#1 - How to make any major or minor
chord easily
#1 - How to make any major or minor chord easily
Do you find music theory difficult? Or maybe it’s like the foreign language you are learning; you know bits of a sentence but you don’t fully understand all the missing bits and so it comes out clunky and doesn’t translate very well?
I hear it all the time…’I don’t understand, music theory is so confusing. Why is it like this!'
Because music theory has developed over hundreds of years, it has accepted conventions and symbols which can seem confusing and out of date. Also what I've seen is that explaining music theory makes it sound very complex, whereas playing the notes A C E on the piano and saying that's an A minor chord is very easy.
Like learning a language, the best way is to speak it with others rather than try and memorise it. But also like a language, learning certain key phrases and techniques can serve you for life.
So firstly, we will start with chords.
1. A chord is two or more notes played at the same time.
2. You can write a vast amount of amazing music simply with major or minor chords.
3. Finding the notes on the piano for any major or minor chord is easy using semitones.
4. A semitone is:
The distance between two keys on the piano, a white to a black, or a white to a white without a black in between, e.g. F - F# or E - F.
Here is the formula to work out any major and minor chord on the piano with ease!
Major Chord = 4 + 3
Minor Chord = 3 + 4
For example,
C major* = C (+4 semitones) = E (+3 semitones) = G
= C E G
C minor = C (+3) = Eflat (+4) = G
= C Eb G
*Note, C is short for C major, so when people say key of C or C chord, it's C major.
In this series of blogs, I am going to clarify the foundations of music theory so that you can realise that understanding and using it is not as complicated and hard as it may seem, and actually once you do this, you will see your creativity fly and your music ramp up in quality - satisfaction for you and your fans.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us or ask on our Facebook Page.
Pete Mills
Pete Mills helps musicians create instantly and easily using techniques he has developed over thirty years. The old ways of having to have lessons for years or watch hundreds of youtube tutorials are over. Pete teaches how to play and produce easily, helping solo artists to be free and create the best music they possibly can.
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