Contents
- 01A chord: three notes stacked in thirds
- 02Major and minor: the third decides the color
- 03Diminished and augmented: the odd ones, and where they show up
- 04Reading chord symbols: from 'C' to 'C/E'
- 05Seven chords come from one scale
- 06The four progressions that are everywhere
- 07Sevenths: one more note, another color
- 08Inversions: the same chord with a different bass
- 09Exercise: home notes and tension notes
- 10Exercise: working out chords by ear
- 11Exercise: arpeggios, the chord note by note
- 12What you do with this in rehearsal
- 13What you take with you
Chords: triads, chord symbols and progressions
What a chord is, how to read "Am7" on a chord sheet and why so many songs use the same four progressions.
What you'll learn
In this lesson you'll understand what a chord is, how it's built and how to read it on a chord sheet, from 'C' to 'Am7' or 'C/E'. You'll also recognize the progressions that repeat in a huge number of songs. And you'll bring all of it to your voice: knowing which notes feel at home over each chord, and singing its notes one by one, in tune.
What you'll need
About 26 minutes and something to listen to music on. You'll use the app's Chords tool, which analyzes a recording or a file and shows you the chords throughout the song. You also have the lesson's two MIDIs, 'Arpeggiated triads (C, Am, F, G)' and 'Block I–V–vi–IV progression (3 voices)', the app's piano (Piano & MIDI) to look up notes and, at the end, a guided staff to write two arpeggios. If you have the chord sheet of a song you like at hand, even better; if not, you don't need anything else.
If you're just starting
This lesson is the bridge between scales and harmony: it shows you how the notes of a scale come together to accompany your melody. It helps to have gone through 'Scales and key' first, because here we use the degrees and keys you saw there. You don't need to play any instrument: you'll hear and sing everything. If chord names look like a strange language today, don't worry: in a little while you'll be reading them effortlessly.
Words you'll come across
- Chord
- Several notes sounding together, like when someone strums a guitar to accompany you.
- Triad
- A three-note chord, the most basic form of chord.
- Root, third and fifth
- The three notes of a triad: the one that gives it its name, the one that decides whether it's major or minor, and the one that completes the skeleton.
- Chord symbol
- The letters and numbers that name a chord on a song sheet, like C, Am or G7.
- Progression
- The sequence of chords in a song, the path the harmony travels.
- Seventh
- A fourth note stacked on top of the triad that changes its color.
- Inversion
- The same chord with a different one of its notes in the bass, that is, as the lowest note.
- Arpeggio
- The notes of a chord sung one by one, instead of all together.