road map

im not sure if this is a music theroy question but im sure youll move it if its not.

so i have been looking through chord books and scale books trying to finish my lesson for this week (its in another post if you must know) and im seeing things. patterns seem to come out and glow.

what im thinking is that my chord knowledge sucks and as im looking at/ playing these new chords im seeing "road maps" for the scales im supposed to be learning.

a major chord is the 1 3 5 of the the major sacle a seventh is the same with the 7th added, a minor is 1 3b 5 and so on until all the chords are explained.

is my theory correct and i should have seen this years ago, or am i just going crazy?

Sounds as if you had an "a-ha" moment.
Doug

Good for you!
Here's a site with some charts where you can see just that, along with some tips:

http://chrisjuergensen.com.hosting.domaindirect.com/chordformula.htm

yup

wat u say makes sense. if u have a scale chords are built from it by choosing the notes int he scale and playing them together. normally this is done by stacking thirds. eg playin a note, then playing a third above that and a third above that, if you want to play your normal majour minor chords.
or stacking four thirds to get all your types of seventh chord. basically u start on any not in a scale. pick that note, skip a note, pick a note skip a note.

u end up with 1 3 5
or 1 3 5 7. if that means anythin to you.

other chords such as 9ths use other notes in the scale.

because of this it is only natural that you can see how the chords and scales fit together as they are linked. and the more complicated chord the more obvious which scale it belongs to

because of this it is only natural that you can see how the chords and scales fit together as they are linked. and the more complicated chord the more obvious which scale it belongs to

This is also good to know when making your own chord progressions and lead guitar solos. The more complex the chords are, the more limited in scale/mode choice you have. If you keep things to basic Major and minor chords you can really move around a lot more than if you have complex extended chords. I try not to use massively extended chords for this very reason unless it's for a very specific purpose.. I tend to stick with basic Major and minor chords, as well as Major and minor 7ths.

If you are using the 1 3 5 notes in the chord, it could be any scale or mode that has those 3 notes in it. If you are using the 1 3 5 7 9 (which is really a 2 note but one octave higher) then it could be any scale or mode that has those 5 notes in it.. but see how much more limited you are?

Hey Broken. Your chord knowledge doesn't "suck", perhaps you are just inexperienced in the topic. It is good to see that you are catching on to the patterns that show up in musical theory and music in general. Basically, the chords will determine what key is being played in.

Hack away at some basic theory if you have not yet done so, and I'm sure even more things will start to glow for you :) !


Chris