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LESSON #4The Diatonic Theory Let us start to look at some musical theory. If you have been playing your
guitar, and especially if you have picked up any kind of stuff from sheetmusic or listening to your favourite artists, you may be asking yourself the following question.
How do people know which chords go with which?
The best answer I can give to this question is that it is all a matter of taste. Check out any one of a number of Nirvana tunes and you will note the following.
i) All of the chord sequences are wrong (in a theoretical sense.)
ii) They make GREAT TUNES!!
I can only show you the FORMAL method of chord construction. Developing a good musical ear depends on you and how much you
practice and love playing the guitar.
This will act as a good starting point though, but don't take it as gospel. Rules are meant to be broken. But in the words of Billy Sheehan, 'you have to know the rules before you can
break them.'
To begin then, here is the scale of C MAJOR. Learn this scale, in this position, to begin with. It is shown for illustration purposes only.
E-----------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------0---1--------------------------------------
G--------------------0---2----------------------------------------------
D--------0---2---3------------------------------------------------------
A----3------------------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------------------
We can write each of these notes as...
C D E F G A B C
And we can number them from 1 to 8.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
C D E F G A B C
If we were then to
extract the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, notes from this scale, and play them all at once we would be making the chord of C.
If we were to extract the next series i.e. 2, 4, and 6 we would make the chord of Dm (D minor).
In fact we could create a table to show ALL of the chords that can be extracted from this scale. Note that these are all 3 note chords.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8/1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8/1
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C etc.
C E G ................................................ = C MAJOR (C)
D F A ............................................ = D MINOR (Dm)
E G B ....................................... = E MINOR (Em)
F A C .................................... = F MAJOR (F)
G B D ................................ = G MAJOR (G)
A C E ........................... = A MINOR (Am)
B D F ........................ = B DIMINISHED (Bø)
So now we can say that we have a series of 7 chords to go along with the scale of C Major, and these can be classified as...
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bø, and are played thus...
C Dm Em F G Am Bø
E-----0------1------0------1------3------0------X-----------
B-----1------3------0------1------0------1------3-----------
G-----0------2------0------2------0------2------1-----------
D-----2------0------2------3------0------2------3-----------
A-----3------X------2------X------2------0------2-----------
E-----X------X------0------X------3------X------X-----------
This is good for acoustic players and people who want to stay around the 'open' positions, and to aid you I will show you all of the '3 note' chords that can be extracted from each of the 7
MAJOR scales, C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.
At this point it would be a good idea if you could get hold of a chord dictionary. Later on we will be moving at a brisker pace, and I will only have time to outline chord progressions.
If you can't afford to buy one then go along to your local library and borrow one.
Here are the chords in the other 6 keys (we have just done C.)
D MAJOR
D Em F#m G A Bm C#ø
E-----2------0------2------3------0------2------X-----------
B-----3------0------2------0------2------3------5-----------
G-----2------0------2------0------2------4------3-----------
D-----0------2------4------0------2------4------5-----------
A-----X------2------4------2------0------2------4-----------
E-----X------0------2------3------X------X------X-----------
E MAJOR
E F#m G#m A B C#m D#ø
E-----0------2------4------0------2------4------2-----------
B-----0------2------4------2------4------5------1-----------
G-----1------2------4------2------4------6------2-----------
D-----2------4------6------2------4------6------1-----------
A-----2------4------6------0------2------4------X-----------
E-----0------2------4------X------X------X------X-----------
F MAJOR
F Gm Am Bb C Dm Eø
E-----1------3------0------1------0------1------3-----------
B-----1------3------1------3------1------3------2-----------
G-----2------3------2------3------0------2------3-----------
D-----3------5------2------3------2------0------2-----------
A-----X------5------0------1------3------X------X-----------
E-----X------3------X------X------X------X------X-----------
G MAJOR
G Am Bm C D Em F#ø
E-----3------0------2------0------2------0------5-----------
B-----0------1------3------1------3------0------4-----------
G-----0------2------4------0------2------0------5-----------
D-----0------2------4------2------0------2------4-----------
A-----2------0------2------3------X------2------X-----------
E-----3------X------X------X------X------0------X-----------
A MAJOR
A Bm C#m D E F#m G#ø
E-----0------2------4------2------0------2------X-----------
B-----2------3------5------3------0------2------3-----------
G-----2------4------6------2------1------2------4-----------
D-----2------4------6------0------2------4------3-----------
A-----0------2------4------X------2------4------X-----------
E-----X------X------X------X------0------2------4-----------
B MAJOR
B C#m D#m E F# G#m A#ø
E-----2------4------2------0------2------4------0-----------
B-----4------5------4------0------2------4------2-----------
G-----4------6------3------1------3------4------0-----------
D-----4------6------1------2------4------6------2-----------
A-----2------4------X------2------4------6------1-----------
E-----X------X------X------0------2------4------X-----------
There are also chords that can be made from the keys of C#, D#, F#, G#, and Bb.
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