CHORD SCALES
Chord Scales are the basis for playing Chord Progressions.   It allows musician's to know what type of chord to play on any note in any Key, handy for Jamming as well as Writing music.

Earlier we saw how to build Triads from a Major Scale, which tells us the type of chord we can play to match the note and Key Signature.   It allows us to Harmonize chords while another instrument or voice plays single scale notes.

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If we apply the same concepts for 4-Note chords we finds the results are similar to Triads with 2 exceptions.   The V chord is a Dominant 7 or 7th chord while the VII chord is a Minor 7 Flat 5 chord.


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CHORD   PROGRESSIONS

The value of knowing Major Scales & the Types of Chords from Chord Scales becomes very clear once we look at Chord Progressions and how they can be applied.

Most Pop/Rock/Blues/Country music is written using a I - IV - V Chord progression, which tells musicians that if they're playing in the Key of C, the chords they can use are C - F - G or CMa7 - FMa7 - G7.

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If a I - VI - II - V chord progression is used then the chords in any Major Key signature will be IMa7 - VIm7 - IIm7 - G7 when playing 4-Note chords.   For Triads the chords IMa - VIm - IIm - VMa would be used.
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MINOR   KEY   SIGNATURES

So far we have only looked at Chord Scales in Major Key Signatures, now take a look at Triads and 4-Note Chords in Minor Key Signatures.





Compare the 2 types of Chord Scales in Major Keys to Minor Keys as shown in the table below.

MAJOR  KEY
SCALE  DEGREE
MINOR  KEY
Triad
4-Note
  
4-Note
Triad
Major
Ma7
I
m7
Minor
Minor
m7
II
m75
Diminished
Minor
m7
III
Ma7
Major
Major
Ma7
IV
m7
Minor
Major
7th
V
m75
Minor
Minor
m7
VI
Ma7
Major
Diminished
m75
VII
7th
Major
         


This will prove useful when Jamming, Improvising or Writing in different Types of Key Signatures.
MINOR  Key Triads Chord Scale
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MINOR Key 4-Part Chord Scale
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CHORD   FORMULAS

When we looked at  SCALE  DEGREES  we showed you how to figure out the notes for other types of Scales such as the Blues Scale and we provided a Link to our  SCALE  FORMULAS  page.   The same concept can be applied to Chord Formulas.

For example, the notes of a 9th chord can be determined by altering any of the 15 Major Scale notes with the formula:
  1        3       5        7        9  

The C9 Chord using the 9th Chord formula:
C  -   E   -  G   -   Bb   -   D
  1        3       5        7        9  


Here is our complete list of  25 CHORD FORMULAS  and other types of Chords and Chord Voicings.