lesson 18

Notice that there are 3 major chords, 3 minor chords and 1 diminished chord in the illustration above. If you were to play in the key of D Major as illustrated above, it would now be D Ionian mode. If you were playing in the key of C major as illustrated below, it would be the C Ionian mode. The Ionian mode is the first mode in any major key. 

Check out the modes in the key of C major.

If your not familiar with reading music, here is a real basic idea of what is going on. Notes can continue above and below each of the lines. The key of C below does do this.

Look at the illustrations above. It is now illustrating the key of C major. A good way to look at music is how it is so mathematical and how it all repeats.

I explain the key of C major for a very important reason. Once you understand the construction of C, building other major keys are the same. Once you learn the modes in the key of C major, they repeat the same fingering patterns in other keys. One more thing, the key of C has no sharps or flats to work around. Also called accidentals.

There are tons of other scales to learn, the harmonic minors, melodic, diminished and so on. But you can construct other scales using the illustration above.

The illustration below will begin to explain how the chords are formed for any given key.

The illustration above shows the key of C major. Each note above can be given a number 1 through 8. There are 7 different notes to every key. In the key of C, they would be:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B and then C repeated one octave above the first. Notice how there are no sharps or flats in the key of C major. No Accidentals. 

Notice the distance from each note to the next. The D note is 2 half steps away from the C. This would be 1 whole step. Every major key is constructed using the W, W, H, W, W, W, H formula.

The first note above is the C note and we will now construct the C chord.

Remember every key is made up of in order, Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor and diminished chords.  

The first note in the key of C is the C note, the first chord in any major key is always a major chord. We need to start things off by building the C major chord. Look at the illustration below. This illustration now shows the notes numbered 1 to 7. The numbers now represent scale degrees. The scale degree of each chord will determine what type of chord we have. The major triad or three note chord is always constructed as illustrated below. That being the (Root 1), 3rd and 5th notes of the scale. Notice those notes below, C E and G. All Diatonic chords within a key are built upwards in 3rds. Major chords are built using the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale. Minor chords are built using the 1st, flat 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale.

If we wanted to construct the Cmaj7 chord, we would add the B note. Each note being upwards of a 3rd apart. 1 being the first note and counting up 3. Cmaj7=C, E, G and B. By adding the 7th note of the scale to the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes, we can construct the maj7 chord. All major 7 type chords are built using 4 notes, the 1st 3rd 5th and 7th notes of the major scale. Triads are chords that use only 3 notes for their construction, such as the C chord. Minor chords are also triads that are built using 3 notes.

The illustration below now shows the chords and the notes of each chord. We are still in the key of C major. Notice that each chord illustrated below has 3 notes each.

We will now learn how to construct the minor chord. The minor chord is constructed using the 1Root, flat 3 and 5 notes of the major scale. To flatten a note, you would lower it by 1/2 step or 1 fret. Look at the illustration below. It shows the E note at the 5th fret and the Eb note at the 4th fret. Notice that Eb is only 1 fret away from the E note. One fret equals 1/2 step.

 

Look at the illustration below and notice that the 3 note is now flat. It is still formed in 3rds, but the 3rd is flat in all minor chords.

 

The illustration below will show how the C diminished chord is formed. The diminished chord degree consists of the 1Root, flat 3 and flat 5. Quick note, the diminished chords can be considered the minor flat five chord. This is because it is a minor chord with the 5th note flat as well.

In the key of C major the B diminished chord is also called the Bm flat 5 chord. To make things even more confusing, it is at times referred to as the half diminished.

 

The illustration below shows how to form the C Augmented chord. 1, 3, sharp5. The augmented chord is constructed by having the sharp 5 note. 1st, 3rd #5th. All augmented chords are constructed this way.

 

To recap, all major scales are constructed using the W, W, H, W, W, W and Half steps. The whole step equals 2 frets and the half step equals 1 fret.

The major chords are constructed using the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale.

The minor chords are constructed using the 1st, flat 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale.

All major keys will have major, minor, minor, major, major, minor and diminished chords. To prove this, look at the chords in the key of C major. C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and B diminished.

Here are the notes and chords in the key of G major to prove the point of each chord in the major key. G Am, Bm, C, D, Em and F# diminished.

All notes in the major key are constructed using the formula, W W H W W W H.

In the next lesson you will use the formula above to write out a few major keys. C, G, D, and A. 

	Figure out the relative minor for each major key.
	Consider the Ionian and the Aeolian the same, but know the difference. The difference being in the key of G major, the G Ionian or G major, is G to G and E Aeolian Em is E to E. But each of these modes share the same signature, so you can play these modes over Em and G chords.
	Study the Major scales.
	Practice the 4 basic major scale fingering types and transpose them into other keys.
	Practice the major pentatonic scales.
	Use this table to figure out the chords and modes for each major key.

Good Luck,