help with chords.

so if im playing an e minor scale, what are the chords that are used in this scale.
i know what notes are involved but what chords will make it sound more lively?

Well, a I IV V in em is Em, Am, Bm, Em, so that'd be a bluesy progression. Something more modern...Umm... Em to Am/C. Metal-esque.

Em, F#dim, Gmaj, Am, Bm, Cmaj, Dmaj.

Those chords work.

Originally Posted by: jshwaggleso if im playing an e minor scale, what are the chords that are used in this scale.
i know what notes are involved but what chords will make it sound more lively?

If you know the notes of any scale you can build it's resultant triad chords by the following method:

1. Use only notes of the scale.
2. Start on a note of the scale, "leapfrog" over the next note and land on the third note.
3. Leap over the next note (the 4th) and land on the 5th.
4. This is a three note triad from the scale.
5. Do this for all the notes in the scale until you have a three note triad built upon all of them.


This is called triadic harmonization. You can extend it to four note chords also.

E - skip F# - G - skip A - B = E-G-B
F# - skip G - A - skip B - C = F#-A-C
G - skip A - B - skip C - D = G-B-D

And so on until you have built a chord on each note of the scale. Any scale!

Zak gave you all the proper resultant chords (thanks, Zak, good job :) ).

For the fundamental principles underlying this see this tutorial:
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=495

As to making it sound more lively, you might consider modulation. This means to alter or slightly change the scale in part of a song in order to make some variety for dramatic interest.

The most obvious modulation to a minor scale is to make it harmonic minor by raising the 7th degree from a minor 7th to a major 7th. In this case, make the D a D#. Then you have changed any chord that has a D in it to a D# thereby "shaking things up". This makes the V (five) chord a B major (B-D#-F#) instead of a B minor (B-D-F#). This is a great way to create a stronger cadence, resolution back to the i (one) chord.

Hope this helps.