Posted in: Guitar by Ian Tamayo on September 7th, 2008 | 0 Comments
Lessons on chords construction.
Have you ever wondered how chords are constructed? Ever asked yourself “what does Aaug, F#m7, Dmaj7, Esus mean?” Well, here are the answers to your questions. In this set of notes, we’ll explain to you the theory of chord construction.
The aim of this lesson is to help you to be able to figure out chords by yourself without always having to depend on the chord chart.
Let’s start by using the C major scales and giving them numbers accordingly.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C |
Note: There isn’t really such a thing as an eighth (8) note. It’s just the first (1) note repeated in the next higher octave.
| Chord Type |
Notes (numeric position) |
Notes (in C key) | ||
| Major (C) | 1 | 3 | 5 | C E G |
| Minor (Cm) | 1 | 3b | 5 | C Eb G |
| Augmented (C+) | 1 | 3 | 5# | C E G# |
| Diminished (C-) | 1 | 3b | 5b | C Eb Gb |
So looking at the table above, you can tell a C chord is actually made up of 3 notes, that is C, E, G. So when we play on any instrument, as long as only this 3 note is present, it is a C chord. With C as the root note, that is in the bass note. Of course there is causes when C is not the root note, we call this inversion. We will discuss this on another topic.
Note: The chord C+ can be written as Caug too, and the chord C- can be written as Cdim or Cº too.
The triads form the basis of the rest of the other chords to come.
| Chord Type |
Notes (numeric position) |
Notes (in C key) | |||
| Second (C2) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | C E G D |
| Sixth (C6) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | C E G A |
| Seventh (C7) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7b | C E G Bb |
| Major Seventh (Cmaj7) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | C E G B |
| Chord Type |
Notes (numeric position) |
Notes (in C key) | |||
| Min Second (Cm2) | 1 | 3b | 5 | 2 | C Eb G D |
| Min Sixth (Cm6) | 1 | 3b | 5 | 6 | C Eb G A |
| Min Seventh (Cm7) | 1 | 3b | 5 | 7b | C Eb G Bb |
| Min Major Seventh (Cmmaj7) | 1 | 3b | 5 | 7 | C Eb G B |
As seen above, all this chords are actually build upon the triad. Now can you see what does the number mean? It actually show you what note to put in looking at the C major scales.
