Chord confusion

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RuSty1

New member
I've been trying to write better chord progression and I've only been practicing with diatonic chords of a certain key. I find these diatonic chords (in Ableton) by writing out the notes of the key (e.g C Major) then duplicating them above and creating a triad (e.g copying the notes of C Major on top of each other constructing a C Major chord at the start). That is how I find the diatonic chords of a key. After doing so more research about writing chords because mine sucked I came across this: http://www.guitar-chords.org.uk/chords-key-e-minor.html

Now these chords in that link are different from my "diatonic" chords and I'm confused. Are these chords in the link diatonic chords? Is my way of finding diatonic chords in ableton wrong? How do I determine what chords to use when writing a chord progression?
 
E Minor - F# Minor - G Minor - A Minor - B Minor - C Minor - D Minor

I was learning music theory and triads and stuff and it said: "To construct diatonic chords of a key stack generic thirds". Whats "generic thirds"?
 
RuSty1 said:
E Minor - F# Minor - G Minor - A Minor - B Minor - C Minor - D Minor

I was learning music theory and triads and stuff and it said: "To construct diatonic chords of a key stack generic thirds". Whats "generic thirds"?
Click to expand...
"Generic" thirds means the interval of a third, "interval" meaning the distance between two notes. (which, in this example, could either be major or minor)
For example: the generic interval distance from C to E and C to Eb are both a third. C to E is a major third, C to Eb is a minor third. When we talk maj or min, we are assigning a "quality" to the interval.
 
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Ok thanks that clears up the generic thirds thing but Im still not sure about this chord situation
 
well, what was mentioned about thirds is the key to triad chords, which are the simplest chords.

you play one key, a third up from that is the 3rd of the chord...a third up from that is the 5th of the chord. depending on which type of scale you are using, this will determine how far apart those keys are (major, minor and beyond)

intervals are very important.

for your example of C major, and in any chord, there is a root key...which in this case would be C. For a major chord, the 3rd of the chord (or, next note above C in the chord) is a major third above that key on the keyboard, which would be E. the 5th of the chord is a major 3rd above that 3rd note, which would be G.

I know, its confusing. but once you practice, you will have several "light bulb" experiences where you say "oh shit" and just get it.

musictheory.net has a lot of stuff that can guide you but practice with an instrument cannot be beat. even if you rig up a piano with a midi keyboard. that's how i learned, with a piano instrument loaded up in DAW.

it really takes practice to understand what is going on with the theory, but with practice, you will get it. it just takes time.

reading one tutorial or watching a youtube video once will not allow most people to understand what's going on. im not trying to insult you, but attempting to encourage you to do the work that almost none of the people are willing to do. and that's what separates a good musician or producer from everyone else...they want everyone (or every program/VST) to do the work for them.
 
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RuSty1 said:
E Minor - F# Minor - G Minor - A Minor - B Minor - C Minor - D Minor

I was learning music theory and triads and stuff and it said: "To construct diatonic chords of a key stack generic thirds". Whats "generic thirds"?
Click to expand...
I now had time to look over your example. My guess is you do not seem to understand what differentiates a major triad from a minor or diminished. I am walking home from work so I will hit that later (unless someone beats me to it)

If we are building chords from the E natural minor scale, the (triad) chords would be:
Emin/F#dim/Gmaj/Amin/Bmin/Cmaj/Dmaj

The chords of the natural minor key(using Nashville notation or Roman numerals) are:
i/iidim/III/iv/v/VI/VII (Lowercase=minor, Uppercase=Major)
....this is acccomplished by stacking thirds from the E natural minor scale.

A shorthand way to do this is to take the E nat. minor scale and build your triads on every other note.
E F# G A B C D

Emaj=E G B
F#dim=F# A C
...and so on until you have all the diatonic chords of the corresponding key.
 
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RuSty1 said:
E Minor - F# Minor - G Minor - A Minor - B Minor - C Minor - D Minor
Click to expand...

These are not diatonic chords.

The notes of the E minor key are E, F#, G, A, B, C, D.

F# minor contains a C#, which is not in the key.
G minor contains a Bb (B flat) which is not in the key.
C minor contains an Eb which is not in the key.
D minor contains an F which is not in the key.

If you replace the F in D minor (D- F- A) with an F#, which is in key, you get D - F#- A, which is D major- so D major is a diatonic chord in E minor but D minor isn't.

Doing the same for F# minor, G minor and C minor gives F# dim, G major and C major
 
OK I've gone back through musictheory.net after learning chords and stuff. I understand what diminished and augmented chords are I guess I just got confused on how to find the diatonic thirds and what a generic third is. Going over the theory I just learnt the basic notation and stuff with roman numerals and Its all clear now. Also revisited the major scale and the natural minor scale and that helped a lot with this situation as well. Thanks everyone.
 
Hey RuSty1,

It might help to think of Major & Minor like this:

Major:
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viio

Minor:
i, iio, III, iv, v, VI, VII

(Capitalized roman numerals: major chord,
uncapitalized roman numeral: minor chord,
uncapitalized + "o": diminished chord)

So if you're in Gmaj just fill in the correct notes of the scale:
G Am Bm C D Em F#dim

This is much quicker than arriving at the correct chords each time by stacking thirds.

The same goes for Gminor:
Gm Adim Bb Cm Dm Eb F

Do you see how the genders of the chords are always the same (the ii in Major is ALWAYS Minor, etc).

Learning the chords in both Major and Minor helps arriving at the correct chords much quicker.

Best,
Friedemann

P.S. If you're interested in a list of usable chord progressions, you can also check this out. :)
 
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