"How are chords constructed?"
Understanding how chords are put together is not as difficult as you may imagine.
Triad chords
The first thing to understand when learning chord theory are triad chords. Triads, as the name implies are made up from just three notes and they form the basic structures on which all other chords are based. Triad chords are based on thirds and there are two types of third interval
Major third: 4 half steps (4 frets)
Minor third: 3 Half steps (3 frets)
There are three basic triads which are major, minor and diminished
We shall start our lesson on triads by looking at how chords for the C major scale are constructed. The notes of this scale are
C D E F G A B
To create our first triad chord starting from C we stack two thirds on top of the C note. So we have
C E G
1 3 5
The distance from C to E is 4 frets so that interval is a major third interval and from E to G is three frets so it is a minor third. This chord is a C major triad. All major triads have three notes and follow the same formula of Root, major third, major fifth or 1, 3, 5.
Now we will construct a chord starting from the D note of the major scale. D is the root and if we go up to the third note we get to F and if we go up a third again we get to A. So our chord starting on D has the notes
D F A
1 b3 5
The distance from D to F is three frets so it is a minor third interval and the distance from F to A is a major third or four frets. This is a minor triad. All minor triads have the same interval structure. Root, minor third, major fifth or 1, b3, 5.
We will skip forward now to the B note of the C Major scale and construct our next chord. Again using the same ideas starting at B we get B, D. F. This gives us a dark sounding diminished triad with the intervals
B D F
1 b3 b5
All diminished triads have this interval structure Root, minor third, minor fifth or 1, b3, b5.
See the rest of this article and more at
http://www.guitarstatic.com