Monday, January 30, 2017

Intro to Chords


Before we get into the structure and complexity of a chord, first we must know: what is a chord? A chord is defined as “a music unit consisting of more than one note being played at the same time” (Carter 89). That doesn’t sound that bad right? That’s because it’s not! Chords are simple in nature once you understand how chords fit into scales. Going back to my previous post, chords are made of notes taken from certain scales and are really related. In one way they are related because both are made using certain spaces called intervals (Carter 90). A major 7th, for example, is the root note, M3, P5, and M7. For the C scale, that would be C, E, G, and B. Most songs use fairly simple chords such as C, Em, G, and A. There are some cases, though, that use more complex chords (mostly with jazz music) such as a major 13th flat 9 chord.


Even When It Hurts by Hillsong (only using the instrumental)
In the beginning, I’m only using the chords of the song, but then after going through the chords once, I demonstrated how to take chords to a more complex level. I found a pattern to use and repeated with each of the chords. The chord and the notes within the chord is what I based the pattern on.


https://youtu.be/e_JDNtRYlAo


What is more important to being a well-rounded musician: chords or scales?


Carter, Nicolas. Master the Chords. Music Theory From Absolute Beginner to Expert. N.p.: Nicolas Carter, 2016. 89-90. Print.

1 comment:

  1. I feel like I've commented/looked at all of your posts, and they keep getting better and better! Chords were a little confusing for me in the beginning, but honestly it was the scale that helped me understand them. So, I believe that scales are more important to being a well rounded musician.

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