Hey Friend,

Woo, Central Florida is wet this morning! Fortunately, Hermine has decided to sail on by the Orlando area without too much trouble. We did have our phones squawking last night about possible tornadoes, but we barely saw any wind. Hopefully everyone north of us is riding it out without too much trouble, but I know there has been flooding, so stay safe!

I guess this is our new winter, since we don't have to deal with snow any more. 

Now that we have an introductory, basic harmonic structure for creating chord progressions, we can start looking at some of the other chord forms that help to spice up chord progressions. As we go into new keys, I'll add in these other chords.

What chord forms, you ask?

Up to now, we've only looked at major, minor and diminished chords. If you think about it, though, everything we do with chords is based on the major triad. We have the 1 3 5 notes create that solid base triad. It also places us in that primary emotional state with its happy sound. 

From there, with some slight modifications (manipulations), we can create sounds that shift how we feel and perceive.

Think about how easily composers move us from happy-go-lucky to sheer terror in a  horror flick. Yes, you have visual queues to take you down the path, but the real vehicle to change your emotional state is the soundtrack playing in the film.

Things would clearly get boring if the only variations we had were happy (major chords) and sad (minor chords). So the Universe has given us other chord patterns to use. When we combine notes together in specific ways, the individual sound waves from each note combine and interact to produce new emotional tones.

For the time being, I'll only give you chords that use notes within one octave. You're not limited to only seven notes, though. You can take a base triad and continue adding note to it from octaves above and below your working range. The only limitations we have are physical - only tow hands that have minimum stretch - here's an alternative: "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye, performed by Walk Off The Earth.

Well, gotta go make the donuts... At least it's Friday! Have a good one...

Peace~

Dave