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LESSON #8 Chord Scales
By extending the idea of chord inversions, we can come up with completely new types of chords. This idea has been used by players like Allan Holdsworth to come up with a completely new guitar 'vocabulary.'
Let us imagine that you have 'discovered' the following chord...
E---------1------
B---------3------
G---------1------
D---------2------
A---------X------
E---------X------
You try to decide what the scale for this chord might be and come up with the following...
E----------------------------------
B----------------------------------
G----------------------------------
D---2---3---6---7---9--10--12--14--
A----------------------------------
E----------------------------------
by applying the theory of chord inversions to the first chord but, this time, moving up to the next note of the scale, for each note of the chord, we might arrive at the following...
E-----1-----4-----5-----7-----8-----10-----12-----13------------
B-----3-----5-----6-----9----10-----12-----13-----15------------
G-----1-----2-----4-----5-----7------9-----10-----13------------
D-----2-----3-----6-----7-----9-----10-----12-----14------------
A-----X-----X-----X-----X-----X------X------X------X------------
E-----X-----X-----X-----X-----X------X------X------X------------
This is just a
very brief look at chord scales and we'll come back to them later, but I hope you can already see that they open up a whole world of possibilities.
Chord Synonyms
One final thing I'd like to talk about, before we move off the subject of chords for a time, is chord synonyms. This means, a chord which the same notes as another chord which can thus be thought of as one chord or another. Let me
give you an example try playing a Cm6 chord, and an Am7b5 chord. Can you hear that one is just an inversion of the other? Here are the 2 chords in case you don't have a chord dictionary yet (now would be a good time to get one
though.) Try playing the bass note and then the remaining (top) 4 notes to hear them in context.
Cm6 Am7b5 alternatively Am7b5 Cm6
E-----5---------8-------------------------5----------8---------------
B-----4---------8-------------------------4----------8---------------
G-----5---------8-------------------------5----------8---------------
D-----5---------7-------------------------5----------7---------------
A-----3---------0-------------------------0----------X---------------
E-----X---------X-------------------------X----------8---------------
Here are a list of (a few) chord synonyms. You can think of them as possible replacements or substitutions. Note that (+) is the symbol for augmented, i.e. sharped 5th
Cm6 --> Am7b5 --> F9 (no root) --> B7b9+ (no root)
Cm6/9 --> Am7b5/11 --> F13 (no root) --> B7#9+ (no root)
Cm/Maj7(6) --> Am9b5 --> F+11 (no root) --> B7b9+
Cm7 --> Eb6
Cm9 (no root) --> EbMaj7
Cm11(no root) --> EbMaj9
C7b5 --> Gb7b5 --> D9+ (no root) --> Ab9 (no root)
C9b5 (no root) --> Gb7+
C9b5 --> D9+ --> Gb7#5b5
Chord Spellings
And finally, here are the spellings for most of the different chords.
Major
Major 1,3,5
Maj6 1,3,5,6
Maj7 1,3,5,7
Maj9 1,3,5,7,9
Maj add 9 1,3,5,9
Maj6/9 1,3,5,6,9
Maj7/6 1,3,5,6,7
Maj13 1,3,5,7,9,13
Minor
Minor 1,b3,5
m6 1,b3,5,6
m7 1,b3,5,b7
m9 1,b3,5,b7,9
m11 1,b3,5,b7,9,11
m7/11 1,b3,5,b7,11
m add 9 1,b3,5,9
m6/9 1,b3,5,6,9
m/Maj7 1,b3,5,7
m/Maj9 1,b3,5,7,9 Dominant 7
7 1,3,5,b7
7/6 1,3,5,6,b7
7/11 1,3,5,b7,11
7 sus 1,4,5,b7
7/6 sus 1,4,5,6,b7
9 1,3,5,b7,9
11 1,3,5,b7,9,11
13 1,3,5,b7,9,13
13 sus 1,4,5,b7,9,13
7/6/11 1,3,5,b7,11,13
11/13 1,3,5,b7,9,11,13
ø (dim) 1,b3,b5,bb7 or 6
+ (aug) 1,3,#5
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