| | | Hey Friend,
If you've hung around this newsletter long enough, you know that guitar chords and musical scales go hand in hand.
You can have a scale without chords going on, but you can't have a chord without using a scale.
Each chord you play is based on a scale.
If you can accept that concept at face value, you'll be way ahead in this game.
Let's look a little deeper.
If you can base any chord on a scale (even power chords), and you want to play an A minor chord, what scale do you think you would use to figure out the three notes that belong in an A minor chord?
Don't worry, this isn't a trick question...
The A minor scale. Yup, that wasn't hard, now was it?
Now I want to warp your brain (just a little).
Let's look at the C major chord.
What scale do you make it from? Hmm?
That's right, the C major scale - just making sure you're paying attention.
Here comes the brain warp-age...
You can find the A minor chord inside the C major scale.
In fact, this is the case with every scale - the notes you find in each scale will give you the ingredients you need for a bunch of chords.
That's because a scale is based on a key. And a key tells you which notes belong in the various scales (and chords) you can create from the key.
If you think about it, this shouldn't be a surprise. After all, we only have 12 notes to work with in music if you include all the sharps or flats in a key. Different keys are bound to have some of the same notes. So each chord can be found and used inside multiple keys.
An example, you ask?
The key of C major has the following notes:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C
The key of A minor has these notes:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G and A
See any similarities there?
The notes in an A minor chord are A, C and E notes (the first, third and fifth notes in the A minor scale and key).
Now look at the key of C major. Notice that it contains the C, E and A notes as well? Well that's an A minor chord when you combine the three notes.
What you're going to find when you play Rock or Blues or Country is that in the majority of songs, you will play the entire song in one key. Which means you will be using one set of notes that are used to form the chords used in that song.
This is the basis for chord progressions. You're using chords that are all made from notes in the same key. This is why they sound good together.
The Chord Clinic is going to help you put all these puzzle pieces together when it comes to guitar chords. These concepts will help you whether you're learning full chords or good old power chords.
Power chords are just simpler forms of full chords. Easy Power Chords gives you the low-down on all the shapes and locations for power chords.
See how quickly you can be playing Rock with Easy Power Chords today!
Peace~
Dave
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