Essential Chord Tones and Playing the BluesPodcast #7 - Additional notes

© Copyright Darren Dutson Bromley 2012

Essential Chord Tones.

As we discussed last week, chords are built using the Root, 3rd, 5th and if its a 7th chord, the 7th notes of a scale.

For example, if we were to find the notes of a Cma7 chord.

We could begin with a C major scale.

C D E F G A B (C)

Beginning with the note C, the root note, the note a 3rd above is E. The note a 5th above C is G and the note a 7th above is B.

C D E F G A B

Root 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th

The notes of a Cma7 chord are C E G and B. Its not important that the notes are presented in that order, the fact the chord contains only the notes C, E, G and B is enough to be a Cma7 chord. Below are three different inversions of Cma7, each has the notes in a different order.

Each chord note has a different role or if you like function and some notes are more important than others. The root note for example isn't as important as you might think, it's role is to name the chord. The 5th is there to add bulk and padding and isn't very important at all. The 3rd is very important, this is the note which dictates whether the chord is major or minor. The 7th is also very important as this is the note which states whether the chord is a major 7th which is an inert chord or whether it is a dominant chord which needs to resolve onto another chord.

For example Gma7.

! ! !

This chord doesn't need to resolve onto another chord, you could finish a song with this chord.

G7 however does need to resolve, you wouldn't generally finish a song with this type of chord, unless the song is a blues progression but that is a different type of sequence which has its own unique set of rules. G7 usually resolves onto C.

! ! !

General chord construction

If a major chord consists of the Root, 3rd and 5th notes of a major scale, by flattening the 3rd we arrive at a minor chord. Major 7th is constructed from the Root, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of a major scale while a dominant 7th has a flattened 7th.

Here is a chart showing the construction formula of the main chord types, the example is in C major but this idea applies to all major scales.

Chord type

C D E F G A B C

Major.C

RootC

3rdE

5thG

MinorCm

RootC

Flat 3rdEb

5thG

Major 7thCma7

RootC

3rdE

5thG

7thB

Dominant7th, C7

RootC

3rdE

5thG

Flat 7thBb

Minor 7thCm7

RootC

Flat 3rdEb

5thG

Flat 7thBb

The 5th of the chord is not very important, unless its an altered 5th such as in G7#5 for example, in which case it is very important. An unaltered 5th can be omitted without altering the tonality or function of the chord. This is particularly effective when playing with other guitarists or pianists as it removes the risk of any unwanted clashes.

Here is a blues progression in Bb. All the chords, with the exception of the diminished, this contains an altered 5th (the 5th is flattened) have the 5th’s omitted. The progression is still effective both harmonically and rhythmically.

Next week we'll strip these chords down further and look at how we can incorporate them into lead playing.

See you next time.