Chord Theory part 2 - What's in a chord, really?

Ok gang here we'll chat about what a chord actually is. Remeber last week we discovered that a major scale has seven notes, uses a set of intervals to determine the names of those notes in relationship to one another and by following the steps w-w-h-w-w-w-h starting on any note we can find that note's corresponding major scale. So armed with that information let's dive into what makes up a chord.

Simply put, a chord is any three or more notes played together. Strictly speaking, 2 notes are an interval and one note is, well, a note :) But how do we come up with names for these chords? They're definied by the major scale they are derived from. See we stack notes from the major scale in order to create the most basic chords and then name all other notes we add to them based on the intervals we've created in that scale. So lets take our favorite C major scale and work from there. Remember the C major scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C (octave) right? So a to determine the chords for the key of C we stack 3rds on top of each note. A 3rd is alway two notes away from the previous note. So if we stack 3rds on top of a C we get C-E-G. C-E-G are the three notes essential to a C chord. Go grab your guitar or keyboard and check. Make a C chord...now what notes are you playing? See, some notes are repeated, but in a plain old C chord there are only 3 notes C-E-G. Every other major chord is made and named the same way. Take a G major scale G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G. the 1-3-5 is G-B-D in this case. Go look...those are the only 3 notes in the chord.

So that my friends is the essence of how to create a chord and how to name a major chord. Next time, what happens if we use a C amjor scale and stack thirds on the other notes? Stay tuned!