In our last lession we started off a very simple path by introducing you to the easiest key in all of music, the key of C major. Why is it the easiest? Because it has no sharps or flats. If you don't know what a sharp of flat is, then we'll define it as an interval that is either 1/2 step above or below a specific note. By convention the key of C major has no sharps or flats, but the intervals do contain 1/2 and whole steps (as we just showed).
Now that you've had a chance to familiarize yourself with the scale of C major on the guitar neck, I would like to tell you a few things about the guitar that makes it unique. On the guitar you only have to learn all of your music theroy in one key. Why? Because on the guitar, all you have to do to play a new key is to shift your starting position, the patterns remain the same.
This fact allows you to avoid these massive chord books and scale books you see in the stores because it's all repeated material that just starts on some other fret. For example any book that has pictures of the C major scale and then the D major scale is wasting print because the only difference is the D major scale starts just two frets up from the C major and has the exact same form or pattern of notes as the C major scale. So, to learn theroy we always use C major. The only other scale on the guitar that comes close is the G scale which has one small advantage is starts on the 6th string 3 fret which allows you to see more scale progression to the first string. You get to see the intervals from the 6th string to the 1st string. Understand? If you don't don't worry about it, it's just commentary.
Chordal Intervals.
In music theroy one might ask how are chords constructed? Well the good news is that there are formulas for this. It's the mathmatetics of music. It's a lot of fun once you understand because as a composer of songs you don't have to guess what chords to use in any given key, they're all related. Let start by discussing the intervals...
We show our key of C major notes first
C(1) D(2) E(3) F(4) G(5) A(6) B(7) C(8)
The forumla for a major chord starting on the 1 of any key is
1-3-5 = C-E-G
Now go ahead on your guitar and try to find the notes C-E-G
The most common form of the C chord is seen here:
c major guitar chord - Google Image Search
We'll talk about the 1-3-5 intervals later but for now let's discover a few other really cool things about the interval 1-3-5
Let's take each note of the scale shown above and find out what the first, third and fifth note away from each note are.
C(1) D(2) E(3) F(4) G(5) A(6) B(7) C(8)
Starting at C = C-E-G = C major = Interval is 1-3-5
Starting at D = D-F-A = D minor = Interval is 1-b3-5
Starting at E = E-G-B = E minor = Interval is 1-b3-5
Starting at F = F-A-C = F major = Interval is 1-3-5
Starting at G = G-B-D = G major = Interval is 1-3-5
Starting at A = A-C-E = A minor = Interval is 1-b3-5
Starting at B = B-D-F = B diminshed = Interval 1-b3-b5
So what is a b3 or b5... Remember earlier how we described an interval that is a sharp # or flat b as being 1/2 step above or below the given note? Let's look at D minor.. It is spelled D-F-A, now lets count the intervals. D starts on the 1 and E would be the 2 and F is the 3 but note that the interval between E and F is 1/2 step... What? Ok look at this:
C-1-D-1-E-1/2-F-1-G-1-A-1-B-1/2-C
Each letter is followed by a 1 for one step that brings you to the next letter for the scale. Notice there are two natural half steps in the key of C. These half steps are from E to F and from B to C... But in the key of C these are not considered to be flat or sharp (the 1/2 steps) they are the definition of the scale.
Now if you start at D and travel to F you will see that D is the one and E is the two and F# is the three. What? E to F# is a whole step, so E to F is a 1/2 step, thus the 1-b3-5 desination for the second degree of the harmonized scale in the Key of C results in the chord D minor.
Here's a site to show you guitar chords:
Guitar Chords
This is a search for what scale harmonization which is what we're doing here, we're taking the scale and harmonizing three notes to make up a chord. We walk up the scale one note at a time and find the two other notes that harmonize to give us all of the chords of a specific key. Jazz aside, we now know what chords to put into our song writers toolbox.
CHORD HARMONIZING - Google Search
Your homework for this week is to learn all of the chords in the key of C using the links above to be able to play each. Start with C major go to D minor, Eminor, FMajor, GMajor, Aminor, BDim and finally to C...
Congratulations you have harmonized the key of C and by doing this you now know all of the chords for any song you want to create in the key of C. You also know why and how those chords sound so well together (they're all of the same key) and you can start with other song forumlas that allow you to communicate with piano players in a way you have never thought about. That method is called the Nashville Numbering method and we'll talk about that in our next lesson.