This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.
What Is A Chord?
In the most general sense, a chord is a combination of two or more (some would argue three or more) sounds which occur at the same time. This definition potentially includes non-musical sounds such as ambiences.
Although always true, this is such a general definition that it isn’t very useful in most genres.
A more useful definition would be:
A chord is an instantaneous representation of a key.
NOTE: This isn’t always true but it’s a good starting point. The majority of chords fit this definition.
Typically, chords are used to accompany and support a melody as it travels on its journey through various keys. Chords are signposts for keys that the melody visits.
The Most Important Notes Of A Key
Most chords represent a key. In order to do this, a chord needs to contain the most important notes of that key.
We could try playing every note in the scale of that key, but it’s a very cluttered sound.
The closer together the notes in a chord, the more cluttered and confusing the sound.
The clearest sounding chords are made up of just a few notes which are far apart in pitch. If we want a chord to sound clear, we need to use only the most important notes of the key.
The Root Note And Perfect 5th
The single most important note of any key is the first note of the scale, the root note or tonic. Without a root note, we have no reference to interpret the mode, the pattern of intervals that give a key it’s character.
The other important note, at least in conventional Western modes, is the note a perfect 5th above the root note. As we saw in 15. Modes, the perfect 5th blends in to the root note and supports it. This helps us to feel the root note in the music.
Modal Chords/Power Chords
Chords made up of just the root note and perfect 5th are quite prevalent in both early music/folk music as well as rock and metal. They are called modal chords in folk based genres and power chords in rock genres.
Modal chords fit all traditional Western modes including both major and minor.
Example
Let’s say we want to find the modal chord on C.
We want the root note, C, and the perfect 5th, G.
There it is; C and G played together.
A modal chord consists of the root note and perfect 5th
The above chord sounds a bit small. Chords can be made to sound bigger by including other octaves.
Content And Voicing
The list of different notes in the chord (excluding other octaves) is called it’s content.
When playing a chord, each note in the content can be played at any octave. You can even play one or more notes at several different octaves at once, to make the chord sound bigger.
The order and pitch distribution of the notes of a chord is called voicing. We’ll look at chord voicing later in this course.
…If a chord is a recipe then the content is the ingredients and voicing is the quantities…
Major And Minor Chords
The problem with modal chords is that you can’t tell major from minor.
To truly represent a key, a chord needs a note that differs between major and minor. If we look at a major and minor scale on the same root note, we can see that there are 3 possible notes we could use; the 3rd, 6th or 7th.
The Third – The Other Important Note
Most music in minor keys is written in either the melodic or harmonic minor, or sometimes a combination of both. As we saw in B3. Melodic And Harmonic Minor, the harmonic minor has a major 7th and the melodic minor ascending has both a major 6th and a major 7th.
Given these variations, the 3rd is the only consistent difference between parallel major and minor keys.
There’s another reason why the 3rd is the best choice to represent major or minor. Look at the example in C major below:
- When the 6th or 7th is used in a chord, there is a close interval between one pair of notes in the chord, which can cause clutter.
- When the 3rd is used, the notes are almost evenly spread within the octave.
- Major chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale they represent.
- Minor chords are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the minor scale they represent.
For example:
- The chord A major = A + C# + E
- The chord A minor = A + C + E
Triads
Chords that are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale are called triads because the interval between each pair of notes is a third. Major and minor chords are both triads.
A triad is a chord whose content is made up of a sequence of 3rds.
Note: we don’t usually bother to call a major or minor chord a triad unless played as an arpeggio. We just say major chord or minor chord.
Major triad = major chord = Root Note (1st) + Major 3rd + perfect 5th
Minor triad = minor chord = Root Note (1st) + minor 3rd + perfect 5th
Arpeggios: Playing Chords On A Melody Instrument
If you can’t play chords on your instrument, don’t worry. In a way, you can!
Many pitched instruments, including the voice, are monophonic; they can only produce one note at a time.
You can still create the effect of a chord on these instruments by playing the notes quickly one after the other and holding the last note or by repeating the pattern several times.
This sounds even better if you finish on the octave of the root note.
You can also ascend and descend like a scale. This one’s an A minor triad:
Triads played in this way are called arpeggios.
Arpeggios are also variously known as arpeggiated chords, broken chords or simply triads.
For pitched instruments, arpeggios, together with scales, make up an important part of practice technique known as technical work. Technical work limbers up the fingers/vocal chords. It also prepares a player for playing in different keys.
How to Notate Chords
Chords can be notated on a stave by writing the notes one above the other. The great stave, as used for piano and other keyboard instruments, is especially useful for this.
The following example uses the chords C major, A minor, F and G:
Chords aren’t as easy to read as a melody. Depending on how many notes there are and how closely they’re spaced, the music can look quite cluttered. Here’s the same chord progression for guitar:
Chord Symbols
One alternative is to use chord symbols. A chord symbol is a shorthand method of writing down chords as text.
Chord symbols are made up of the name of the root note and the quality of the chord; major, minor or modal.
Other chord types can also be written as symbols, using added text or numbers called a suffix. We’ll look at some of these in coming lessons.
- A major chord is just written as the name of the root note. No quality is used.
- A minor chord is the root note followed by the letter “m” (sometimes “mi” or “min”) as the quality.
- A modal chord is written in different ways depending on the genre, as below:
- In folk genres, the letters “mod” are written after the root note, as the quality.
- In rock and metal genres, the number 5 is written after the root note, as a suffix.
- In Classical and Jazz genres, the modal chord is not considered a complete chord. Instead, it is described as a major chord with the 3rd left out. Accordingly, the text “no 3rd” is written in parentheses after the root note.
Example:
C major chord = C
C minor chord = Cm
C modal chord (folk) = Cmod
C modal chord (metal) = C5
C modal chord (jazz) = C(no 3rd)
Summary of Chord Types
- Modal chords fit both major and minor keys as they don’t have a note to represent the difference between major and minor. They consist of only the 1st and 5th notes of the key they represent.
- Major chords consist of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the major key they represent.
- Minor chords consist of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the minor key they represent.
Modal chord = Rote Note (1st) + perfect 5th
Major triad = major chord = Root Note (1st) + Major 3rd + perfect 5th
Minor triad = minor chord = Root Note (1st) + minor 3rd + perfect 5th
Try These…
1 Write out the content (notes) of the following chords:
G
Gm
Gmod
Bb
F#m
D5
2 Name the following chords using chord symbols:
E G B
E G# B
Ab C Eb
C# G#
F Ab C
D F# A
Answers at the end of this post.
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NEXT LESSON: B15. Chord Voicing: Inversions Of Triads
PART 2 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents
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Answers to Try These…
1
G = G B D
Gm = G Bb D
Gmod = G D
Bb = Bb D F
F#m = F# A C#
D5 = D A
2
E G B = Em
E G# B = E
Ab C Eb = Ab
C# G# = C#mod, C#5 or C#(no 3rd)
F Ab C = Fm
D F# A = D