Music Theory 101

[dotcom]

In traditional western music (our music), basic harmonic theory has a chord associated with each note of a major scale. In the key of C for example you have 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8; Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. The notes are of course: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Since the 1st note and the 8th note are identical, we will consider only the first 7 "different" notes for this discussion.

1 – C – Do
2 – D – Re
3 – E – Mi
4 – F – Fa
5 – G - So
6 – A – La
7 – B – Ti

Notice there are no flats (b) or sharps (#). These are all the white keys on a piano.

In the key of Ab it looks like this:

1 – Ab – Do
2 – Bb – Re
3 – C – Mi
4 – Db – Fah
5 – Eb – Sol
6 – F – La
7 – G – Ti

Notice that there are four flats (b).

(Back to key of C), the 4-note chords associated with each note in the C major scale are:
1 - Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B)
2 - Dm7 (D-F-A-C)
3 - Em7 (E-G-B-D)
4 - Fmaj7 (F-A-C-E)
5 - G7 (G-B-D-F)
6 - Am7 (A-C-E-G)
7 - Bm7b5 (B-D-F-A)

Since it is necessary to use 2 octaves to form all the chords, some of the notes in the second octave take on different numerical designations depending on their context:

(1)-2-3-4-5-6-7-(1)-9-3-11-5-13-7-(1)
(C)-D-E-F-G-A-B-(C)-D-E-F-G-A-B-(C)

It is simple tradition and convention that we use these designations. You can see that A is either a 6 or a 13 depending on which octave you are in. Likewise 4/11 and 2/9 are the same notes. There are exceptions but this is the general rule of thumb.

Each chord is "made up" of the notes of the major scale. The tonic or root Cmaj7 chord is the 1-3-5-7 notes of the C major scale (C-E-G-B) played together. The Dm7 is the 2-4-6-1 notes (D-F-A-C), and so on, moving up each time and continuing to skip a scale note in between each time, but always using the same original 7 notes of the C major scale.

Note: The notes for the Fmaj7 chord scale in the key of C are: F-G-A-(B)-C-D-E-F (Lydian mode). Notice that the 4th tone is a B, not a Bb. This is an important difference between an Fmaj7 chord scale in the key of F (Ionian mode): F-G-A-(Bb)-C-D-E-F.

You should also try thinking of the major scale notes/chords in terms of Roman Numerals too. You might see them represented that way from time to time. Know what they mean.

Chord Families: There are three families of chords: Tonic, Sub-dominant, and Dominant. You can use chords from the same family as substitutions for each other. Also, learn to recognize (hear) when the family changes, you should be able to tell by "listening" what family is being played at any given point in the song. This will improve your ear training. Transposing all of this to the other 11 keys is up to you.

I - Cmaj7 - Tonic
II - Dm7 - Sub-dominant
III - Em7 - Tonic
IV - Fmaj7 - Sub-dominant
V - G7 - Dominant
VI - Am7 - Tonic
VII - Bm7b5 - Dominant

Tonic Family: I, III & VI. All 3 may sub for each other.

Sub Dominant Family: II & IV. Both may sub for each other.

Dominant Family: V & VII. Both may sub for each other.

If your song says to play a C-F-G7, you can substitute the chords Am-Dm-Bm7b5 instead.

Clarence Diggs

[mkg]

Nice, Nick...keep 'em comin'. Is it okay if I show this to Algernon, my pet mouse?

[Sven]

"(Back to key of C), the 4-note chords associated with each note in the C major scale are: "


Dotcom,
Nice essay, except western music is not actually based on four note chords at all. Western music since about 1650 is based on the triad--three note chords. (Before that, music was modal, with an entirely different harmonic practice.) Slowly, extended tertian chords began to be included, starting with dominant 7th chords. Widespread tonal experimentation did not really occur until what is considered to be the romantic period. Use of 4 note chords on any scale step was not in common usage until well into the jazz age.

[Algernon]

Sven, you are absolutely right. I will make sure my good friend dotcom gets this info too.

As a jazzer I tend to extend my thinking into the four note chords automatically.

[Tele-Bob]

Holy crap Sven, that was downright scholarly! Did you like, go to school or something? ;^) Good info man.

[Offshore Angler]

Sven, I agree. If you mix dominant 7th and major 7th chords it makes it difficult to keep a melodic relationship between the notes in a chord.

When chord soloing, I use the tried and true

Key of CMaj
I C Maj
ii D minor
iii E minor
IV F Major
V G Major
vi A minor
vii B diminished

If you play with the triads and diads you'll find lots of ways to play cool chord solos. Lot's of chicken picking country licks are based on diads syncopated within the chord scale. Try playing the chords listed above and notice the sweet, melodic sound you have as you move through them. Understanding the relationships also helps you identify the key to a weird progression. You can have a progression without the I chord, and if you didn't identify the above relationship, you'd have to guess at what key you base your solo in.

The other key thing to understand is the circle of fifths. Once you understand it everything makes much more sense.

The key of C has no sharps or flats. Play the C Ionian (Do, Re, Me... - we'll get into modes later) and then, using the same notes, try the G scale. The G, of course, is the 5th degree (the IV)of the C Ionain scale. Notice the 7th note (F) sounds wrong. It's flat, so you need to play F#. Then go up a fifth from the G to D and play the scale C again. Now the F and the C sound flat. Now up a fifth again (A) playing the C scale. The F, C, and now also the G are flat.

There are two important things to notice. Every time you go up a fifth, you add a sharp note, and the sharps are always the same.

G - F#
D - F#,C#
A - F#,C#,G#
E - F#,C#,G#,D#
B - F#,C#,G#,D#,A#

ect.

Notice how each sharp we add as we go up a fifth is a fifth higher than the preceding sharp.

Now, lets reverse the process. Notice as you move backwards from B to E to A, each subsequent key is the fourth interval of the preceding key. So every time we move down we subtract the last sharp. Which brings us back to C, and now what do we do? Well, the IV of C is F. We have been flatting the IV as we move back, so the IV of F is B, so we would use a Bb in the F scale. Moving back from a fourth from the F, we get Bb. The IV of Bb is Eb.

If we were to continue in both directions, we start to overlap at F#/Gb. So we draw it as a circle with C at the top and F#/Gb at the bottom. We go in fifths clockwise and 4ths counterclockwise.

Viola, the circle of 5ths. For a guitar player, it makes ultimate sense since the strings of the guitar are based on intervals of 4ths. Well, at least the 4 bottom strings. And we all know how to see the I, IV, and V relationships once we learn our barre chords and start jammin' the blues.

So, now we can play the Ionian scale for any key. The secret is to learn every note at every fret. This is easy to learn. At least once every time you practice, go up and down a string and say outloud what the note is. In about a month, you'll have it wired. A neat trick to speed this along is to learn the octave relationships. For the bottom two strings, all you need to remember is that two strings and two frets higher is an octave. This makes life really easy. You probably know the notes of the low E and A strings from the roots of the barre chords, so using the relationship above makes it easy to learn the notes on the D and G strings. Plus, practice these octaves as scales and get that cool Wes Montgomery solo thing going and impress your friends with you new jazzy cool sound.

Armed with a knowleged of the notes comprising the Ionian scale of any key, and knowing all the notes on the fretboard, you get a new mobility and a chance to move out of playing patterns. You'll be using all the neck instead of just the notes under your fingers at a particular neck position.

Once you have the notes and keys down, we can show you how to create chords (easy) and play in different modes (really easy) to start giving each solo a distinct sound.

[NeoFauve]

Ouch.