Notes Played In All Major Keys

Chord Forming Table

Important Chords In Major Keys

Chord Progressions

More Chord Progressions 		Musical beginners (and many of us who aren’t) often wonder how to determine the key of a song. And we also wonder "how do you make -- and how do you know how to make a C7 (C Seventh) or GMaj7 (G-Major-Seventh) or a C+ (C Augmented) chord?"

Let's start with the simplest key, the key of C. We'll see how to form chords in this key, then go on to other keys.

The notes in the key of C are shown in Table 1. (Technically, the key is the key of C Major.) The notes, starting with C, form the familiar "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do" (or C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C) you probably learned in elementary school.

The first note in this key, C, is called the "root"; and is usually indicated by the Roman numeral I. I have gone ahead and put Arabic numerals, rather than Roman, in the first row of the Table. The next note, D, is called the second relative to C. The one after, E is the third; the next, F, is the fourth. The fifth is then G, the sixth A, and the seventh B. (Recall that once we go past G, we start over at A, and go up the scale again.) The eighth, or octave, is C again. Even though it has the same name, it doesn't have the same pitch; it's an octave higher, so it is double the frequency of the first C. The ninth is D again, same name as the second. The tenth is E, the eleventh F. G is the twelfth and A the thirteenth. There's seldom any point in going past the eleventh on the guitar. Why will be evident later.

We already saw that the octave (eighth) is the same as the first or root. Just think of subtracting seven from each note (if the note is an eighth, ninth, etc.). So the ninth is the same (note, not the same pitch) as the second (9 - 2 = 7), the tenth is the same as the third (10 - 7 = 3), the eleventh is the same as the fourth (11 - 7 = 4), and the thirteenth is the same as the sixth (13 - 7 = 6).

#

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Note

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

A
Table 1. Notes In the Key of C Major.

Most chords are based on a pattern of odd notes (1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11). A major chord uses notes 1 - 3 - 5. So C major (just indicated as C) is C - E - G. (In the Table, C is the first, E the third, G the fifth.) Minor chords are 1 - b3 - 5 (root, flatted third, fifth). So C minor (Cmin) is C - Eb - G.

Recall that the note C# (C-sharp) is halfway between C and D in pitch. G# is halfway between G and A, A# is halfway between A and B, etc. On the guitar you "flat" (b) a note (lower its pitch by a half step or a semi-tone) by moving one fret on the neck, farther from the guitar body. To "sharp" (#) a note (raise its pitch by a half step or a semi-tone), you move one fret toward the guitar body. So sharping a note is the same as flatting the next higher note. C# is the same as Db. And D# is the same as Eb. Also, in effect, C## is the same as D. (Sharp C twice, you get D. But double sharps are seldom seen in musical scores.) And Dbb is the same as C. (Flat D twice, you get C. And double flats are seldom seen, as well.) Also, remember that Cb is the same as B (B# is the same as C), and Fb is the same as E (E# is the same as F). Notes that are neither flatted nor sharped are called natural notes.

As I stated, a major chord uses the notes 1 - 3 - 5, and a minor chord uses the notes 1 - b3 - 5. A diminished chord uses the notes 1 - b3 - b5. So C dim (or Co) is C - Eb - Gb. An augmented chord, denoted by +, uses the notes 1 - 3 - #5, so that C+ uses C - E - G#.

A dominant seventh chord (usually just called a seventh chord) uses the notes 1 - 3 - 5 - b7. A major seventh chord varies only in the last note, using 1 - 3 - 5 - 7. A minor seventh uses the notes 1 - b3 - 5 - b7. Be careful! The seventh chords seem to be inconsistent with the others (using b7 rather than 7), and this affects chords "above" them, such as the ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths.

So C7 (C Dominant Seventh, usually just called C Seventh) is C - E - G - Bb (recall Bb = A#). CMaj7 (C Major Seventh) is C - E - G - B. Cmin7 is C - Eb - G - Bb. You can also have a seventh (flatted fifth) chord – it uses 1 - 3 - b5 - b7, so it’s really a dominant seventh (flatted fifth). C7 (b5) [this is pronounced "C seventh, flatted fifth] is C - E - Gb - Bb. You can also have major seventh (flatted fifth), minor seventh (flatted fifth), diminished sevenths (major, minor, flatted fifth), augmented sevenths (major, minor, flatted fifth), . . . virtually ad nauseum.

You can even have a Major minor seventh! It's formed using 1 - b3 - 5 - 7.

A (dominant) ninth chord is a dominant seventh, with a ninth note added -- it is 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 - 9. So C9 is C - E - G - Bb - D. Remember the ninth is the same as the second. So a ninth chords uses 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - b7. Also see that the b7 that was used in the (dominant) 7th carries over here.

A (dominant) eleventh chord is a dominant ninth chord, with the eleventh note added -- it is 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 - 9 - 11. C11 is C - E - G - Bb - D - F. Remember the eleventh is the same as the fourth, so an 11th is 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - b7.

C13 is C11, with the thirteenth note (G, same as the sixth) added. But since C11 has six notes, C13 would have seven. Since there are only six strings on the guitar, you can’t play a C13 (or any standard thirteenth chord) on a guitar. You can play a thirteenth chord with one note left out, and it can still sound pretty good.

Now you can also have major and minor -- and diminished and augmented -- 9ths; major and minor and diminished and augmented 11ths; . . . again virtually ad nauseum.

There are other types of chords, as well. A fifth chord uses only the first and the fifth (the third is omitted). It's a 1 - 5 chord. C5 [also indicated C (no 3rd)] is C - G. A suspended second chord uses 1 - 2 - 5 (Csus2 is C - D - G), while a suspended fourth (also just called suspended) chord uses 1 - 4 - 5 (Csus4, or Csus, is C - F - G). So these chords deviate from the 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 formula. A sixth (also called major sixth) uses 1 - 3 - 5 - 6 (C6 is C - E - G - A). A minor sixth uses 1 - b3 - 5 - 6 (Cmin6 is C - Eb - G - A).

Given these rules, you can probably (with some pain) construct just about any chord. Table 3 summarizes these rules for a number of common chords (but not all those I’ve described). To create the chords in keys other than C, we need to figure out how to find the notes in those other keys. That's next.