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.
Video Player Option with Music Score and Piano Playback
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.
Video Player Option with Music Score and Piano Playback
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.
Video Player Option with Music Score and Piano Playback
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.
Video Player Option with Music Score and Piano Playback
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
Video Player Option with Music Score and Piano Playback
MINOR Key 4-Part Chord Scale
Video Player Option with Music Score and Piano Playback
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.