I Feel The Power!

Wow, i'm loving music theory all over again~ This time, Brady, my good fren from Vancouver
took time off to teach me about chords and triads. It's amazing how easy it becomes when
you have someone explain it to u? AMAZING, like POW and there u go, u understand wat
major triads, minor triads, dominant 7ths, minor 7ths, major 7ths, diatonic triads are etc etc!

You know wat, after the whole long conversation i had with him on MSN Messenger, like 20
pages long, i came out feeling damn smart and powerful hahah! It's like *lightbulb*
enlightenment :D well, at least to me, yeah dat IS sumthin man. I've had no nothin bout
music theory, only 6 short mths back and i've been struggling with trying to understand wat
chords are but in one day, *snaps fingers* just like dat and i got it!

So, Brady if you're reading this, i owe you one dude. Thanx alot! And sorry, i didnt realise it
was getting so late back at Vancouver! Hope u had a great rehearsal the following morning!

Chords
Quote Brady:

"When you spell a chord, you use a note, then skip a note, then use the next, and skip the
next...like for a C maj you use C, skip D, then use E, skip F, and then use G to get the basic
triad, right?"

Yeap, dat's rite. And you then get the C major chord of C E G. For now, we will talk about some
basic chords like Major triads, minor triads, dominant 7ths, minor 7ths and Major 7ths.

Major and minor triads are wat we'll call the classical chords, because they are used most often
in classical music. Whereas in jazz, we LOVE our 4 note chords~ thus the dominant 7ths, minor
7ths and Major 7ths!

I will also briefly talk about diminished TRIADS. I'll blog about dat in detail some other time. I say
diminished triads, not chords because there are diminished 7th chords and half-diminished chords
etc.


Major Triads

Maj triads (a 3 note chord) are formed with the degrees 1 3 5. Using the scale of C, we have
C D E F G A B C. With C as the Tonic or root note, we call it 1. Subsequently, D is 2, E is 3 etc.
Therefore, a Cmaj chord formed with 1 3 5 is C E G. Another example, using the scale of D, we
have D E F# G A B C# D. Therefore Dmaj will be D, skip E we get F#, skip G we get A, i.e D F# A.

Cmaj - C E G

C#maj / Dbmaj - C# E# G# / Db F Ab

Dmaj - D F# A

D#maj / Ebmaj - D# Fx A# / Eb G Bb

Emaj - E G# B

Fmaj - F A C

F#maj / Gbmaj - F# A# C# / Gb Bb Db

Gmaj - G B D

G#maj / Abmaj - G# B# D# / Ab C Eb

Amaj - A C# E

A#maj / Bbmaj - A# Cx E# / Bb D F

Bmaj - B D# F#


Minor Triads

min triads (3 note chord) are formed with the degrees of 1 b3 5. I.e. the 3rd degrees are
flattened. Using the scale of C NATURAL MINOR as an example, we have C D Eb F G Ab Bb C.
Therefore, with C as the Tonic or root note, we have C, skip D, we get Eb, skip F, we get G.
Thus the Cmin chord is C Eb G!

Cmin - C Eb G

C#min / Dbmin - C# E G# / Db Fb Ab

Dmin - D F A

D#min / Ebmin - D# F# A# / Eb Gb Bb

Emin - E G B

Fmin - F Ab C

F#min / Gbmin - F# A C# / Gb Bbb Db

Gmin - G Bb D

G#min /Abmin - G# B D# / Ab Cb Eb

Amin - A C E

A#min / Bbmin - A# C# E# / Bb Db F

Bmin - B D F#


Dominant 7ths

Dom7s (4 note chord) are formed with the degrees of 1 3 5 b7. I.e. a MAJOR triad with a
b7th of the key added on top of it. I.e. the 7th degrees are flattened while the 1st 3rd
and 5th degrees remain unchanged.

C7 - C E G Bb

C#7 / Db7 - C# E# G# B / Db F Ab Cb

D7 - D F# A C

D#7 / Eb7 - D# Fx A# C# / Eb G Bb Db

E7 - E G# B D

F7 - F A C Eb

F#7 / Gb7 - F# A# C# E / Gb Bb Db Fb

G7 - G B D F

G#7 / Ab7 - G# B# D# F# / Ab C Eb Gb

A7 - A C# E G

A#7 / Bb7 - A# Cx E# G# / Bb D F Ab

B7 - B D# F# A


Minor 7ths

min7s (4 note chord) are formed with the degrees of 1 3b 5 b7. I.e. a MINOR triad with a
FLATTENED 7th of the key added on top of it. I.e. the 3rd and 7th degrees are flattened.

Cmin7 - C Eb G Bb

C#min7 / Dbmin7 - C# E G# B / Db Fb Ab Cb

Dmin7 - D F A C

D#min7 / Ebmin7 - D# F# A# C# / Eb Gb Bb Db

Emin7 - E G B D

Fmin7 - F Ab C Eb

F#min7 / Gbmin7 - F# A C# E / Gb Bbb Db Fb

Gmin7 - G Bb D F

G#min7 / Abmin7 - G# B D# F# / Ab Cb Eb Gb

Amin7 - A C E G

A#min7 / Bbmin7 - A# C# E# G# / Bb Db F Ab

Bmin7 - B D F# A


Major 7ths

Maj7s (4 note chord) are formed with the degrees of 1 3 5 7. I.e. a MAJOR triad with a 7th of
the key added on top of it. I.e. the 1st 3rd 5th and 7th degrees ALL REMAIN UNCHANGED.

Cmaj7 - C E G B

C#maj7 / Dbmaj7 - C# E# G# B# / Db F Ab C

Dmaj7 - D F# A C#

D#maj7 / Ebmaj7 - D# Fx A# Cx / Eb G Bb D

Emaj7 - E G# B D#

Fmaj7 - F A C E

F#maj7 / Gbmaj7 - F# A# C# E# / Gb Bb Db F

Gmaj7 - G B D F#

G#maj7 / Abmaj7 - G# B# D# Fx / Ab C Eb G

Amaj7 - A C# E G#

A#maj7 / Bbmaj7 - A# Cx E# Gx / Bb D F A

Bmaj7 - B D# F# A#

Diatonic Chords

The following is an excerpt taken from my online conversation with Brady. The content has
been edited for stuff like grammar, clarity and briefness. Hopefully, this helps those who read
to better understand what diatonic chords are and the Roman numerical system etc.. Here goes:

Brady: k let me see if I can say this right. Basically in every key, there are 7 notes...right? And
on each of those 7 notes you can build a chord.

Brady: Okay, so lets say we are in C. If we build a 3 note chord on C using the notes from
the key of C, we get C, E, and G, which makes a major triad. If we build one on D, we get D, F, A,
which is a minor triad, right? Because D major would be D, F#, A

Ben: Yeap

Brady: But C has F, not F#. So continuing on, E would be E, G, B...another minor. F would be
F, A, C...major. G would be G, B, D...major.

Ben: A would be A C# E ?

Brady: Nope...A C E...there is no C# in the key of C.

Ben: Wait all these are in the key of C?

Brady: Yes. We are staying in the key of C.

Ben: Ok cool~ so B would be B D F.

Brady: Yes...which is a diminished chord...both flat 3 and flat 5.

Ben: Er.. explain ?

Brady: Well, the key of B has 5 sharps, right?

Brady: So a B major chord would be B-D#-F#. But in the key of C, there are no
sharps, so we get B-D-F instead.

Brady: Which is a diminished triad.

Ben: Ah ok so a flat 3 and flat 5 is the defining pattern of all diminished chords?

Brady: Diminished triads. There are diminished 7th chords, and half-diminished
chords too but we'll talk about those later.

Brady: Anyways, to recap what we just did, using all 7 notes of a C major scale to build
triads, we got a Cmajor, Dminor, Eminor, Fmajor, Gmajor, Aminor, and B diminished.

Brady: Okay, so if we assign numbers (using Roman Numerals....that's what music theory uses)
instead of letters then, we get I maj, II min, III min, IV maj, V maj, VI min, VII diminished.

Ben: Yeap

Brady: Those are called diatonic chords. They are the same in all 12 keys. It's a good trick to
learn them.

Ben: Um.. ok.. er.. let me make sense of this. All the same in 12 keys?

Brady: It's a brain full, I know. Yes....lets say D major for example..

Ben: So ok yea, the 1st 4th 5th are always major chords in any 12 keys?

Brady: Correct!

Ben: while the 2nd 3rd and 6th are minor chords in all 12 keys? and the 7th being diminished in
all 12 keys!

Brady: You're a fast learner...ahahah I know a lot of people who still don't understand this.

Ben: HAHAH ey dat's cos i got a great teacher showin me the ropes~ hahah

Brady: Haha! Okay, well you got that pretty fast

Ben: haha cool so wats next

Brady: Now....what if you made them 4 notes instead of 3? That's what separates jazz from
classical music..they use triads, we use 7th chords. Back to the key of C again...you'd get C,
E, G, B...which is C maj7. D, F, A, C....Dmin7. E, G, B, D...Dmin7

Ben: eh ok i'm lost

Brady: Well, basically, you understand the diatonic triads, right?

Ben: yeap

Brady: Okay...but those are only 3 note chords

Ben: yeah dats rite

Brady: So what I'm trying to get at here is if you put a 4th note on top of them, you end up
turning all of the minors into min7 chords. I and IV become maj7 chords and V becomes a
dominant 7th chord.

Ben: So, I maj, II min, III min, IV maj, V maj, VI min, VII diminished. These are 3 note chords. we
call them the diatonic chords.

Brady: Diatonic triads :)

Ben: diatonic triads ok.. and if we add a 4th note on top.. all minor chords become min7 chords..
major becomes maj7 and from diminished they become dominant 7th chords? And dat fourth
note comes from..? the scale of which the chord is written upon?

Brady: Diminished are a bit different...they don't become dominants....the only dominant you get
is from V, which was major when it had 3 notes.

Ben: oh ok sorry. So I and IV maj becomes maj7 while V maj becomes dominant 7, i see :)

Brady: Yep! Diminished chords are the most confusing chords...don't worry about them yet. The
4th note comes from the key of C as well, just like we got all the rest of the notes.

Ben: cool!

Brady: So basically, the reason I started this whole thing about diatonic chords, was to tell
you about how dominant chords work, because jazz is all about what to do with dominant
chords.

Ben: Oooh. HEY COOL HAHA!

Brady: It's all simple from here on in

Ben: yeah ok so i can do the same for all 12 major scales eh?

Brady: Totally.

Brady: For dominants though...let me tell you the secret. Basically, jazz is all about dominants
resolving. Which means....
A dominant chord ALWAYS wants to act as the chord V going to the chord I.

Ben: wat do u mean by dat?

Brady: Lets say you are playing a song in the key of C and you are soloing...and you see
the chord G7. I would bet a lot of money that the next chord would be Cmaj or Cmaj7
because G7 is the V chord in the key of C. That's where G7 wants to go...dominant chords
really want to go home.

Ben: AH~

Brady: When you're soloing, it's your job to take them there! Seriously...music is all about
starting at I, leaving somehow, and then getting to V7, which takes you back home to I
again. That's all there is to it.

Brady: So remember...when you see a dominant 7th chord, you just need to think "what key
would this be the V of?" And then you know where it's probably gonna go and you'll notice
that if it doesn't go there, it will sound really deceptive, and that's another sound that you
will learn to play on eventually too.

Brady: But 99% of the time a V7 chord will go to I. So I'll tell you if you can think in numbers
and numerals, and you know your diatonic chords, you'll have a head start on everyone in
music school.

Ben: *nods* i will work on this. Ok i was saying sumthin earlier on.. er.. so, using all the major
scales to form chords u get diatonic chords? diatonic triads? Are they the same?

Brady: V will always be dominant, I and IV will always be maj7, II, III, and VI will always be
minor, and VII will always be confusing (diminished), hahaha!

Ben: So it doesnt matter whether i use this on the major or minor scale?

Brady: It does. Minor has a whole different set of diatonic chords. But minor is very confusing.

Ben: okie.. gosh we'll not delve into dat for now hahah.

Brady: I think I can finally understand it after 2 years of university level theory...so it's taken a
while...

Brady: Hahaha, major will be enough to fry your brain for a while now anyways.

Ben: oh man.. ok imagine how long i would take eh? haha

Brady: You learned major pretty fast...once you get this under your fingers minor won't be too
much harder.

Ben: okie let's just do a real summarised recap..

Brady: Sure.

Ben: chords there are, major triads, minor triads.. then come.. shucks.. i cant remember..

Brady: Okay...well, remember triads are simpler, 3 not chords. Classical stuff! In jazz we like our
4 note chords.

Ben: OH OK

Brady: So you can get maj7, min7, or dominant 7, to name a few. Maj 7 is a major triad with the
7th note of its key added. min 7 is a min triad with the b7th of its key added and dominant 7th
is a major triad with b7 of its key added.

Ben: so DAT'S the difference with the Maj 7 chords (compared with dominant 7 chords). So there
are 5 chord types i've learnt today - the maj min triads.. Maj7 min7 and dominant7..

Brady: Right! And diminished triad, which I only mentioned. You don't need to really worry
about those yet I don't think.

Ben: yeap. dats good for now haha!

Brady: If you have a keyboard you can really learn these well cause you can see how they
appear on the keys.

Ben: Yea i should get a keyboard soon..

Hope this has shed some insight into playing around with jazz chords, attaining 4 note chords etc~