Music Theory

[Electrock]

Electrock you are awesome!!

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[Electrock]

So, we’ve done a bit about carrying one note over from one chord to the next, and we can go into a few tricks to make that work better.

A very popular progression is a I-IV progression (remember the Roman Numeral notation from the first “chord” lesson…), since the fifth of the IV chord is the root of the I chord. These also work in minor chords, so this can just as easily be i-iv.

Now, if you’re just building your chords as; starting at the root and adding the third and fifth on top, you’ll still sound okay, but you can also “invert” the chord. What this means is to essentially raise or lower one of the notes in the chord by an octave.

For example, let’s look at a G-to-C progression. (Can you tell I play guitar? If not, you probably don’t play much guitar. )



The notes in the chord of G are G, B, and D. In C, the notes are C, E, and G. In this case, since the G is the root (or tonic) chord of the key, AND because this is where you’re starting, you probably don’t want to invert the G. You can, but that’s a little more advanced than where we’re at for now. Instead, let’s invert the C. Here’s how:

(In PocketBand, the octaves are denoted with numbers, where “1” is the lowest octave, and starts with the note for which the key is named. For this example, let’s say your G chord is in the third octave, and my numbers after the letter name will likewise correspond to the octave. I won’t do this for very long, as complicated chords actually have numbers in them, and I don’t want to confuse anyone.)

Your G chord will be made of G3, B3, and D3. Your C chord would be made of C3, E3, and G4. Since both chords have a “G” in common, this is absolutely feasible. Let’s keep that from being an entire octave’s jump, however. Invert the chord, making the “G” the LOWEST note in the C chord, so you’d end up with G3, C3, and E3. Now the G from both chords is in the same place, and isn’t so harsh of a transition.

This doesn’t always have to be the “highest” note becoming the lowest. If you were in another progression, you could make the third the lowest, or you could invert the chord so the root is the highest. As you layer the chords into more than one octave (i.e. G3, B3, D3, G4, B4), you can make the third higher than the fifth, whatever. I think you’d get the idea as you play around a bit.

As a matter of notation, inverted chords usually (but not necessarily ALWAYS) are noted with a slash – as in C/G. Technically, this means a C chord with the “G” as the lowest note. This is just in case you may happen across it in sheet music, especially, or if you need the jargon for anything else. These are also used to “step into” the next chord, as in a D/F# to G progression. The “F#” in the D chord is only one half-step below the root of the G chord, so it makes for a nice little lead in.

More complicated chords will begin to involve more than just the root, third, and fifth. Remember, however, that chords are still based on thirds. The next step above the fifth would then be the seventh. Seventh chords can have some tricky notations, but don’t let yourself get TOO worried about them. The next lesson will deal with more complicated chords, including some major, minor, and dominant sevenths.

[Electrock]

As mentioned, chords are based on thirds. They can, however, extend PAST just the root, third, and fifth. The next third on top of the fifth would be the seventh.

Let’s build a major C chord in the key of C, adding a seventh. Refer to the keyboard, and let’s see what those notes would be.



We already know that the basic C major chord consists of the notes C, E, and G. When you add another third in this case over the G, you would add a B. So, the notes here are C, E, G, and B.

This chord is called “Cmaj7.” The intervals here are major third, minor third (both to make a major chord), and another major third. Note that in major and natural minor keys, no minor chord will have a major third on top of the fifth. Any third in this case would be minor. However, when you get into harmonic and melodic minor keys, you very well may have intervals of minor, major, major. If this particular chord had C as a root, it would be “Cmin7.” This is NOT to be confused with “Cm7.” What’s the difference? Glad you’ve asked. It shows you were paying attention. It has to do with “dominant” sevenths, which is forthcoming.

Before we get into “Cm7,” let’s back out of the minor chords, and back into major chords. Because of the popular usage of a V-I chord progression to resolve a part of a song (go into the editor, and whip up a quick C-F-G-C progression, and you’ll see how nice the G (or V) chord leads back to the C (or I) chord), the V chord is most often associated with adding sevenths. However, if you look to add a seventh to the G chord while you’re in the key of C, you’ll notice that the seventh is a minor third on top of the fifth - as D to F is a minor third. This makes the interval different than the major-minor-major for the Cmaj7. Instead, this is major-minor-minor.

Now, why is this so popular? One big reason, if you’d notice, is that every note in any particular key is covered by the I, IV, and V chords. Since the V chord leads so well into the I chord, this progression makes for a nice resolution to a particular section of a song. So, most “by-the-book” songwriting will have these three chords, and end on a V-I progression.

In the C-F-G-C progression that you had made (or maybe didn’t, whatever), the “F-G” progression is the harshest, because they have no common notes. If, however, you add the seventh to the G chord, you’ll have an “F” note, which blends well with the chord before it. This is why the V chord is most associated with sevenths. When you have a seventh on a V chord, that seventh is referred to as a “dominant” seventh. In the case of the G chord, it will be noted as “Gdom7,” or more commonly, simply as “G7.”

When you apply this to minor keys and minor chords, the connotation will be similar, but it will explain the difference between “Cmin7” and “Cm7.” Because the dominant seventh is associated with the fifth chord of the key, a Cm7 would most often be the v7 chord. Therefore, Cm7 would be in the key of F minor. As in the case of the major chord progressions, you can go into the editor and make a i-iv-v7-i progression to see how it works. In the key of F minor, that progression would be Fm-Bbm-Cm7-Fm.

(Edit: BTW, if you have a V7-I progression, the V7 tends to lead itself more into the I chord than a regular V chord)

From here, more thirds can be added, giving ninths, elevenths, and thirteenth chords. (Seventeen would be back to the root note.) When you get thirds above the seventh, it is worth noting that you’re starting an octave over again. For instance, the “ninth” would be the second, plus an octave.

To be quite honest, I’ve never really dealt much with these chords, so I’m no expert here. I know they exist, and I know I can use them if I decide to. I don’t know, however, what they would be appropriately named, as some are “C9,” “Cadd9,” “C7add13,” etc. Largely, the differences would be skipping some of the thirds, and essentially having something like the root, third, fifth, skipping the seventh, and going to the ninth. Maybe somebody can fill me in on nomenclature, but I think this will suffice for a PB introduction to music theory – as long as you don’t get into many in-depth conversations!

[Åtom]

I've had this bookmarked for a long time. Taught me more than 3 years of middle school band class.ha. Thank you for the knowledge. Maybe I can put it to better use soon

[Steema]

If you guys really want a good outlook on theory, musictheory.net is great as well.

If you're going to learn how to read sheet music, start off with learning what the symbols mean, and then start learning rhythm and about time signatures befor you learn the major scale, then intervals, and then triads.

[imaluxury]

Awesome job! U literally took me to school lol. I got lost on those intervals tho. . . I wasnt sure how it related to the previous information. Im a "from scratch" learner so forgive me if i sound like i know nothing : i do THANKS A BUNCH THO

[dream higher]

Thank you