Hey Friend,
I don’t know about you, but I feel a little like Alice emerging from the rabbit hole…
Maybe looking at the intervals as they relate to chord construction was too aggressive, or just convoluted, or maybe it was me… I have been known to beat dead horses on occasion (not real horses, to be clear).
What I was going for is to give you yet another pattern to help you in your chord learning journey. As I’ve said many times before, if you can learn the basic patterns found in music and guitar playing, you are golden.
You DON’T need to be musically educated to do anything you want in music. You just have to be able to develop the muscle memory in your hands and fingers enough to remember the patterns.
All the talk about intervals was to bring you to this point: that if you can combine two patterns of notes (intervals), you can build out chord structures.
Major and minor chords are nothing more than combining two interval patterns. In fact, any chord form is derived from combining two or more intervals.
The way the patterns are combine is what determines how the chord will sound, and consequently what kind of chord it is.
Here’s what I mean. If you take a chord and break it down to its two note sets, you will end up with two intervals. Here’s the C major scale:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C D E F G A B
A C major chord has notes C, E and G. They are the 1 3 5 notes in the scale. If you break them down to two intervals, you have the C to E interval, and the E to G interval.
C to E is a major third interval because it has two whole steps (four fret movement) between them. E to G is a minor third interval because it has three frets between them (a whole and half step).
So that is the pattern for a major chord. To make a minor chord, the two intervals are swapped. Instead of a major third then minor third pattern, you will now have a minor third and major third grouping.
If you want your chord to be a C minor triad, combine a minor third and a major third interval.
Start with a C minor scale and you’ll know what your notes are by picking out the 1 3 5 notes. These are C, Eb and G.
Notice only one slight difference in notes - the Eb (E flat).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C D Eb F G Ab Bb
The first interval is a minor third - the C to Eb, and the second interval is a major third - the Eb to G.
Major Chord: major third + minor third intervals
Minor Chord: minor third + major third intervals
What do you think? Is that easy to understand, or are things still foggy?
Peace~
Dave
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