Bass notes1/7/2023 C E G = the C chord), and place one of those notes as the lowest note (e.g. In another example, for D/A, you are mainly playing a D chord, but you also play the A string as the root note, so in this case no notes have been removed.Īn inversion is when you use one of the notes that make up a chord (eg. In this case, the ‘A’ root note is not played, because you will play the C instead. Some of the slash chords add a lower note, and some take away the lowest notes and replace them with the second part of the slash.įor example, on Am/C, it’s mainly the Am that’s being played, but with an added C note. The first part of the slash chord is the main chord being played. Here is a quick explanation of how it works You may have just learned the chord without understanding it. You may have seen chords like Am/C or G/F#. D to C ( eleven semitones ) making it a major seventh, if it where ten semitones it would be a minor and twelve you are back at the octave. D to A (Seven semi tones ) this makes it a perfect fifth, if it was eight it would be Augmented or six it would be diminished. If i then count the semi tones to each note from the root I get D to F (Three semi tones) so its minor, If it was major it would need to be 4 semi tones. So if I consider consider the C major scale starting and the 2nd degree D and work the chords by stacking thirds I get D F A C if add the 7th. Now let’s play through the chord progressions we practised earlier but with the 7ths added.Īm I correct in assuming with all these chord constructions that basically the number of semi tone spaces from the root note in the scale is key to understanding all of this ? From what i can make out a Major 2nd is two semi tones from the root, The first third from the root is four semi tones if it is a major third and if its minor it is three semi tones, the perfect 4th is five semi tones and the perfect 5th seven semi tones, Major seventh is eleven semi tones. Just like with the triads, we can build a 7th chord off every scale degree.Īs before, try playing every 7th chord arpeggio in C starting on the A string. Let’s take the C major scale again and take every other note to get C E G B – a C major 7 chord. We do this by adding an extra 3rd to the end of the triad. Now we know the basic triads within the major key, we can extend the chords to include 7ths. We call this subject the study of harmony. There is more to creating chord progressions than just picking random chords from within a key and placing them together. This opens up a whole load of possibilities for writing music as now you can refer to the different notes in each chord and know that they will always work. Now let’s take some simple chord progressions in C: Starting each chord on the A string, play through the following exercise to get your fingers around each chord in the key of C major. We refer to these chords by number and they are often written as roman numerals.Ĭhord VII – B Diminished Steps To Memorising Major Key Chords If we apply this process to each scale degree then we end up with a sequence of chords. Similarly, if we do this from E then we get an E minor chord. D to F is a minor third so we know that this chord must be a D minor. We can use the same scale and formula to work out the next chord. If we take the C major scale and skip every other note so we are left with the 3rds then we get this:īecause we can see that the notes we are left with are the root, 3rd and 5th, we know we have a C major chord. A C minor is a minor 3rd and then a major 3rd. A C major is a major 3rd and then a minor 3rd. We know that chords are built from stacking thirds and the combination of 3rds we use determines the type of chord. Knowing what chords are in each key and what notes are available to you in those chords will really improve your playing. As bass players, we tend to think of playing just one note at a time and can easily forget to pay attention to the movement and quality of the chords.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |