[NC11-AM] Great! So here we are again. Hopefully this lesson will be easy to understand, as most of the time I tend to confuse people. Anyway. The most important thing to learn for your theory, in my OPINION is the major scale. It is where you go to construct your chords, it can help you determine key signature, and most other scales, if not all idk, are based off this scale too. Let's start.
The Major Scale's Construction:
This is a happy sounding scale, that is very common in music all over the country. From metal, to country, the major scale is very predominant. So first off, what is a scale? A scale, basically, is a series of tones that go from one octave to another in some sort of pattern. The major scale is referred to as a diatonic scale. It uses seven tones to get from the root note to your octave. The pattern this scale uses is tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. It may also be pronounced whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now, a step and a tone are pretty much the same, on the guitar at least. A whole step, or a tone refers to two frets on the fretboard. The semitone, or half steps are one fret. Alrighty, so let's go about a construction of a major scale, and see if I'm explaining any of this well enough...ok...pick a note, any note...just kidding, for an example, I will start with Cmaj, because this major scale has all perfect notes, also called natural. What that means is that none of the letters, or notes in the scale are going to be sharped, or flatted. They will be all the perfect notes between your root C, and it's octave. You fret your C on either E string at the eighth fret. Travel up the neck in the order of whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. You should now be at your octave, another C. The notes your fingers landed on between these to C's are all in your Cmaj scale. It should look like this.
C-D-E-F-G-A-B, then back to the C. Now the major scale works this way all the time pretty much. If you want to find your Gmaj scale, just start at the G, then go up the neck to your octave, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. The notes your finger falls on should be G-A-B-C-D-E-F#, then G again.
So now you need to know one more thing. If you see this 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, that is a representation of the major scale. It is called a formula. This is the base formula for all chord constructions, and scales. Remember that.
The Major Scale Applied:
Now that you know how to make your major scales, I will show you how the formulas for chord constructions, and scales that I will be going over later.
So, you know that if you see this 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, this is the formula for a major scale. This is really just a base for the other formulas, as they are all based on the major scale. Alright so first, I'll show you how this applys to any major scale. You will take the letters you found earlier, that are in the major scale, and place them in order over the numbers above. I will be in C major for this lesson unless otherwise specified. Like this:
Let me show you what some chords formulas will look like, then show you how to apply them. Say you have a formula for a chord, but not the actual notes. The formulas will look something like this. 1-3-5. What that represents are the first, third, and fifth scale degrees, of the chord. This is the formula for a major triad. A three note major chord, which is very common. To determine what notes you are going to use take your chord formula, 1-3-5, then put those three notes, also called scale degrees, together on your neck.
The one is C, the three is E, and the five is G. So like this:
That is a C major chord. Let me give you another example to make sure I've explained it well enough. The next chord is called a Major Seventh chord. I love these chords personally. The formula for the chord is 1-3-5-7. Still working in C major. See what you get, then scroll down, and see if you've got it.
Did you get it? Great! Now I'm going to mix it up just a little. The next formula will be a minor chord, and it won't be a C chord, but it will be in the key of C, which will be explained later on in the lesson. Ok, so I just happen to know of the top of my head that C major's relative minor is A minor. Alright, since we are constructing an A chord, we do not use the C major scale for construction at all, but we don't use A minor either. We use the scale of A major, then we apply the minor formula to that scale to construct the chord. I hope I am not confusing anyone. Let me explain, for chord constructions, you always use the major scale, but you always base the major scale you use on your root note, which is A for any A chord, and C for C chords. So to build your A minor chord(Am). The formula for any minor chord is 1-b3-5. The b is representing that the note, or scale degree is flatted. What that means is lower the scale degree on fret, or a half step. Now let's build our A major scale so we can construct our chord. It should look like this:
Alright, so now we will apply the formula. The minor triad formula is 1-b3-5. So you have A, C# flatted down to a C, then E. Spells ACE if you build an Am, so it is easy to remember. You remember our C major scale had all three of these notes in it, so that means we are still in the key of C major. We just use the A major scale to construct any A chords. Let's try one more formula just to really drill it in. This time I am going to through a curve ball with a diminished chord. Now the formula for any diminished triad chord is 1-b3-b5. I like these chords. I also happen to know off the top of my head that if we want to stay in C major, we will need a B diminished chord, so let's build our B major scale. Give it a try on your own, then you can peek and see if you got it right. Should look like this.
Did ya' get it? Hope so, or I'm doing a terrible job of teaching anything. So, now we apply our formula.
See? All those are in C major, so we are still in key. Now that you understand how the formulas work, and how to construct your own chords. I will explain how to stay in key, since I have mentioned it, but not explained it.
Key Signatures:
So, let's find out how to stay in key. A lot of people don't seem to think this is that important around here in my town. It really is hard for two guitarists to work well together though, when one, the other, or both don't know how to stay in key with each other. So, let's go back to that oh so important major scale. Tonally, not modally, you are in key if the notes you use all line up to a major or minor scale. Which if it sounds good, it usually is in key. So let me explain with C major, since we've been getting familiar with it already. Build your C major scale. All the notes you use, C-D-E-F-G-A-B, Those are all the notes in key. The key of C major. The easy way to determine what notes will be in any key is to use this formula which is a basic version of the circle of fifths. Write this, F-C-G-D-A-E-B, and remember it. I will explain it after the example. Remember that each key has one relative key, sharing all the notes with each other. The relative minor for C major is A minor. Using these notes you could be in either key signature really. Most of the music you hear will be tonal and not modal, so it will be in the key of C major, or Bb major, or whatever, but not in any mode, and you shouldn't really use modes with tonal music, but if you like, go crazy, do it, music is art so these are only guidelines...I'm rambling, anyhow here is a chord progression, if you feel comfortable with the information, try to write out the scale degrees for your chords, and assume a key signature based on them, then see if you are right.
Progression: E minor, F# diminished, G major, and A minor.
If I were using those chords, which key do you think I would be in?
Did you get G major? Good. Well now let me explain why. First I will show you all the scale degrees that were used in these chords, and then I will explain how I determined G major with that formula from the above paragraph.
Em:E-G-B
F#dim:F#-A-C
Gmaj:G-B-D
Am:A-C-E
Now see only one sharp, or non-natural note, the F#. I just know off the top of my head the G major has only one sharp, and that happens to be F#, but let me show you how. The formula, F-C-G-D-A-E-B. To find sharps, you count from C to the right. G is one away from C, so no, go back to the front of the formula and count one letter. That letter, which is F, is sharp in G major. Another example. How many sharps in B major. It is five away from C, right, so back to the front, and count five letters, the F, C, G, D, and A are all sharp in the key of B major. Hope that explains it. No to find flats in a key, it simply works backwords, quite literally. Write it backwards, from B, like this. B-E-A-D-G-C-F. You still count right from C, so let's find the flats in F major. F is one away from C, to the right so one flat in F major. Now to find it, go to the front of the backwards formula, and count one flat. B is flat in F major. Once you rap around to the B, they are now called Flat majors. Like this, Eb major. How many flats does it have? Count right from C, rap around back to the front, it is three away from C. Now to the front, count three. B, E, and A are all flat in Eb major. I hope I have explained this well enough. Let's try one more, and try it on your own first, to see if you have it. Try Bb major.
You should have found that it has two flats. Those flats should have been B, and E. Ironically, these are the only two that aren't flat in B major. It usually works that way with you flat major keys.
Alrighty, now that you know that formula finding key signatures should begin to get easier, and easier. The more you use a key signature the more familiar you will become with it, and you will be able to recognize them quickly in songs, then you can add something that makes tonal sense to the song. Try finding the amount of sharps in D major with the formula(circle of fifths).
You should have gotten two sharps. F#, and C#. Great, if you got that right then I have done a half way decent job. Wew...so that is a lot of random knowledge to absorb, and it will not give you the immediate results you expect. Key signatures, and the application of the major scale will take time to improve your playing, yes, but over time, this information will become like second nature to you and your songwriting and improvisation will improve greatly. Trust me. It worked wonders for me. Anyhow, take you time to absorb all that, and here are just a few chord formulas you can apply to any root note, and in any key signature. Oh yeah that reminds me. One more thing before the chords. With your major scale, whichever one you are using, there is a pattern of corresponding chords that will be in key. The pattern is pretty simple, there are only seven chords, and they correspond with the seven notes that are in your major scale, or key signature. Let's use C major again! Yay! Looks like this.
As I hope you remember, that is the C major scale. Alright, so when I put 1, I am referring to the first scale degree, which will be the first root note, which is C. Here are the corresponding chords.
1-major
2-minor
3-minor
4-major
5-major
6-minor
7-diminished
2-minor
3-minor
4-major
5-major
6-minor
7-diminished
There is also a roman numeral system for this, it looks like this.
I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-vii, there is supposed to be a little dot on the seventh. I don't know how to make it on the computer though, sooooo....yea. Anyway, this is how it always works with major keys. The lower case numerals represent minor chords, minus the seventh, which is diminished. Alrighty, so if you follow that you can make all kinds of chord progressions, and you will still be in key. Now as promised, a few simple chord constructions. I will the formula and the actual notes they represent in C major only. Remember these formulas apply to all key signatures, and the root note can always be changed, just like the beginning of the lesson. Not all the chords are in the actual key of C, but the are based on the C major scale as the root is always C.
Now that one is a little tricky because the double flat, but it's not as bad as it looks. Instead of one half step, go two, or a whole step down, and the note is double flatted. Ok, well I'm tired of writing these, I'm sure you're tired of reading them. Try to incorporate as many different chord types as possible into your playing, while staying in key, and you will pretty much have to gain a great knowledge of your fretboard. If you can form each of these chords anywhere on the neck, and in at least three different places quickly, then you must know your neck fairly well. These are all great chords also to go with my lesson over short melodies over common chords. Just remember to use your scale degrees for accents. For instance if you have a dominant seventh chord being played in the progression, then try to accent that b7th scale degree in your melody to really harmonize well. Anyhow, that's all for now. See ya later pickers and grinners.
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