3 note Chords???

[Dennis1990]

I have tought myself how to play chords.
I taught my fingers to move one semitone from each other.

But I have trouble playing progressions

And I play 4 notes in chords...a
all these tutorials on progressions have a simple 3 note chords which confuse me because I play 4 note chords.

I feel like I skipped a basic lesson on something.

I'm good with play 3 note chords but I prefer paying 4 note chords.

How do I understand progressions for 4 note chords???? :/

 

[IconDigitalUSA]

The number of notes in the chord is not really as important to their sounding 'in-key' or developing a progression as much as understanding the scales that the chords are on is.

Chords are simply multiple notes of a scale played simultaneously. There are some rules for which steps of a scale sound consonant(good) or dissonant(bad) together, but the only limit to which notes you can put in a chord are if they are a part of the scale you're working with or not.

For example, take the Ionian C Major scale. All white keys are part of this scale. This means you can play any white key note, and it will be 'in key'. You can likewise play any pair, triplet, quartet, or any group of notes, and it will technically be in-key - but it won't always sound good. For this, look to the chart of chords >here<

Vertically along the left and right are the scales, or 'root note' for each set of chords in both major and minor keys. Horizontally are the six 'consonant' chords for each of these scales. To see which notes are actually IN each of these chords, check out >this< chart.

Most scales have room for chords that are up to 4 notes per octave but still sound good(given the need to skip about every other key to make them sound consonant), and composers commonly just pull some of the notes from each chord to use as needed.

I have no idea what the reason behind this might be, but it's pretty hard to move along the keys and play a melody up and down if you have to hammer with four fingers at once in any sort of rapid succession(try playing Bohemian Rhapsody at double speed).

I hope this helps more than it confuses you!

-Rob

 

[bandcoach]

3 note chords are called triads and are the basic spelling of each chord

if you are playing four note chords you are either doubling one of the notes already present or playing 6ths/7ths or other added tones (add 9/add 11)

all scales allow you to create chords containing from 3 up to 7 notes in total - these are known as 13th chords spelt 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 (altered to suit the current position within the scale) but usually rendered as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 (the whole scale). It is also quite normal for a 13th chord to be spelt 3-7-8-11-13 and rely on the bass to provide the root

as for playing progressions with 4 note chords: these are no different to those for 3 note chords - the only thing you would need to consider is whether playing all of your chords in root position is the best path forward - in most cases it is much easier to use inversions as you move through your progression to make the movement smoother

some specific progressions might make it easier to advise you how to proceed