Chords Explained – The What and Whys

First, there are three types of chords; major, minor and dominant. The few others fit into one of these groups. Now let’s look at the notes we use to explain the differences here. Remember that there are 11 different ‘keys’ (main note groupings) that are possible. We’ll use the key of C ‘ (Do) as an example. The notes of the key of C are:

C   D  E  F  G  A   B  C

From here we can derive our chords.

Major, like its name, is the first type of chord and many times will sound like ‘home’ in a song. The notes of C major are C  E  and G. We’ll use the piano to visually illustrate. If you need a keyboard to try, you can use this one. https://www.musicca.com/piano

Minor, starts on the A note and has the same look, but if you notice there is one note less in the middle one (second degree) and one more on the right one (third degree). It’s called A minor (better, Am)

and the Dominant chord starts on G, one note below the A minor (Am)

 Now we have our groups. The next thing to know is the ‘degrees’ of the scale (C) that we’re using, now we have to go up two times (octaves). We’re going to number the notes, starting from C. Those numbers will be the basis for their namWe won’t use all of these numbers but here are the options. If the C chord has C, E, and G then we can say that it’s a 1, 3, 5 chord, cool. Here’s the thing. Each of our chord families, Major, Minor and Dominant, no matter what note they start on will use the 1, 3, 5 concept because the starting note of a chord will be 1. Got it? Ok, let’s go.

After the major, minor and dominant names, if we want to add more notes, we’ll put the number of the note we want to add. There’s an order to this so let’s go. Please note that there are a lot of chords and each chord has a name, but we will use examples here so you can figure out the other ones.

Here we go. First up, Major chords. C major that has 1, 3 and 5 in it can be also called just C.

When adding more notes to make it thicker, we’ll start with the 7th degree (please know that we could only add the 6th degree too and be called C6). I’ll add the others too.

After the 7th chord, that’s a lot of notes to play at the same time. Many musicians don’t play all the notes together but a small combination, as long as the name notes are there, you can leave some others out. It’s fun to experiment with chords!

Once you get this idea, you can make your minor and dominant chords using this system, just starting on either the 6th or 5th degree (in this case A and/or G).

So what about our example C13b9+5? Let’s make it. Remember that  b is called flat and takes the note down one half step (that one key lower on the keyboard (all black and white notes included!) and + goes up one.

So there is. I took out the 11 note as it seems to get in the way. Now you can figure out the reasoning behind all these names. It’s a little like algebra and addition. You can easily find the chord your looking for online but it helps to know what the system actually is! It’s also fun to experiment with chords and see if you find something that sounds cool!