Music Theory for Songwriters - Home. Piano Chords and Scales made easy. Chord Calculator. The Chord Guide: Pt III - Chord Progressions. Chord progressions are the canvas on which musicians paint their masterpieces, and it’s a canvas which is a piece of art in itself.
A chord progression can be subtle and in the background or it can be blatant and up front; it can be simple and catchy, or it can be technical and complex, it can stay in one key or it can change like the seasons. In any of these cases a chord progression is what drives the song as it literally shapes the music that accompanies it. Chord progressions are like a cozy home where melody and rhythm can kick their feet up. All the songwriting giants, like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Bob Dylan, to name a few, have/had a tremendous knowledge of the art of the chord progression. I’m not going to promise you tremendous knowledge, but I will offer you a good head start in the way of making your own music – in an easily digestible chunk to boot. Chord Progression Guide Major Chord Chart Above is a chord chart for the 7 most used keys. Chord Theory. Intervals - The Building Blocks of Music.
The Basics Intervals are the units by which music can be measured. You could say that intervals are to music what inches (or centimeters) are to carpentry. If a carpenter wants to know how "things" fit together, he needs to understand how to measure those "things". If a musician wants to know how music is put together, that musician needs to understand intervals.
Intervals are defined by the Major scale. Simply put, an interval is the distance between two notes and the distances between the notes of the major scale provide us with a reference point. Let's look at the Scale: The note functions as the root or , and the rest of the notes are numbered through . Before we continue, you need to fully understand a couple of points about the major scale: 1 - The major scale is derived by following the whole-step half-step pattern: . 2 - The major scale can start on any note of the chromatic scale.
Triads - The basic chords. The Basics: Chords are the basis for western harmony. Other cultures may take a different approach, but in the west, the chord is king. The most basic chord is called a . There are four possible triads: major: minor: augmented: diminished: Triads derive their name from the fact that each one contains only three intervals and the fact that the intervals in each are a apart: What this stuff means is that if you were to start on a root note ( for example), and build a major triad, the second note in the triad ( ) would be a higher than the root, and the third note of the triad ( ) would be a higher than the second note ( ). When it comes to playing triads on the guitar, you will encounter what is called , and .
Close voicing means that all three notes of the triad are within the same octave. It is also common practice to double one or more of the notes in a triad. The Fingerboard: Close voicing: major minor diminished augmented.