Episode 10: Introduction to Chords (FINALLY!)

Hey guys! Welcome back to my music theory blog! I know I've been a bad blooger and broke the big rule of blogging (always post something once a week), but as my first semester in college is wrapping up I have a very evil thing to take care of called exams. They have been stressing me out and I had to make a decision to either go with grades or go with you guys... And as cool as you all are, the grades are what will actually get me into grad school so I have been studying. However, I have a surprise for you guys though... I am going to do a new video series on YouTube  It'll be the basics of Finale, which a couple of people have recommended I try and do. So if that interests you then stay tuned! Now, as you can tell in the title we have hit my favorite part of learning music, the basics of chords. I honestly have been waiting for this day ever since I started the blog. So without further ado, let's go right into it! Don't forget to share this with Facebook, Twitter, or by email and don't forget to follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter and (officially) YouTube!

Now that we have discussed the differences in half steps, and whole steps and the basics of intervals we can now go into chords. The basic chord is a tonic pitch, a third above it and a third above that or another way to think about it is a tonic note with a third and fifth above the bass. So let's take a look at the four basic chords of music.

First is a Major chord. It is composed of a major 3rd and a perfect 5th, or a major 3rd followed by a minor 3rd.  So let's construct a C Major Chord. C will be our bass note and we need a major 3rd above it, which would be an E. Now we can say either a minor 3rd above E or a perfect 5th from C which would be G. So a C Major chord is a C, E, and G. Let's try B major. B will be our bass note, followed by a major 3rd above B which will be a D#. Now, as said before we can either use a minor 3rd above D# or a perfect 5th above B (which are the same notes) and get a F#. So B Major is B, D#, and F#. One last example, Eb Major. Eb will be our bass note, followed by a G and Bb. So an Eb Major chord is an Eb, G, and Bb.

Next we have a Minor chord. It is composed of a minor 3rd and perfect 5th or a minor 3rd followed by a major 3rd. So a C minor chord is a C, followed by a minor 3rd to Eb, and a 5th (or a major 3rd above the minor 3rd) G. So a C minor chord would be a C, Eb, and G. An E minor chord would be an E, G, and B. One thing that help me with this is if you look at the notes and think about which scale it would fit in. For example, if you went to play E minor it is the relative minor of G, so only F sharp while E major would have 4 sharps (F, C, G, and D).

Following the minor chords we have Augmented chords. Just as I've said before, you can have augmented intervals which are a half step above a perfect interval. So an augmented chord would be a major third and augmented 5th or two whole steps above the bass. So let's make a C Augmented (+) chord. First is C, followed by a half step above which is E and another half step above that which is G# So a C+ chord is C, E and G#. Another example is F#+, which would be F#, A# and Cx (C double sharp, or enharmonically equivalent to D). One last example would be Bb+ which would be Bb, D and F#. As I have shown, it is possible to have sharps and flats in the same chord, though it isn't as easy as it is with Diminished chords.

Finally, the last one in the group of chords are Diminished chords. They are composed of a minor third and diminished 5th or 2 minor 3rds. So we can make a Bb diminished (dim or  ° if you are able to type the degrees symbol) by starting with the tonic note; Bb, then going up a minor third to Db, and another minor third to Fbb (F double flat, or enharmonically Eb) Another example would be F# dim. would be F# followed by a minor 3rd to A and a diminished 5th from the tonic, Cb. As you may have noticed, you can have flats and sharps in the same chord when it comes to diminished chords.

So, I hope this has helped you guys out. Keep following the blog and don't forget to share!

Episode 9: Understanding Intervals Part 2

(pic from icawa)
Hello and welcome back everyone! Now as I left off with this series, we talked about the basic intervals; Major Minor and Diminished. Now I'm going to add two more intervals to the set that you know and a a couple of special cases you may have heard of. As always, if this interests you then don't be afraid to add to the friend pages on Twitter and Facebook!

Now to review what we talked about last week, we went over the intervals and how to tell them apart from one to the other. As I showed with the chart at the bottom of the post, it is nothing more than following the half steps between the notes. So in case it was a little confusing that way, here is another way of thinking about it.

Original Chart:


       Minor         Major        Perfect
1                                                    0
2        1                 2
3        3                 4
4                                                    5
5                                                    7
6        8                 9
7        10              11
8                            12

Simpler Chart:

       Minor         Major        Perfect
1                                                    0
2        H                 W
3     W+H             2W
4                                                  2W+H
5                                                  3W+H
6       4W             4W+H
7       5W             5W+H
8                            6W

H= Half Step

W= Whole step (2 Half Steps)

Now the new material I wanted to mention to you is a Diminished (o) interval and Augmented (+) interval. A diminished interval is an a half step below a minor interval and an augmented in a half step above a major interval. So for example we have a G-Bb which is a Minor 3rd (G-Ab-A-Bb), then a step below that is a G-Bbb (B double flat). Another example would be an D-Fb because a D-F is a minor 3rd, but lowering it down a half step makes it a diminished interval. Another way to look at the same interval is a D#-F. D-F in a minor 3rd, but raising the base note still closes the gap in between the notes. Now looking at augmented intervals, let's take a G-B which is a major 3rd. If you add a half step to the B you have a G-B# which makes it an augmented interval. Another way to see it is a Gb-B would be an augmented 3rd. Don't let the enharmonic spelling throw your answers off. A B# might sound like a C, and is an enharmonic spelling of C, if the note they write is a B then the notes around it must fit the occasion. Another example of augmented intervals is a G-C#. G-C is a perfect 4th, however with the addition of the sharp we have an Augmented 4th and the first of our special conditions.

The example mentioned above (G-C#) is an augmented 4th, but it is also a tritone. A Tritone is the a series of notes that are the exact middle of our 12 tone interval system. G-C# is 6 half steps from either tonic and give a very dissonant and very identifiable sound to music. A tritone consists of either an augmented 4th or a diminished 5th. Both are in the middle of our scale system.

Another way that I think makes learning intervals easier is the use of inversions. An Inversion is the process of moving one note an octave higher or lower to find an interval. The rule of inversions is if an interval is major before the inversion then the inverted interval is minor. The reverse is true as well, if an interval is minor then inverting it will result in a major interval. So a M6 would invert to a m3 and a m7 would invert to a M2. Perfect intervals always invert to perfect (P4 inverts to a P5, and PU inverts to a P8). Then Augmented always inverts to Diminished. That's why there are two notes that make up the tritone, augmented 4th and diminished 5th.