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Notes Played In All Major Keys
Chord Forming Table Important Chords In Major Keys Chord Progressions More Chord Progressions |
Look at Table 7. I’ve listed the notes in the key of C. It contains the notes of the first key (the key of C) listed in Table 2. It also contains the root, second, third, etc. explained before (in the first tutorial, the Key of C). The notes E and F, along with B and C, are separated by only a half step (a flat or a sharp, or one fret on the guitar). Each chord is denoted by a Roman numeral as shown in the row below the note designations. Some of the Roman numerals are upper-case, some are lower-case, one (viio) has a superscript. There is a reason for this, which we’ll see in a minute. Go through the key and construct chords of type C, D, E, F, G, A, and B as follows. For each chord, pick the note which is the chord name as the first note. Then use the third and fifth notes from that as the other chord notes.
For the C chord, use three notes (in the key) starting with C, and skipping every other note. That yields C, E, and G. (Skip D between C and E; skip F between E and G.) The Key of C explained how to create C major (C) and C minor (Cmin) chords. Which will this be? This is the C major chord. As explained before, the four half-steps between C and E make E a third (often called a major third); the seven half-steps between C and G make G a fifth (also called a perfect fifth). This chord’s Roman numeral is upper-case (I), indicating that it is a major chord. |
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Go to the next chord. It uses D, F, and A (three notes, skip every other note). But there are only three half-steps between D and F; there are seven between D and A. Look at Table 2 to count the half-steps. Or -- realize that from D to E is two half-steps, to F is another half-step. Then to G is another two, to A another two more. The three half-steps between the root and the third make it a minor (flatted) third. The fifth is still perfect (seven half-steps). So the D chord (in this key) is a minor chord, denoted by Dm. (It uses 1-b3-5, which is a minor chord, as was explained before and is listed in Table 3.) Its Roman numeral is lower case (ii); the lower case denotes a minor chord.
The E chord is E - G - B; G is a minor third and B is still a perfect fifth, so E is a minor chord (Em) in this key. Constructing the F chord, its third is A and its fifth is C. This chord is a major chord (F), therefore it has a capital Roman numeral. G, which uses A and D, is also a major chord (G). The A chord, which uses C and E, is a minor chord (Am). Finally, examine the B chord. It uses B, D, and F. D is a minor third (it is only three half-steps from B), but F is a diminished (flatted) fifth, since it is only six half-steps, rather than seven, from B. A chord composed of such notes is called a diminished chord (which was explained in the first tutorial, and is in Table 3.) So the B chord (in this key) is a diminished chord, denoted by Bdim, or sometimes Bo. You can go through this process for each of the keys in Table 2. If you do so, you will find that the I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - viio scheme holds in every key. The first chord (which has the same name as the key) is always a major chord, as are the fourth and fifth. The second, third, and sixth chords are always minor chords, and the seventh chord is always a diminished chord. If you write out something like the last row of Table 7 for every key (just copy the notes from Table 2), you get Table 8). It lists the major, minor, and diminished chords for each major key. I have added two columns -- the V7 column, and the "flats and sharps" column. The former is the set of 7th chords formed by using the V chord (major chord) and forming a dominant seventh (Table 3 has the instructions: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7). Remember that a major 7th (used in major 7th chords) is four half-steps from the fifth, the minor 7th (used in the dominant 7th) is three half-steps. In the key of C, G7 uses G - B - D - F. Once again, the most common keys (C, D, F, and G) are in white. Table 8A has the same information as Table 8, but is arranged differently. The key of C appears in the middle row. As you move down from C, the keys have progressively more sharps. As you move up from C, the keys have progressively more flats. The sixth tutorial, the Circle of Fifths, explains the value of this. Basically, the keys which are "adjacent" to each other are in adjacent rows. The most common keys -- F, C, D, and G -- are adjacent to each other in the center rows of the Table. If you know the key of a song, you know the chords likely to appear in it. We can see, from Table 8 or Table 8A, that chords in the key of C, the most popular key, will be (generally) C, F, G, G7, Am, Dm, and Em. These are typically the easiest chords to play, and the ones people usually learn first. (Diminished chords are not used much in popular music.) Now remember that the chords shown in Table 8 and Table 8A are not the only chords that may appear -- there are fifth, sixths, suspended 2nds, major 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, etc. Any of the chord types listed in Table 3, and more, can potentially appear. But the basic chords in each major key are shown in Table 8 and Table 8A. If you’re comfortable with the basic chords in the most popular keys (C, D, F, and G), you’ll go a long way toward understanding and playing lots of popular songs. The key of D has some of the same chords as C (Em and G), as does F (F, C, Am, Dm), and G (C, G, Am, Em). So if you know a song has chords C and Am, you won’t immediately know if it’s in the key of C, F, or G. California Dreamin’ (Mamas and the Papas), I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Beatles), In Dreams (Roy Orbison), White Sport Coat (Marty Robbins), and numerous other songs are in the key of C. Two in the key of D are As Tears Go By (Rolling Stones) and California Blue (Orbison) -- at least in the music books that I have. (Different music books can show the same song being in different keys.) The Stones’ songs Mother’s Little Helper, All Over Now, and Honky Tonk Women, along with The Turtle’s Happy Together, are in the key of G. Blue Bayou (Orbison) and Runaway (Del Shannon) are in the key of F. Satisfaction and Last Time (both Stones) are in the key of E. Pretty Woman (Orbison) is in the key of A. Songs don’t always stay in the same key: Paint It Black (Stones) starts in F, but most of the song is in Ab. Also, about half of And I Love Her (Beatles) is in E, and half is in F. If you want to play a song in a different key, Table 8 or Table 8A shows you how to do it. If a song has the chord progression C - F - G in the key of C, it will have the progression D - G - A in the key of D, and F - Bb - C in the key of F. In each key, the chords (for this example) will be I - IV - V. The next tutorial goes into this in more detail. Also, see the key changing file in the Exercises section. |