Chord CluesA Quick Guide to Chord Theory

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Version 1.0 - Copyright © 2008-2010 M.I. HollemansThis content was published previously on www.pianoclues.com

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Why learn chords?Musicians can be divided into two groups: those who read sheet music and those who play using the “chord method”.

If you’re a sheet music player, you may think that you don’t need to know about chords. However, I believe that understanding how chords are used in a composition will make it much easier for you to read and understand the piece.

Even for classical music! Just like today’s songwriters, composers of classical music used chords to create their harmonies. Chords are the foundation of all our music.

Here is an example:

This is the first phrase of “Largo in Eb major” by Chopin.

Now, I’m not a particularly good sight-reader and this looks pretty intimidating to me. But when I write down the chords, it instantly becomes a lot easier for me to read.

Because I know how to form chords, I can predict what the notes will be and what shapes my hands need to assume.

Here is the same phrase with added chord symbols:

It may be a little hard to read in the picture, but the chords are: Eb, Bb7, G7/B, Cm, G7, Ab, Fm, Eb/Bb, Bb7, Bb7/Eb, Eb.

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I notated some chords as “slash chords”, for example G7/B. This is a G7 chord but with a B tone in the bass.

Now it’s just a matter of playing the correct melody note in the right hand and the bass note in the left hand, and filling in the rest with chord tones.

I don’t really need to read each individual note: I can assume with a large likelihood of success that most of them will be tones from the chord. And if they are not, then playing a chord tone will still sound acceptable. ;-)

I do this on all my sheet music pieces now: first find the chords and write them above the music. It makes the structure of the piece more understandable to me, and I learn it quicker.

By making the chords visible, the dots on the page are no longer arbitrary and unrelated.

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The different types of chordsIf you’re wondering exactly what a chord is: You make a chord by playing 3 or more tones together. That’s it, as simple as that.

But which tones? Well, that depends on what you want to use the chord for.

Not all chords are the same. There are roughly six different types of chords and each of these types has its own function in the language of music.

The most important tone in the chord is called the root tone. This is the tone that the chord gets its name from. For example, the C major chord is built on the root tone C and is of the type major.

You can use each of the 12 unique tones on the piano as the root to build a chord on, but in this article we’ll just look at C.

Here are the different chord types:

The major chord

This is the C major chord:

Major chords are the most common chords in our music. The tones in this particular major chord are: C (the root tone), E and G.

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The minor chord

This is the C minor chord:

The minor chord has two tones in common with the major chord, but the middle tone is different: an Eb instead of the E. Minor chords are often labeled as having a “sad” sound.

The dominant-7 chord

This is the C dominant-7 chord:

Chords can have more than 3 tones. It is possible to “extend” major and minor chords with additional tones, but most of these do not change the type of the chord: it stays major or minor.

However, by adding a Bb to the C major chord we do change its character and thereby its function. The resulting chord is called the dominant-7 chord (or just “7 chord”).

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The diminished chord

This is the C diminished chord:

It looks a little like the C minor chord but with a Gb instead of a G. You can make a diminished chord by lowering the highest tone of a minor chord, or the top two tones of a major chord.

The augmented chord

This is the C augmented chord:

Not only can you lower tones, you can also raise them. Here, we have raised the G to a G# to form an augmented chord.

An augmented chord has the same function as a dominant-7 chord, and they can substitute for each other. (Often they are combined into one chord.)

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The suspended chord

This is the C suspended chord:

By taking a C major chord and playing an F instead of the E, the chord becomes suspended. These types of chords create tension that is often resolved by playing a major chord.

Try it: play the C suspended chord followed by C major. Can you hear how C major relieves the tension created by the suspended chord?

As you can see in the pictures above, what causes the differences between these chord types are the distances between the tones that make up the chord. These distances are called intervals and we look at those later.

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How to construct chordsYou don’t need a “1000 Chords Dictionary” to be able to read and play chords. You can learn how to form chords on your own, because chords are built using simple formulas.

A chord is three or more notes played at the same time. It’s as simple as that. Of course, the trick is to know which three notes…

Obviously, not all combinations of notes sound good. Particular combinations each have their own name: there are “major” chords, “minor” chords, “dominant-7” chords, “diminished chords”, and so on. See the previous chapter for the different chord types

Of each chord type, there are 12 possible chords: one for each note. So there is a C major chord, a C# major chord (which is the same as the Db major chord), a D major chord, and so on. There is also a C minor chord, a C# minor chord… you get the drift.

The note that names the chord is called the root note. So in the Cmaj7 chord, the root note is C. The chord quality (or chord type) is maj7, which is short for “major chord with an added 7th”.

What’s the difference between all these chord types? The way they sound, of course: each type has its own unique sound. For example, major-7 chords such as the Cmaj7 have a warm sound, while dominant-7 chords like C7 sound very bluesy.

Chord formulas

To form a chord you simply apply a formula to the major scale named by the root tone. This formula tells you which notes from the scale make up the chord. Each chord type has its own formula.

So to build any type of chord, you need to know:

• the major scale for the root tone of that chord, and• the formula for that chord.

I am assuming that you already can play the 12 major scales. If not, learn the major scales first.

Let’s put this knowledge into practice.

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The formula for major chords is: 1 – 3 – 5

We know that the scale for C major is:

C D E F G A B C1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

If we fill in the numbers from the formula, we get: C – E – G. These are the tones of the C major chord. Make sense? That’s all there is to it.

Tip: When we say: “The 3rd of the chord” we mean the third tone from its major scale, E in the previous example. (So we don’t mean the 3rd note in the chord, but in the scale.)

A major scale only contains 7 unique tones but sometimes we count to 13! We call these extended tones because they extend beyond the octave. The most common extended tones are 9, 11 and 13.

It’s important to realize that note “9” is the same as note “2”, 11 is the same as 4, and 13 is the same as 6:

C D E F G A B1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 14

There are also formulas that contain the symbols b and #. The b stands for “flatten” or lower by a half-step and # stands for “sharpen” or raise by a half-step.

For example, the formula for a minor chord is: 1 – b3 – 5.

You know that 3 is the third note of the scale, so to get b3 we lower the third note by a half-step.

Likewise, the formula for an augmented chord contains a #5: this is the fifth note raised by a half-step. Any note can be raised or lowered but 3, 5, and 7 are the most common ones.

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The chart

Chord naming rules and chord symbols are not always very consistent. Often the same chord can have multiple names. The chart lists the most common symbols.

Note that the numbers in the formulas always indicate positions in the major scale.

Major chords:

Chord name Chord symbol FormulaMajor (nothing), maj, ma, M, ∆ 1 – 3 – 5Major 6 6, maj6, ma6 1 – 3 – 5 – 6Major 7 maj7, ma7, M7, 7, j7 ∆ 1 – 3 – 5 – 7Major 9 maj9, ma9, M9, 9, j9 ∆ 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 9Major 11 maj11, M11, 11, j11 ∆ 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 9 – 11Major 13 maj13, M13, 13, j13 ∆ 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 – 9 – 11 – 13Major add 9 add9, /9 1 – 3 – 5 – 9Major 6/9 6/9, 9/6 1 – 3 – 5 – 6 – 9

Minor chords:

Chord name Chord symbol FormulaMinor m, min, mi, - 1 – b3 – 5Minor 6 m6, min6 1 – b3 – 5 – 6Minor 7 m7, min7 1 – b3 – 5 – b7Minor 9 m9, min9 1 – b3 – 5 – b7 – 9Minor 11 m11, min11 1 – b3 – 5 – b7 – 9 – 11Minor 13 m13, min13 1 – b3 – 5 – b7 – 9 – 11 – 13Minor major 7 m(maj7), mM7, m 7 ∆ 1 – b3 – 5 – 7Minor major 9 m(maj9), mM9, m 9 ∆ 1 – b3 – 5 – 7 – 9Minor add 9 m(add9), m/9 1 – b3 – 5 – 9Minor 6/9 m6/9, m9/6 1 – b3 – 5 – 6 – 9

Dominant chords:

Chord name Chord symbol FormulaDominant 7 7 1 – 3 – 5 – b7Dominant 9 9 1 – 3 – 5 – b7 – 9Dominant 11 11 1 – 3 – 5 – b7 – 9 – 11Dominant 13 13 1 – 3 – 5 – b7 – 9 – 11 – 13

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Diminished chords:

Chord name Chord symbol FormulaDiminished dim, ° 1 – b3 – b5Diminished 7 dim7, °7 1 – b3 – b5 – bb7 (bb7 = 6)Half-diminished (7) m7b5, m7-5, ø 1 – b3 – b5 – b7

Augmented chords:

Chord name Chord symbol FormulaAugmented aug, +, +5 1 – 3 – #5Augmented 7 aug7, 7#5, 7+5 1 – 3 – #5 – b7

Suspended chords:

Chord name Chord symbol FormulaSuspended (4) sus, sus4 1 – 4 – 5Suspended 7 7sus, 7sus4 1 – 4 – 5 – b7Suspended 2 sus2 1 – 2 – 5

Tip: If the chord symbol is some kind of complicated chord, like Cmaj13, and you don’t know how to play all the additional tones, then you can simplify the chord to its basics. In this case, the basic chord is the major chord, so you can get away by playing only 1 – 3 – 5. It might not sound entirely as intended, but it will still sound good.

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Altered chordsOccasionally, you may come across a weird-looking chord symbol such as G7b9 or C7b9#5. The b9 and #5 indicate “alterations” to the chord.

Alterations change the “color” of the chord but do not change its character and purpose.

As always, b means to lower a tone by a half-step and # means to raise the tone a half-step.

The chord G7b9 contains the tones of the G7 chord with an added 9th that is lowered a half-step.

The tones of the G7 chord are: G – B – D – F

The 9th from the major scale of G is A, but we still need to flatten it. (Remember that the 9th is the same as the 2nd degree from the scale.)

The final chord is: G – B – D – F – Ab

The chord C7b9#5 also contains a lowered 9 (Db in this case) and its 5th has been raised (to a G#).

That makes the tones for this chord: C – E – G# – Bb – Db

If the chord symbol is 7alt, then you are free to make your own alterations. Usually only the 9th and the 5th are altered, but raising or lowering the 11th and 13th also happens.

Sometimes the alterations are put in parentheses: C7(b9). That is especially helpful on chords that already have a b or # in their name: C#9 is a C# dominant-9 chord, not a C chord with a raised 9!

Occasionally, the symbols - and + are used for b and #. For example: C7-5

That’s it! If you’re already comfortable with building chords from scale degrees then altered chords should not cause you any problems.

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Simplifying chordsIf you play from leadsheets or you downloaded a chord chart from the internet, you may occasionally find chord symbols that you don’t know yet how to play.

Here’s the trick: the only thing that really matters about a chord is whether it is major or minor. You can safely ignore anything else about the chord.

For example, you may encounter the chord symbols Am9 and D13.

The first one is an “A minor” chord with an added 7th and an added 9th.

The second one is a “D dominant-7” chord with an added 13th but it could also have a 9th and 11th, depending on how you voice it.

If that didn’t make any sense to you and you have no clue how to form these chords, then keep what you know and throw away the rest.

In our example:

Am9 can be simplified to Am, which is A minor. That’s a very simple three-tone chord.

D13 can simply be played as D major. Again, a very simple chord.

When you play Am instead of Am9 and D major instead of D19, the tune probably won’t sound quite like it’s supposed to, but it won’t sound bad either. You can get away with it!

The only important thing to get right is the distinction between major and minor. If you mix those up, something will sound bad.

To recap:• A chord symbol that has an “m” or “min” (or sometimes a minus sign) can be simplified

to a minor chord.• Any other chords can be simplified to a major chord.

And if you’re really not sure, you can simplify even further to a power chord. :-)

(There are a few other chord types too, such as diminished and augmented, but we’ll ignore those for now. Just worry about major and minor.)

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The power chordThe “power chord” is a simplified chord, used mostly by rock guitarists but it also has a place on the piano.

Remember that a major chord consists of the first, third and fifth degrees of the major scale. A minor chord is like a major chord but with the 3rd lowered a half-step.

A power chord, however, just has the 1 and 5 and omits the 3rd. Because we leave out the 3rd in a power chord, it is neither major nor minor.

You can play a power chord whenever a major or minor chord is required. In fact, because the 1 and 5 are present in every chord except for diminished and augmented chords, you can substitute power chords almost everywhere.

The reason rock guitar players love power chords is that you only have to learn a single hand shape in order to play all possible power chords. Also, when you apply a lot of distortion to the sound, power chords sound better than full chords.

Power chords are not very common in piano music. But they are useful if you want to play chords way down low on the keyboard.

With those low tones, adding the 3rd makes the sound too muddy, so playing just 1-5 will sound better than 1-3-5.

The notation for a power chord, for example the C power chord, is C5. Less common is something like C(omit3).

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Diatonic chordsThe key that a piece is written in does not just determine the possible melody tones, but also the chords that can be used.

The diatonic chords are the ones most likely to make an appearance. These are the chords that can be built on the tones of the key’s scale. They do not “borrow” tones from other scales.

Let’s assume we’re playing in the “key of C”. That means we’re using the tones from the C major scale.

The C major scale is: C D E F G A B C

We can build a three-note chord — also called a “triad” — on each of these tones.

This is the formula: We pick a root tone to start from, then skip one to find the second chord tone, then skip another to find the last chord tone.

The first chord is C major: C E G

See what I did? I started on the first tone from the scale, C. Then I skipped a tone, D, to land on E. Then I skipped another tone, F, to get to G. And I know that the combination C-E-G is called the “C major” chord.

The second chord is D minor: D F A

This time I started on D, skipped E, found F, skipped G, found A. Very simple.

If we apply that formula to all tones in the scale, we find the following chords:

Chord TonesC major C E GD minor D F AE minor E G BF major F A CG major G B DA minor A C EB diminished B D F

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Or viewed slightly differently:

C D E F G A B C D E F C major C E G D minor D F A E minor E G B F major F A C G major G B D A minor A C E B dim B D F

Here it is in sheet music notation:

For any piece in the key of C, these are the most common chords. (Actually, B diminished is much less common than the others.)

Not all of the chords have the same type: some are major, some are minor, and one is diminished.

For any major scale, the order is always as follows:

1. major2. minor3. minor4. major5. major6. minor7. diminished

Try it for yourself on the scale of F major: F G A Bb C D E F

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You should find the following chords:

Chord TonesF major F A CG minor G Bb DA minor A C EBb major Bb D FC major C E GD minor D F AE diminished E G Bb

Minor keys

We can also build chords on the tones from a minor key. Let’s take the key of A minor. We will use the natural minor scale to build the chords, except for one.

The natural scale of A minor is: A B C D E F G A

These are the same tones as the scale of C major, although in a slightly different order. That is because A minor is the relative minor of C major.

Because the two scales have the same tones, we can simply use the diatonic chords from the key of C major, but we now begin at A instead of C:

Chord TonesA minor A C EB diminished B D FC major C E GD minor D F AE major E G# BF major F A CG major G B D

Pay attention to the 5th chord, E major. This is the exception. If we used the natural minor scale as we did for the other chords, this chord would have been called E minor.

Instead, we use the harmonic minor scale, which has a G# note instead of G. The reason is this: the 5-chord should have a strong, powerful sound, even in minor keys.

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In sheet music notation the chords are:

Again, notice the G# on the E major chord.

Seventh chords

The chords we looked at so far were triads, chords with only 3 tones. We can add another tone on top to make them “seventh” chords. Adding this “7th” will refine the character of the chords.

(We could add more tones too, to make 9th, 11th, or even 13th chords, but these additional tones don’t have as much impact on the character of the chord.)

Back to the key of C and the C major scale: C D E F G A B C

We made our chords by skipping tones. Skipping another tone and adding the next note to our C major chord makes it a C major-7th or Cmaj7 for short: C E G B

The second chord then becomes Dm7 (D minor-7th): D F A C

Get the drift? Here are all the diatonic 7th chords:

Chord TonesCmaj7 C E G BDm7 D F A CEm7 E G B FFmaj7 F A C EG7 G B D FAm7 A C E GB half-dim7 B D F A

In sheet music:

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Now what did I mean by “refining the character” of the chords? When we had just 3-tone chords, F and G were both major. Now, however, F has become a major-7 chord but G is a dominant-7 chord.

A major-7 chord and a dominant-7 chord have two very different functions in the language of music. The 5th chord in the key, in this case G7, is therefore usually played as a four-tone chord, to make this distinction between major and dominant-7 clearer. Like I said, the 5-chord is special.

Also, B diminished was refined to a B half-diminished-7 chord (and not a fully diminished-7 chord). Note that “Bm7b5” is another way of writing “B half-dim7”.

The order of diatonic seventh chords in a major key is always:

1. maj72. m73. m74. maj75. dominant-7 (or just “7”)6. m77. half-dim7 (or “m7b5”)

We can also add 7ths to the chords from a minor key. Again, these are simply the chords from C major in a different order. With the exception of the the 5-chord, E7, which has also become a dominant-7 chord here:

Chord TonesAm7 A C E GB half-dim7 B D F ACmaj7 C E G BDm7 D F A CE7 E G# B FFmaj7 F A C EG7 G B D F

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Roman numerals (and the number system)We have seen that it is possible to build chords on the tones of the major or minor scale (the diatonic chords).

Often, these chords are not referred to by their name, but by a number. And not a regular number like 1 or 6, but with Roman numerals.

In case you forgot all about them, here are the Roman numerals 1 to 7:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7I II III IV V VI VII

If we were to write the diatonic chords from the C major scale using Roman numerals, it would look like this:

C Dm Em F G7 Am BdimI ii iii IV V7 vi vii°

Notice the following:

• Major chords (C and F) are written using capitals.• Minor chords (Dm, Em and Am) are in lower-case.• The dominant-7 chord (G7) is written as V7.• The diminished chord (Bdim) is written as vii°

Occasionally, you may also see the following notation:

C Dm Em F G7 Am BdimI IIm IIIm IV V7 VIm VII°

Why use these Roman numerals instead of the chord names? Because using the numbers allows us to talk about chords and chord progressions independently of the key.

For example, the chord progressions C F G7 C and F Bb C7 F can both be written as I IV V7 I.

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The first is in the key of C and the second in the key of F, but otherwise they are identical:

Roman numerals: I ii iii IV V7 vi vii°Key of C: C Dm Em F G7 Am BdimKey of F: F Gm Am Bb C7 Dm Edim

One advantage of using numbers instead of chords is that it becomes easy to transcribe a piece from one key to another.

Example. Here is the beginning of Misty in the key of C:

C Gm C7 FLook at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

Suppose you want to play it in another key, say G. First, you replace the chord names with Roman numerals:

I Vm I7 IVLook at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

Then you look up the chords for the new key and fill them in:

G Dm G7 CLook at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

The principle works the same for the chords from a minor scale, although the symbols are slightly different (because the chords have different qualities).

For example, the key of A minor:

Am Bdim C Dm E7 F G7i ii° III iv V7 VI VII7

It is also possible to use Roman numerals to describe chords that are not diatonic. In other words, chords that are borrowed from other keys.

For example, the chord bIII is the 3rd chord (III), in major (uppercase letters), lowered by a half-step (b). In the key of C, this would be the Eb major chord.

You may also see a sharp symbol combined with a Roman numeral: #IV in the key of C is the F# major chord.

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It is not uncommon to add a qualifier to the Roman numeral. Examples: IVmaj7, II7, #IVdim7. To find the real chord, substitute the Roman numeral for the n-th chord from the scale.

You may have heard of the Nashville Number System. This is the same principle, although it works with plain-old numbers instead of Roman numerals. So instead of II-V-I you’d see 2-5-1, but they both mean the same thing.

Solfege is yet another system, except that it doesn’t use numbers, but syllables:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti

And finally, each of the diatonic chords can also be given a name that more-or-less describes its function. Different chords have different functions in their key. I’ll simply give you the list here:

1 Tonic2 Supertonic3 Mediant4 Subdominant5 Dominant6 Submediant7 Leading tone (or subtonic)

So now you know that when people talk about the “I-chord” or “tonic”, they mean the first chord from the key.

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Building chords from intervalsWe have already seen how to build chords using major scale degrees. But we can also build chords from intervals, by stacking minor third and major third intervals on top of the root tone.

An interval is nothing more than the distance between two tones. To find the name for an interval you can simply count the number of half-steps (or “semitones”) between the two tones and look up the name in the following table.

Just in case you did not know, a half-step or semitone means: go one key on the keyboard to the left or right. Suppose we start at the C key. A half-step up from C is C#, a half-step up from C# is D. Conversely, a half-step down from C is B, a half-step down from B is Bb.

Interval name Half stepsUnison 0Minor second 1Major second 2Minor third 3Major third 4Perfect fourth 5Augmented fourth 6Diminished fifth 6Perfect fifth 7Augmented fifth 8Minor sixth 8Major sixth 9Diminished seventh 9Minor seventh 10Major seventh 11Octave (or eight) 12

For example, let’s look at a major chord, C major. It consists of the tones C – E – G.

The interval from C up to E is a major third (4 half-steps).The interval from E up to G is a minor third (3 half-steps).

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This interval formula, root + major third + minor third, applies to all major chords. The other chord types have their own formulas:

Chord name FormulaMajor root + maj 3rd + min 3rdMajor 7 root + maj 3rd + min 3rd + maj 3rdMinor root + min 3rd + maj 3rdMinor 7 root + min 3rd + maj 3rd + min 3rdMinor major 7 root + min 3rd + maj 3rd + maj 3rdDominant 7 root + maj 3rd + min 3rd + min 3rdDiminished root + min 3rd + min 3rdDiminished 7 root + min 3rd + min 3rd + min 3rdHalf-diminished root + min 3rd + min 3rd + maj 3rdAugmented root + maj 3rd + maj 3rd

The table above only lists chords that are built using thirds. Of course, you can think of all other types of chords in terms of intervals too.

For example, the interval formula for a suspended chord like Csus4 (C-F-G) is: root + perfect fourth + major second. And a major 6 chord such as Cmaj6 (C-E-G-A) is: root + maj 3rd + min 3rd + major 2nd.

And so on… Figuring out the interval formulas for all the other possible chord types is left as an exercise for the reader. :-)

Alternatively, you can look at intervals this way: A major chord consists of the root, the tone a major third up from the root, and the tone a perfect fifth up from the root. After all, C up to G is a perfect fifth interval.

Personally, I don’t often think about chords in terms of intervals, but I do believe that learning this skill will add to your understanding of the language of music.

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InversionsChords are made by playing three or more tones at once. Often we will play chords in root position, which means that the lowest tone is the root tone of the chord.

For example, C major in root position is played as: C – E – G (from low to high)

Often it is useful to put the chord tones in a different order. We’ll go into the reasons why later, but for now I’ll show you how to play such inversions.

If there are three tones in the chord, as in the C major chord above, we can play it in three different positions:

1. Root position (or fundamental position)2. First inversion3. Second inversion

In first inversion, you take the lowest tone and put it on top. The chord becomes: E – G – C. In terms of major scale degrees, the chord is now: 3-5-1

In second inversion, you take the highest tone and put it at the bottom. Now the chord is: G – C – E. In scale degrees, the chord is now: 5-1-3

(You can also make the second inversion by taking the first inversion and putting its lowest tone on top again.)

The number of tones in a chord determines the number of ways the chord can be played. So four-tone chords can be played four different ways.

For example, the Cmaj7 chord:

1. Root position: C-E-G-B (1-3-5-7)2. First inversion: E-G-B-C (3-5-7-1)3. Second inversion: G-B-C-E (5-7-1-3)4. Third inversion: B-C-E-G (7-1-3-5)

It’s as easy as that.

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In popular music, inversions are usually notated as slash chords, which look like: “chord name/bass tone”.

An example is Cmaj7/E. This means you should play the Cmaj7 chord but so that the E tone is at the bottom. In other words: in first inversion.

The classical way is a little trickier; it uses intervals to notate the inversion. For triads (three-tone chords):

• Root position: just the chord name• First inversion: chord6 — because the root is now a sixth interval above the bass tone• Second inversion: chord64 — the root is now a fourth above the bass tone and the 3rd

of the chord is now a sixth above the bass tone

Confused yet? Here are the notations for seventh chords (i.e. chords with four tones):

• Root position: chord7

• First inversion: chord65

• Second inversion: chord43

• Third inversion: chord2

Notice that from top to bottom, the inversion numbers go from 7 to 2. That’s a handy trick to remember this notation scheme.

Anyway, I prefer the slash chord method to notate inversions. :-)

The main reasons for using inversions are: a) playing a smoother bass line, b) voice-leading. More about that later.

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Chord progressionsA “chord progression” simply means: a series of chords. Most tunes are harmonized with three or more chords, and the order of those chords is called the chord progression.

A verse or chorus of a song often starts out on the home chord (the I chord in the key), then moves through a series of other chords and finally ends up on the home chord again.

Many songs (as well as classical pieces) use the same sequences of chords, and in this article we’ll look at some of the most common ones.

A very basic progression is I – IV – V. If we’re playing in the key of C that would be C – F – G. After the V chord you would typically play the I chord again.

Often the IV chord in this sequence is replaced by the ii chord. That is a minor chord. The progression then becomes I – ii – V, or C – Dm – G in the key of C.

Again, this progression leads us back to the home chord, so the next chord after ii – V is most likely to be the I chord. This progression is therefore known as ii – V – I (or 2-5-1).

Remember that the V chord is often played as V7. That is how you can recognize this progression. If you see a minor chord followed by a dominant-7 chord, followed by a major chord: it’s a ii-V-I.

An extension of this progression is the 1-6-2-5 pattern. (For some reason this progression is often written using normal numbers instead of Roman numerals.)

In the key of C, it goes like this: C – Am – Dm – G7

One of the names these chords go by is the “Blue Moon progression”, but there is a huge number of other songs that use it too.

Go play it on the piano and then hum the verse of “Blue Moon” or “Heart and Soul”. Don’t tell me it doesn’t sound familiar. :-)

It is really easy to compose your own tunes on top of these four chords, because it will make almost any melody sound good, but we’ll get into that in a later article.

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If you already know about the Circle of Fifths, notice that these chord progressions, 2-5-1 and 1-6-2-5 (or rather 6-2-5-1), are simply trips around the circle. Movement in fifths gives the strongest type of sound that our ears like, so it is no wonder that these patterns are used so much.

Because Dm can substitute for F (see above), you can also play 1-6-2-5 as 1-6-4-5, and vice versa. It’s only a small variation in the sound.

What I want you to do now is go through your stack of sheet music or leadsheets (if you have them) and see if you can find these chord progressions in those songs. Even classical pieces will have them.

You can also find the chord sheets of many tunes online. Just go to Google and type in:

name of the song chords tabs

For example:

blue moon chords tabs

The words “chords” and “tabs” will tell Google to look for websites that have chord sheets. You might have to dig around for a while but usually you can find a chord sheet for most music.

Remember that you can spot a ii-V-I by looking at the type of chords: a minor chord followed by a dominant-7 chord, followed by a major chord. This is important, because sometimes — especially in Jazz tunes — you may find a ii-V-I that uses chords that are not in the key of the song.

For example: C Am F G7 Gm C7 F …

The first four chords are in the key of C, but Gm isn’t and neither is C7. What you see here is a ii-V-I, namely Gm-C7-F, that is used to modulate to another key. The F is now the new I chord. At some point the chords will modulate back to the original key, likely using another ii-V-I. That’s a typical thing for Jazz tunes.

So much for the theory. It’s good to learn these chord patterns (1-6-2-5 and 2-5-1) in every key, so go to your piano or guitar and play around with them.

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Voice-leadingSuppose in a particular tune C chord is followed by F chord. Then you could play it like this:

However, that’s quite a big jump. As a result, the music sounds disconnected. Another way to play this chord progression:

Now only two tones change — the C remains in the same place — and they jump only a very small distance (a half-step and a whole-step, respectively).

The result is a much smoother sound. This principle is called voice-leading.

The key to voicing-leading is playing inversions. We started with C chord in root position and then played the F chord in first inversion.

We also could have done it like this:

Now C is in first inversion and F is in second inversion. Again, one note remained in the same place and the other two only jumped a small distance.

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We always try to keep the tone (or tones) that the two chords have in common in the same place. When C chord is followed by Am, only one tone moves:

However, in the progression F – G, all three tones must change because the F and G chords don’t have any tones in common:

Unless, of course, we make G a four-tone chord, G7:

Note that I played the chord root in the bass this time.

Another four-tone chord example, Dm7 to G7:

Here, two notes remain stationary while the other two move a small distance downward.

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That’s really all there is to it. To do proper voice-leading, find the inversion of the next chord that requires the fewest changes.

Common uses for voice-leading: playing accompaniment, playing with string sounds (violins), and playing organ and electronic keyboard — these instruments have no sustain pedal, so voice-leading is needed for smooth changes.

Time to practice your inversions!

That's all, folksThanks for reading! I hope you learned a thing or two about chords and how they work.

If you have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, then do check out my Reverse Chord Finder Pro app. I think you will find it useful. For more information, see: www.reversechord.com

You can always reach me by e-mail at support@reversechord.com

Have fun making music!Matthijs Hollemans

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