Way to start learnin chords?

[Nasir33149]

So I pretty much just make sampled beats with melodies played in major or minor scale but I haven't been into chords and I would like to start learning them. Is there like a formula to some of the chords? Like by numbers? Whats the way to start learning them so that I could remember them easily and just play with them and try to find the right sound?

 

[B3Bomber]

This is the website i learned from. Piano Chords and Scales made easy It pretty much has any scale or mode that you might want to use.

 

[bandcoach]

right click each image to download to your computer - take the file to a copy shop to print out as a larger poster (and laminate it as well) stick it above your keyboard or computer on the wall.

 

[MarcDHall]

The only advantage knowing that 'C major is C, E and G' gives is in talking about it, beyond that it is of no use.

 

[widekeys]

The only advantage knowing that 'C major is C, E and G' gives is in talking about it, beyond that it is of no use.

That's a topic we could discuss days and nights.
I disagree to you.

For everyone else I could recommend bandoach his website. And youtube.

 

[AG Beats]

Minor chord = root + minor third + major third

Major chord = root + major third + minor third

Now in a major key, 1,4 and 5 are major chords

2,3,6 are minor chords

and 7 is diminished


In a minor key 1, 4, 5 are minor

3, 6, 7 are major

2 is diminished


So now you can find chords that fit with anything if you know the scale.

If you're in C Major you know that it is C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

If you wanted to play chords to go with whatever melody you have you know that

C = Major

D = Minor

E = Minor

F = Major

G = Major

A = Minor

B = Diminished

Now you can play with voicing or whatever and you gotta pick whatever progression you want but that is the basics of the basics. I'm sure bandcoach can find something wrong with what I said

 

[bandcoach]

The only advantage knowing that 'C major is C, E and G' gives is in talking about it, beyond that it is of no use.

I am flabbergasted by this statement.

There is very good reason to know the notes in each chord and more particularly the notes in each chord as they relate to the current key/scale/mode.

We can reduce the action to a formula for each chord type and most texts do this to some extent.

Knowing what notes are in use allows us to consider novel movement such as:

Am[sup]7[/sup] - F[sup]#[/sup]m[sup]7[/sup]

On the face of it these two chords are entirely unrelated.

We can however assert the following conceptual relationship

A-A
C-C[sup]#[/sup] (semitone up)
E-E
G-F[sup]#[/sup] (semitone down)

and functional relationships

Tonic minor 7 from the natural minor moving to the parallel major sub-mediant i.e. i[sup]7[/sup]-vi[sup]7[/sup]

Function	Major	Nat minor	Harm minor	Mel minor
Tonic	I	i	i	i
Super tonic	ii	ii[sup]b5[/sup]	ii[sup]b5[/sup]	ii
Flat Mediant	-	[sup]b[/sup]III	[sup]b[/sup]III[sup]#5[/sup]	[sup]b[/sup]III[sup]#5[/sup]
Mediant	iii	-	-	-
Sub-Dominant	IV	iv	iv	IV
Dominant	V	v	V	V
Flat Sub-Mediant	-	[sup]b[/sup]VI	[sup]b[/sup]VI	-
Sub-Mediant	vi	-	-	vi[sup]b5[/sup]
Flat SubTonic	-	[sup]b[/sup]VII	-	-
Leading Tone/SubTonic	vii[sup]b5[/sup]	-	vii[sup]b5[/sup]	vii[sup]b5[/sup]

---------- Post added at 03:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:31 AM ----------

Minor chord = root + minor third + major third

Major chord = root + major third + minor third

No,
Minor chord is minor 3rd plus perfect 5th above the same root note

Major chord is major 3rd plus perfect 5th above the same root note

Now in a major key, 1,4 and 5 are major chords

2,3,6 are minor chords

and 7 is diminished

almost fair enough

the chords built above scale degrees 1, 4 and 5 are major chords and are shown as I, IV and V

the chords built above scale degrees 2, 3 and 6 are minor chords and are shown as ii, iii and vi

the chord built above scale degree 7 is a diminished triad and is shown as vii[sup]b5[/sup]

In a minor key 1, 4, 5 are minor

3, 6, 7 are major

2 is diminished

almost fair enough

• In the natural minor
  • the chords built above scale degrees 1, 4 and 5 are minor chords and are shown as i, iv and v
  • the chords built above scale degrees [sup]b[/sup]3, [sup]b[/sup]6 and [sup]b[/sup]7 are major chords and are shown as [sup]b[/sup]III, [sup]b[/sup]VI and [sup]b[/sup]VII
  • the chord built above scale degree 2 is a diminished triad and is shown as ii[sup]b5[/sup]
• In the harmonic minor
  • the chords built above scale degrees 1 and 4 are minor chords and are shown as i and iv
  • the chords built above scale degrees 5 and [sup]b[/sup]6 are major chords and are shown as V and [sup]b[/sup]VI
  • the chords built above scale degrees 2 and 7 are a diminished triad and are shown as ii[sup]b5[/sup] and vii[sup]b5[/sup]
  • the chord built above scale degree [sup]b[/sup]3 is an augmented triad and is shown as [sup]b[/sup]III[sup]#5[/sup]
• In the melodic minor
  • the chords built above scale degrees 1 and 2 are minor chords and are shown as i and ii
  • the chords built above scale degrees 4 and 5 are major chords and are shown as IV and V
  • the chords built above scale degrees 6 and 7 are a diminished triad and are shown as vi[sup]b5[/sup] and vii[sup]b5[/sup]
  • the chord built above scale degree [sup]b[/sup]3 is an augmented triad and is shown as [sup]b[/sup]III[sup]#5[/sup]

So now you can find chords that fit with anything if you know the scale.

If you're in C Major you know that it is C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

If you wanted to play chords to go with whatever melody you have you know that

C = Major

D = Minor

E = Minor

F = Major

G = Major

A = Minor

B = Diminished

Now you can play with voicing or whatever and you gotta pick whatever progression you want but that is the basics of the basics. I'm sure bandcoach can find something wrong with what I said

It is not that I seek to find the wrong but to correct the incorrect and point the way to a common language for discussing the concepts.

 

[AG Beats]

See bandcoach I feel you, I really do. You are a true expert as far as music theory goes, and yeah, TECHNICALLY I was incorrect.

But if you put your finger on c....and then go up a major third, you land on E. Then if you go up a minor third from e, you land on G.

That makes CEG, or c major.

While my info may not be "technically" correct, I think it's a lot better to give to a straight beginner than yours. You just always go 10000% ham with the theory stuff. I can't really say much cause you're a true expert like I said, but I think you confuse people more than you help people lol.

These people don't want to learn classical theory and stuff. They just wanna make beats. And lets face it, making beats is not hard. Beats don't need a huge knowledge of theory. Yeah if you know it, it makes you better. I know my fair share of theory and understand it in my own way, as I posted above.

I'm not trying to argue with you or say you're wrong and I'm right, cause just like you pointed out when you get in to the deepest deep concepts of theory I am "technically" wrong.

But you just go over the top. Do you really think someone posting a thread on "how can I learn chords" on future producers is gonna even try to understand the shit you say?

Just reading the shit you say sometimes makes my head hurt lol. I'm just saying I think you're wasting your time. Typing all these excellent posts here on this particular forum.

I know you have your own site already, but I havent been there much and Im not sure what you do on it, but I'm willing to bet that you could make a FAT paycheck every month if you ran a music theory blog, or used affiliate marketing networks like clickbank to sell an information product. Im talking thousands upon thousands of dollars here.

Im sure you already know this and you probably already make some kind of paycheck from online. I doubt you make any money from FP lol. I guess you just like sharing the info.

Cause you're a freakin mastermind when it comes to the theory man you make that shit look as complicated as engineering or architecture or something

 

[bandcoach]

See bandcoach I feel you, I really do. You are a true expert as far as music theory goes, and yeah, TECHNICALLY I was incorrect.

But if you put your finger on c....and then go up a major third, you land on E. Then if you go up a minor third from e, you land on G.

That makes CEG, or c major.

It is still incorrect because it perpetuates a myth about constructing chords that denies how we name them.

There are many theory sites out there that help to perpetuate this myth because they either don't know any better, don't care or are quoting something from the 18th century; Jean Phillipe Rameau's 1729 "Treatise on harmony" uses the example you did: he also warns us that we need to have in our minds that we name our triads according to their 3rds and their 5ths, not the structure we would use to arrive at it via a keyboard (stacked 3rds)

We call it C major because it has a major 3rd in it (4 semitones above the tonic) as well as a 5th (in the case of the major that is a perfect 5th, 7 semitones above the tonic)

We call it C minor because it has a minor 3rd in it (3 semitones above the tonic) as well as the perfect 5th (7 semitones above the tonic).

We call it C diminished because it has a minor 3rd and a diminished 5th (6 semitones above the tonic)

We call it C augmented because it has a major 3rd and an augmented 5th (8 semitones above the tonic)

If you can get your head around these ideas everything else is simple.

The answers I write here are about directing people toward real knowledge not half-baked concepts that fall apart when inspected closely.

Sometimes they need to have intermediate knowledge to effectively use and apply the information presented; this may or may not be obvious in the way that the question is framed, so we end up with long threads where we hash out the details

 

[AG Beats]

My point was that I think you're wasting your time here.
Us bums on futureproducers trying to be the
next lex luger and whoever else aren't willing to take the
time to figure out why when I stack my thirds it still makes
the same chord as your way of saying how to do it but my
way is a lot easier to say/understand.

The knowledge I have of theory helps me make
beats just fine lol. And it helps me make the same
chords but to me its easier to understand that
way. I dont really care if Im correct by
18th century standards like I said.

But that wasnt what my post was about, and saying something
like that makes me sound ignorant.

And I am ignorant to all the theory stuff on the level you
know it on. Would it help me make better beats if
I was on your level with it?
Probably....

But...

My post was about the fact that I think you could be making 20k
or more PER MONTH with the level of expertise that you
have. And I KNOW that FP isn't making you a dime lol.

I know some people dont care about money either.

But Im trying to let you know, with the proper product, website, and
marketing, you could easily become a millionaire from your knowledge.

I dont know if that's something that appeals to you or not.

But trust me, you could do it.


And your site is just like how you word things on here....


Complicated as shit and hard to understand lol.


Im just speaking to you from an "average guy's" point of view.

I think I'm probably not getting my point across correctly.

We're blessed to have someone as knowledgeable and professional

as you on this forum, but I just think that the majority

of your posts go unread and are definitely most likely

not understood by the majority of members on this site.


But by all means please stick around here cause you're a very valuable member to our "community" here

 

[bandcoach]

gotta say all I read in the last two posts you have made is "I am afraid to step outside of my comfort zone...." and "my brain hurts because I'm trying to understand something that I don't have the background in"

Also please don't suggest that their is a majority that you are a part of - most of the people who are frequent posters have no issues with what I write - the newer members need to sometimes stop and use the search functions to find out the basics before asking the same question that was answered last week - the answer hasn't changed since last week and in most cases won't change ever. it is the higher level creative ideas that can and do change over time and these are generally beyond the grasp of most beginners and new members - this is an opinion based on 30+ years of teaching - if you do not have the fundamental knowledge of the discipline then acquiring the knowledge that is built upon it is all but impossible.

Both of these are normal when confronting new knowledge. Chill, relax and take few deep breaths. Then find the beginning theory section on my site and try again.

There is a lot of stuff there that is aimed at a coherent understanding of the relationships between all of the different areas. I haven't written a new tute in over a year; mainly because I have so much else on.

I do try and dumb it down as we go here, just sometimes the questions asked are so big, that it makes sense to nutshell the vastness of the question and make folks think about taking smaller more direct steps

"what do I need to know to make good beats" can be shuffled into a couple of motherhood statements that are long on encouragement but short on actual content.

It can also be answered with a 10000 page textbook; mostly because the question is so broad, you have to include so much stuff simply to cover all possible ways of reading and interpreting the question.

the trick is to find a way to get the op to ask the question that is troubling them the most and target responses to that and then build their knowledge and experience over time....

 

[AG Beats]

I already said I know my posts make me look ignorant, like im just pissed I cant understand something.
I don't think I'm getting my point across so I'll give up.

 

[Beats4Beats4Beats]

Yeah, i get what your saying AG, and i agree with you. I think actually your majority thoery is pretty accurate, because in the world, there is more people who don't know anything about Music-theory than people who do. And seeing that this is a up'n coming producer forum, my guess is that alot of people mainly make beats without any theory-knowledge at all. + Alot that manage basics, and a few that are geniuses on that shit. Now with that said, i think bandcoach had some good points in his last post.

Anyways, great information on this thread (even tho im not ready to even try figure this out right atm)

btw: simple explanation or complex explanation, sometimes the medium way is the accurate way.

 

[Pumpthrust]

What I like about BC's "hit 'em with knowledge" approach is that he actually goes through the trouble of explaining the historical and contextual precedence behind a concepts, the rest is left to your ears to sort out and digest. A bit much for a beginner wanting the "meat & potatoes" explanation, but once you've become grounded with the knowledge, that extra bit of information helps alot. Sometimes, seeing what you already know presented in a way that does not assume you are an idiot helps tremendously. I don't understand what the complaint is, really. BC is pretty generous with the info....if its too much to take in now.....use the TDOT approach and continue asking, reading (and applying) until it makes sense.

 

[ztnap]

you got to be kidding.. This guy shares everything that he knows and you complain it's too complicated and useless (in FP) ?
There's a reason why he goes into such detail. When ppl read something and think rationally they get questions. Most of BC's posts cover these side questions that pops into your head when you read something.

look at his posts. full details with audio examples and diagrams and everything. For me the internet cant get much better than this!!

 

[deepfryguy]

At risk of sounding like a broken record...
Attack it from a couple of directions.... Learn what bc has posted..... And when you want to give the linguistic position of your brain a rest and you want to just feel and perform the chords...
Try an app for iphone and ipad that can also be used as a midi controller for chords and harmony called " soundprism" by audanika..
Strangely enough the interface helps to organize chords visually as well as tonaly... Because I'm a visually oriented learner it has been a pathway for me to learn about chords and harmony.. At the same time, my ability to hear pitches and tonality has also solidified a bit

 

[AG Beats]

I was never complaining, like I said please stick around we're lucky to have him here.

I was just trying to point out that his time could be better spent, and with the proper system in place he could be making thousands of dollars a month online with his expertise. I doubt FP makes him anything. It may make him a little bit.

But I'm not lying or exaggerating when I say he could become a millionaire from the internet and his knowledge.

 

[kyng]

So I pretty much just make sampled beats with melodies played in major or minor scale but I haven't been into chords and I would like to start learning them. Is there like a formula to some of the chords? Like by numbers? Whats the way to start learning them so that I could remember them easily and just play with them and try to find the right sound?

CMaj Scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
C D E F G A B C

So you have the CMaj scale here. . .

To make a CMaj chord. . .Play 1-3-5 or C- E - G

The easiest way to remember how to form a minor chord (for myself personally) is to move the second note in a chord a half step back.


So it will be C - E - G ( CMaj) to C - Eb -G ( Cmin).

Just do the reverse from Minor to Major....

I'm at work so I can't look it up but if I remember correctly but a minor scales go like. . .

Minor, Minor, Major, Minor, Major, Major, Diminished.

So if you are forming a chords for a minor scale. . .this is how they should be played if you were ascending or descending a minor scale.

The C minor scale is:

Cmin, Dmin, EbMaj, Fmin, GMaj, AMaj. . .

Someone chime in if I'm wrong. . .trying to multitask here lol.

 

[bandcoach]

not too far wrong,

Assume that you mean C natural minor (pattern is T-S-T-T-S-T-T)

C-D-E[sup]b[/sup]-F-G-A[sup]b[/sup]-B[sup]b[/sup]-C

Chords are m-dim-M-m-m-M-M

Cm (CE[sup]b[/sup]G) - Dm[sup]b5[/sup] (DFA[sup]b[/sup]) - Eb (E[sup]b[/sup]GB[sup]b[/sup]) - Fm (FA[sup]b[/sup]C) - Gm (GB[sup]b[/sup]D) - A[sup]b[/sup] (A[sup]b[/sup]CE[sup]b[/sup]) B[sup]b[/sup] (B[sup]b[/sup]DF)


Harmonic minor (pattern is T-S-T-T-S-T[sup][sup]1[/sup]/[sub]2[/sub][/sup]-S)

C-D-E[sup]b[/sup]-F-G-A[sup]b[/sup]-B

Chords are m-dim-M[sup]#5[/sup]-m-M-M-dim

Cm (CE[sup]b[/sup]G) - Dm[sup]b5[/sup] (DFA[sup]b[/sup]) - E[sup]b(#5)[/sup] (E[sup]b[/sup]GB) - Fm (FA[sup]b[/sup]C) - G (GBD) - A[sup]b[/sup] (A[sup]b[/sup]CE[sup]b[/sup]) Bm[sup]b5[/sup] (BDF)

Melodic minor (pattern is T-S-T-T-T-T-S)

C-D-E[sup]b[/sup]-F-G-A-B

Chords are m-m-M[sup]#5[/sup]-M-M-dim-dim

Cm (CE[sup]b[/sup]G) - Dm (DFA) - E[sup]b(#5)[/sup] (E[sup]b[/sup]GB) - F (FAC) - G (GBD) - Am[sup]b5[/sup] (ACE[sup]b[/sup]) Bm[sup]b5[/sup] (BDF)

Major (pattern is T-T-S-T-T-T-S)

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

Chords are M-m-m-M-M-m-dim

C (CEG) - Dm (DFA) - Em (EGB) - F (FAC) - G (GBD) - Am (ACE) Bm[sup]b5[/sup] (BDF)

 

[mwandishi]

Coach got that knowledge, u gotta be a fool not to recognize that.