Chords and Chord Shapes - Continued (Major Seventh)

CHORDS

A chord is two or more notes (on the guitar, a note is a single string played by itself anywhere on the neck) sounded together, and that sound like they belong together!

Notes that sound good together are called consonant. Those that clash are called dissonant. Generally speaking, chords are built by stacking up consonant notes on top of one another. Notes that are adjacent in a scale are usually considered dissonant.

Please understand that dissonance in music is a good thing. But, just as you must learn your A-B-C before you can write a novel, basic musical concepts must be mastered before you tackle Beethoven or Stevie Wonder.

Let’s build a chord:

Take a note from the above major scale, for example F. This will be our Root note.

Skip the next note (G).

Play the next note on the scale (A). This is called the Third.

Skip the next note (B)

Play the next note on the scale (C). This is called the Fifth.

You now have a basic chord called a triad made up of three notes: Root; Third and Fifth.

Root gives Chord its letter name; e.g. Am, A major, A diminished, etc. all have root note of A.

Third = 2 notes up from Root; E = Third of C chord (C-D-E). The Third is either major (“happy/open” sound; made up of 2 whole steps) or minor (“sad”; made up of 1 whole step and 1 half-step).

Fifth = 4 notes up from Root; C = Fifth of F chord. The fifth reinforces the root note. It can be perfect (3 whole steps; 1 half-step; no special notation needed), augmented/sharp (4 whole steps) or diminished/flat. (3 whole steps).

Many chords also include the--

Seventh = 6 notes up from the Root; F = Seventh of G chord.

The seventh can be minor (“Blues” sound) or major (“Jazz” sound).

These are called Seventh Chords.

Other, more complex chords that use scale tones beyond the seventh, such as the 9th or 13th, are common in Jazz and Brazilian music for example.

Here is a chart of the chords we will begin to explore in this course, including the formula used for building them:

CHORD SHAPES-Cont.

MAJOR SEVENTH (Movable)

Major 7th chords are prevalent in Jazz and Brazilian music, and are also used in many other popular musical styles.

The following chords are in Root position (root note of the chord is in the bass):

EXAMPLE: On the 3rd fret, the above chords are G major 7; C major 7, and F major 7, respectively.