Q. Ok, so I'm taking music AP theory in High School next year, because I really enjoy music, but I don't know a lot about it. I play piano and trumpet, I know that different instruments have different keys that they're in and stuff like that lol. I wanna know what a chord is. The only thing I know is that a chord is a few notes played at the same time to make a chord. I google'd it but I didn't understand it very well. Can someone explain to me in a simple way what a chord is? Like what's a major, minor and stuff like that? I hear my band director say that sometimes.
A. a chord is three or more notes at the same time.
"normal" chords are made by stacking thirds.
a third is the distance you get when you skip one note of a scale
like A to C, or B to D
a three note chord is called a "triad"
it contains two stacked thirds,
so if you built one on A it would have the notes A C E
if you built it starting on G it would have the notes G B D
you could have lots of those notes and they could be in any order.
so BDDGDBGBDBGDBGBDBGBDBG would still be called a G chord because if you look for the stack of thirds, its just GBD still
to find the quality of a chord (major/minor), you need to look at the quality of the thirds inside it
a third with two whole steps in it is a major third
a third with a whole step and a half step in it is a minor third
(theres other kinds, but thats all you need to figure out chords)
a triad where the lower third is major and the upper third is minor is a major chord
a triad where the lower third is minor and the upper third is major is a minor chord
a triad where both thirds are minor is diminished
a triad where both thirds are major is augmented
examples
A C E is A minor
A to C is a minor third (because A to B is a whole step and B to C is a half step)
C to E is a major third (because C to D and D to E are both whole steps)
so the minor third is on the bottom and the major third is on the top. minor triad
if you wanted to make A major, you would just need to raise the C to a C# because then the bottom third would get bigger and the top third would get smaller.
so A C# E is A major
if you wanted to make A diminished, you would leave the bottom third minor, but lower E to Eb to make the top third also minor
so A C Eb is A diminished
for A augmented, you would need the C# like in major, but you would also need to raise the E to E# so both thirds would be major.
so A augmented is A C# E#
(no you may not spell that A C# F!!! you have to call it E#)
augmented chords are not common, they dont show up naturally in major keys
there are also 4 note chords called 7th chords.
heres patterns for them:
Major 7th chord = Maj 3rd, min 3rd, Maj third
Dominant 7th chord = Maj 3rd, min 3rd, min 3rd
minor 7th chord = min 3rd, maj 3rd, min 3rd
half diminished 7th chord = min 3rd, min 3rd maj 3rd
fully diminished 7th chord = min 3rd, min 3rd, min 3rd
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edit for waynes comment.
at the point where i said an A chord has the notes A C E i was only talking about note letter names, i mentioned the accidentals later in the part about quality.
i did it in that order because it helps avoid enharmonic misspellings.
counting up by half steps works to play the chord, but i've noticed that students who learn it that way first make more enharmonic errors...
..like spelling Db diminished as Db E G because they landed on the notes E and G when they counted up by half steps. but if they first know that any chord starting on a D HAS to include the letter names D F A, they will have to work out that its Db Fb Abb
Help with music theory and hip hop piano chords?
Q. I want to learn the music theory but i cannot find any website that teaches it on a piano roll not notes? and i also need a website to show me certain scales on a piano roll... for example the arab scale, trance scale and what not...
I would also like to know if it is too old for me to learn the piano professionally I am 16 years old
A. Music theory is just notes and works on all instruments.
The notes on the white keys are A,B,C,D,E,F,G and once you get to G it just starts over again.
If you look at the black keys it looks like there are groups of 3 and 2. || ||| || ||| ||
The white key right before the two is C, and if you know where C is you know where all the others are.
The black keys are sharps and flats, the black key right after C is a C#, which is the same as a Db, the reason there are two white keys together is because E sharp is F and B sharp is C.
A scale or key, is just a list of notes these notes that sound good together.
The scales/keys are the same for every instrument, they're named after the main note in the scale, so there is no such thing as a techno or Arab scale, but you can use effects to make the music sound like anything you want.
How is the music theory same as playing guitar and the piano?
Q. I am trying to learn to play the guitar and I don't where to start. My friend told me it is like playing the piano, but I never played the piano before... HELPPPPP
A. You're asking 2 different questions.
Is the theory of music the same as far as chord progression, chord structure, notes in a scale, etc? Yes it is.
Is guitar like piano? No. You won't learn it the same way. Guitar is built around chord shapes, and piano is built around certain notes. This is why almost all piano players use sheet music, and guitarists don't like sheet music.
Anyway, enough of all of that. You certainly don't need to play piano to play guitar, so don't worry about comparing the two. You need a step by step instructional method that will guide you through what you need to know to eventually play in every key that exists. Check out my beginner series: http://guitarmann.com/articles/freebeginner
Stephen
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Title : Can someone explain to me what a chord is?
Description : Q. Ok, so I'm taking music AP theory in High School next year, because I really enjoy music, but I don't know a lot about it. I pla...