This is a guest blog post from Marc-Andre Seguin of JazzGuitarLessons.net. Marc’s giving some crucial information that’s helpful for all musicians.
–David Motto
When first learning how to play a musical instrument, most students realize that the same chords keep showing up together and that when a song is played correctly, it just sounds right.
Why is that? Why do some chords just sound right when played as a group of chords?
You may have guessed there is a lot of music theory out there that will try and explain this, but in reality it’s actually kind of simple once you know a couple of tips as a starting point.
Let’s take a look at why some chords just sound right when played together in a chord family.
Tip 1: Learn the Basics
If we really bore down through all the theory, we can start to see a relationship between the individual notes in a scale and the family of chords that goes with them.
Learn this and you are well on your way to understanding chord families.
Once we identify a scale with numbers (scale degrees), we can then use this to understand the basic relationship between any scale and the family of chords that goes with it.
Here’s how it works by numbering the C Major scale.
Scale Degrees
|
Note |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
|
Scale Degree |
I |
ii |
iii |
IV |
V |
vi |
vii° |
|
|
Root |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
Note: if you played all of these notes on a piano, you would be playing only the white keys. This makes C major great for demonstrations.
There are seven notes and seven numbers and then we start over again on C after the seventh note.
Roman numerals are a standard convention of Western music (and they look kind of cool too).
Tip 2: Notes and Numbers Remain Constant
It is great to know that the scale degrees (numbers shown in Roman numerals) will never change for this C major scale.
Notice in the above table that the notes move away by degrees from the root which is C. So, the root note is one (1st degree) and the third note (3rd degree) is a third away from the root and so on.
If you were to play the root (I), third (iii) and the fifth (V) of this C major scale (in the above table), you have a basic C Major chord, which is just harmonizing that particular scale by using notes from that scale.
Harmonizing the scale gives us the chord family that goes with that scale.
Tip 3: Chord Families
Here is your first chord family.
Now that we have named the degrees of the scale, we can now harmonize it and name each corresponding chord as follows:
Chords for C Major Scale
|
Note |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
|
Scale Degree |
I |
ii |
iii |
IV |
V |
vi |
vii° |
|
Chord |
CM |
Dm |
Em |
FM |
GM |
Am |
Bdim |
dim=diminished
The C note gets a C chord. The D note gets a D chord, and so on but notice that some are Major (M) chords and some are minor (m) chords.
We can see in the table that the root note has a corresponding Major chord (CM) and the second degree has a minor chord Dm) and so on.
There is an easy pattern or formula that never changes for this Major and minor chord sequence.
Altogether, you have your chord family for that scale.
Tip 4: Chord Family Formula
Thankfully, there is a formula and that really makes this chord family thing easy.
Quick Review:
- Each degree of the scale has its own corresponding chord (see table).
- This formula will never change. (Our example is for a Major scale.)
- Chords starting on the 1st degree are as follows:
Major minor minor Major Major minor diminished
In summary, the above is the chord family formula.
Remember that only the key of C Major has no flats or sharps so when you change to a different Major scale the formula is the same, but there will be sharps or flats added to the scale and the chords.
So, in order to be the same degree away from the root, you may have to add a sharp or a flat, but we won’t discuss that much theory here. If you are interested in learning a little more about chords and scales, check this out.
Tip 5: Make Your Own Chord Family
It’s easy to refer back to the Major scale formula and then create your own corresponding chord families for different keys because the formula remains the same for all Major scales.
I’m serious. You now have all the tools to understand chord families with these simple tips, and, you can make your own chord families just by using the table below.
Just make a blank copy of this table or copy this one right here and start filling in your own chords using the chord family formula.
|
Note |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scale Degree |
I |
ii |
iii |
IV |
V |
vi |
vii° |
|
Chord |
M |
m |
m |
M |
M |
m |
dim |
Note: Just place the chord name in front of the chord quality (Major, minor or diminished). Don’t forget to add sharps or flats as needed.
Summary
We’ve gone over some great tips and delved into the basics of chord families here and I hope that you have found this information helpful and can use these tips as tools to create and understand the essence of how chord families function.
I know at first read, it sounds like a little more theory than you maybe wanted but now you know the why of chord families and can even create your own.
There are books and pdf’s available that list chord families, but now you know why these chords sound good together and when you play a song you now know why these chords make the song sound right.
I encourage you to continue to explore and enjoy your musical journey and understanding, because it truly is about the journey.
Enjoy!
 |
About the Author Marc-Andre Seguin is the webmaster, “brains behind” and teacher on JazzGuitarLessons.net, the #1 online resource for learning how to play jazz guitar. He draws from his experience both as a professional jazz guitarist and professional jazz teacher to help thousands of people from all around the world learn the craft of jazz guitar. |
