This is always true no matter what extra numbers are present. A “dominant family” chord (aka a chord like C9 with no “major” or “minor” in its name) will have a major third and flattened 7th (as in the mixolydian mode). A “minor family chord” will have a flattened 3rd and flattened 7th (as in the dorian mode). A “major family” chord will always have a major 3rd and major 7th. So what about the other number chords? Firstly, the chord’s name will tell you what kind of seven and third are included. They can also be used in other ways, for example as all three chords in a standard blues progression or at any point in a jazz tune where the following chord will be down a fifth from the current one.įor example our C7 chord could be used as chord V in the key of F major. They are usually used as chord V in a major key because they want to resolve down a fifth and chord V back to chord I is the “perfect cadence”, which we recognise as marking the end of a musical phrase or section. If a chord with a number doesn’t specify major or minor then it’s a dominant chord.ĭominant chords “want” to resolve down a fifth (this is because of the intervals contained within them, but I won’t go into it here). While you could call the chord C dominant 7, most people don’t as it’s easier just to say C7. People with older browsers may not be able to see the flat symbols in this section, so just to confirm the last bit of the last sentence was “B to B flat” and I will be referring to B flat for the rest of this paragraph! Then we would stack up C, E, G and B♭ to get a C7 chord. For C major, for example, we would flatten the seventh note, B, to B♭. Take the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes and stack them up in your preferred order. To make a dominant chord you go through the major scale but with the 7th note flattened (which is effectively a mixolydian modal scale, as discussed in my blog on the modes here and in this youtube clip). The dominant chords are the family denoted by letters and numbers, eg C7, D9, E11 etc. In this way they can lead a chord progression in a certain direction or even be used to modulate to another key. These have an uncomfortable feeling which needs to be resolved by following them with certain chords. Notice that the only difference between a major and minor triad is that the third note is flattened by a semi-tone. Again the order of the notes isn’t really important so long as they are all there. So for a C minor chord we would take the first, third and fifth notes of a C minor scale and stack them up. To construct a minor chord we do the same thing but with a minor scale instead. When talking about this chord you could call it either “G over B” or “G in the first inversion”. For example, G/B would be the notes of a G major chord (aka G, B and D) piled up with the B at the lowest pitch within the chord. The numerator tells you which chord should be played and the denominator tells you which of its notes should be in the lowest pitch. Inverted chords are commonly written like fractions. We call this “inverting the chord” so if you hear someone say a chord is “first inversion” they mean the third note or the scale is being played as the lowest pitch in the chord and second inversion is the fifth note being used as the lowest pitch in the chord. No matter what order you stack the notes in they will still make a C major chord, even if the root note (aka C) is not at the bottom of the chord. I have demonstrated chord constructions on a piano for this blog as it’s a lot easier to visualise notes on a piano than a guitar because the sharps and flats are thoughtfully coloured in. For example if we want to make a C major chord we go through the scale of c major (no sharps or flats) and pick out the first, third and fifth notes that we get to aka C, E and G. These will be notes 1, 3 and 5 of the relevant scale so to make a major triad you take notes 1, 3 and 5 of the major scale and stack them up together. The simplest type of chord is called a “triad” aka three notes stacked up on top of each other. These are called “major”, “minor” and “dominant”. When you first discover the vast selection of chords with numbers in, it can seem like a giant, scary music theory melange… In this blog I am going to be explaining how chords are named and hopefully demystifying this confusing subject for beginner guitarists! I am often asked questions like “what’s the difference between a major and a dominant 7 chord” or “why is this an add 9 chord not a 9 chord”. Chord construction explained- 7, 9, 11, 13, major, minor, dominant etc
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