Foxy's Guitar Lessons

A GUIDE TO
UNDERSTANDING
GUITAR "THEORY" ©

LESSON EIGHT: The "Chord Scales"... Simplified

"Ok coach, we got all that, now WHAT good does it do us?"
I know this is what you are thinking by now... so here comes the GOOD part.
MOST songs are built around a FEW "Specific" chords/chord patterns that are easy to remember, and easier to follow.

EXAMPLE: Let It Be by: The BEATLES

Chord -- Lyrics

"C" --- * When I find myself in *
"G" --- * times of trouble *
"Am" - * Mother Mary *
"F" --- * comes to me *
"C" --- * Speaking Words of *
"G" --- * Wisdom Let It *
"F" --- * Be... * {note: a walk down bass required HERE, and will be explained in a LATER Lesson..}

NOW... These Chords can be assigned a NUMBER to represent the "Chords" to be played. AND... What's COOL about that is that NOW they become MOVEABLE. In other words, you can NOW play in ANY Key by learning a FEW simple rules of THEORY !!!

"1-Chord" = When I find myself in
"5-Chord" = times of trouble
"6-Chord" = Mother Mary
"4-Chord" = comes to me
"1-Chord" = Speaking Words of
"5-Chord" = Wisdom Let It
"4-Chord" = Be

Here's where it gets interesting.
Say you can't sing this song in this PARTICULAR Key, but you'd really like to do the song.
Knowing the SCALE tones (as shown in the previous lesson) ALSO gives you a "Starting Point" for the CHORD NAMES that you will need to
T R A N S P O S E (changing the KEY) a song into a Comfortable Key for YOU. (By applying the following "THEORY" Rules to what YOU already know...)

Here's the example that comes to mind...

Usually, if a song is played in MAJOR Keys, that is to say one NOT using too "Jazzy" or "Off The Wall" type patterns, it will follow a "simple pattern" such as this...

1. The "Tonic/Root" or "1-Chord" is ALWAYS Major
We are BASICALLY speaking of "3 Note Triads" such as "C", "E", "G", or...

Example of a "Triad"

"C" 1st tone (in THIS example) of the "C" Scale
"E" 3rd tone, of the "C" Scale, and the
"G" 5th tone of the "C" Scale

REGARDLESS of the way the NUMBERS may fall in the "Inversions". (Inversions are the ARRANGEMENT of notes:
C E G, E G C, G C E, E C G, etc., are the same chord "C" with a DIFFERENT arrangement of chord tones.)

2. The "Sub Dominant" or "4-Chord" is ALWAYS Major
3. and the "Dominant" or "5-Chord" is ALWAYS Major.

Pretty easy SO far !

A better view is this:
1-Chord = Major, 4-Chord = Major, 5-Chord = Major

A LOT of Rock & Roll songs, Blues songs, Folk songs and Country songs are built up ENTIRELY using only these 3 chords, with slight variations in the ARRANGEMENT of the Chords...

Lucille by: Chuck Berry
Tush by: Z Z Top and
I Got You (I Feel Good) by: James Brown are a few examples that ONLY use a "3 Chord" Progression, although the use of Dominant 7th Chords or 9th Chords (also explained in a later lesson) may additionally be substituted for ADDED "Color".

Now then.. in the song example of LET IT BE, the FIRST Chord in the SONG is a "C"... (I'll cut to the chase and just TELL you, this song is in the KEY of "C").

The SECOND Chord in the SONG is a "G"... which TELLS US that the "Chord Scale" of "C" has NOW been Shifted to the 5 position, GOT IT?

The THIRD Chord in the SONG is an "Am", which is the 6th tone (and "The Relative minor") of a "C" Scale (the "6" being The Relative for ANY Major Scale).. but now something has happened. That "something" is the NEXT rule of Simple Chord Theory.
1. The "Super Tonic" or 2-Chord is ALWAYS minor. (Notice the use of a small "m" in this and ALL examples. It's a good idea to think of Major Chords as capital "M", and minor Chords as lowercase "m"...)
2. The "Mediant" or 3-Chord is ALWAYS minor.
3. The "Sub Mediant" (a.k.a. "Super Dominant") or 6-Chord is ALWAYS minor.

A better view is this:
2-Chord = minor, 3-Chord = minor, 6-Chord = minor

... so, now we have the following pattern:

1-Chord = Major, 4-Chord = Major, 5-Chord = Major

2-Chord = minor, 3-Chord = minor, 6-Chord = minor

The only thing missing is the:
"Leading Tone" or 7-Chord...

The RULE for "7" is: The 7 Scale Chord is ALWAYS "diminished".
This simply means that not ONLY is the 3rd Scale degree of the diminished TRIAD "flattened" (lowered in Tone), but now the 5th tone has been "flattened" as well !
One of my music teachers actually called this CHORD a "minored" minor... to emphasize to me that EVERYTHING in the diminished Chord was a FLAT (b) E X C E P T the "1st Tone". It's just a great way to remember it that way.

(Diminished Chords give us a Chord that consists of:
"1", "b3" (flat-3), and "b5" (flat-5), i.e., {as in the case of "C"...}
the NOTES: "B", "D", "F".)

Now to "Simplify" the Chord Scale even further...

1-Chord=M *tones=1 3 5 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
2-Chord=m *tones=2 4 6 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
3-Chord=m *tones=3 5 7 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
4-Chord=M *tones=4 6 8 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
5-Chord=M *tones=5 7 9 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
6-Chord=m *tones=6 8 10 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
7-Chord=dim *tones=7 9 11 of the MAJOR "C" Scale
8-Chord=M

... or,

Chord - Chord Tones in TRIAD
1. C = C E G,
2. Dm = D F A,
3. Em = E G C,
4. F = F A C,
5. G = G B D,
6. Am = A C E,
7. Bdim = B D F,
8. C = C E G (Again!)

Now what YOU have to do is remember THIS pattern:

Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor, diminished, Major.

This gives us "Chord Scale Tones". When thought of as in the NUMBER system, the degrees are:
ONE, two, three, FOUR, FIVE, six, seven (dim.), EIGHT.

When "visualizing" this information, be SURE to see the "CAPITAL" and "lowercase" letters in YOUR mind. This will eventually cause you to remember WHAT KIND of chord you should be playing.

(Oh yea, the EIGHT Chord is just a REPEAT of the 1 Chord. Though not a "Separate" Chord actually, it IS a good idea to KNOW this Chord as an "8-Chord" too !!)

This information is a GENERAL GUIDE and NOT to be intended to be an END to ALL THEORY. Music is Ever Changing, & Ever Evolving, which means that these RULES are BENT and BROKEN to suit the Writer of the "Song".
Never think of experiments of YOURS as wrong.. just DIFFERENT ! And THAT'S what keeps music INTERESTING anyway :-)

Next lesson...
putting this information to use by TRANSPOSING into another key.

Please review this material THOROUGLY before you continue to the Next lesson.

NOTE: It is NOT necessary to Remember all of the THEORETICAL names for Chord Tones, but hey, It wouldn't HURT you to know them as well ! I only included them HERE for you to look back to as a REFERENCE in the future, if you decide to dwell that deeply into THEORY.

In order they are:
1. Tonic
2. Super Tonic
3. Mediant
4. Sub Dominant
5. Dominant
6. Sub Mediant/Super Dominant
7. Leading Tone
8. Tonic

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!
(See, that wasn't TOO painful was it?)

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