w
    w bbw
    w
    w
    w
    Root, b3rd, b5th and bb7 (aka natural 6).
    Root, b3rd, b5th and b7
    Note that this is just a stack of minor third intervals
    Joe Williamson - Guitarist/Composer
    www.joe-williamson.com

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