Greetings! I'm pro saxophonist Jamie
Anderson and you're watching Get Your
Sax Together. This is the second part
of my series on functional harmony for
complete beginners! In part one, we
covered some absolute rock bottom
essentials and in this part we're going
to delve more into chords and find out
how you write them and how you find out
what the notes are for each chord.
So this is the second video in this
four-part series of harmony for complete
beginners if you haven't already be sure
to check out part 1 you'll find the card
linked up there somewhere
that forms the basis for this video, is
the foundation course for this video so
make sure you check that one out. Please
do go into the description down below
and find the free PDF which is linked
down there: that's got all the
information you need to help you with
this lesson. Also if you like the content
please do subscribe and ring the
notification bell to be notified when
new videos come out. Ok I'm gonna jump
behind the computer screen for the
lesson and I'll see you there.
Ok! Welcome
behind the screen so let's get right to
it what is a chord well we've very
briefly covered this in part 1 but in
very simple terms a chord is two or more
different notes played at the same time. If you play the same notes in different
octaves like this: that's an octave C
that wouldn't really be called the chord
so there must be two different notes for
example: that is a chord, that's a chord,
that's a chord. These are all chords
because they're two or more different
notes played together. So that's really
quite simple now it seems easy enough of
course but the devil is always in the
detail and there's a virtually unlimited
number of ways of combining two or more
notes into sequences. However the good
news is that for one reason or another
over the millennia we've kind of settled
on a few set chords and patterns that
sound good
different cultures use chords and
harmony in different ways of course but
we're dealing with standard Western
musical harmony here at the moment so
let's cover the basic core types first
and that's
three note chords called triads.
A major triad is a simple chord made up
of the root or the home note (C in this
case) and the third note and fifth note
of the major scale in that key. So for
example in C major we've got the root or
home note -2, 3- is E -4, 5- is G so it's the
root, third and fifth- the first, third and
fifth notes of the major scale starting
on that root. You can go back and catch
up and watch the first part of this
series for a bit more information on
what a key is if you're still not sure
of that.
So that triad in C major which has no
flats or sharps is C E and G- the first
third and fifth notes of C major. Another
way of working out what the notes are
for any major triad is the distance or
interval as we call it in music between
the notes of the chord. From the root to
the third, you go up four semitones so if
you look at the mouse here- there's the C
and you're gonna go up.
That's counted as number one so you go
1 2 3 4 semitones to get to E.
So 1 2 3 4 to E and then you
go up three semitones to get to the
fifth: 1 2 3. So to make a major
triad you go up 1 2 3 4
semitones and then 1 2 3
semitones this method makes easy to find
out the notes of any major triad no
matter how tricky the key where you may
not be immediately sure what the notes
of that major scale are. So for example
if I said: play me an F sharp major triad
and you don't immediately know what the
notes of F sharp major are you just
start on F sharp like this and then you
go up four semitones 1 2 3 4
which gives you A sharp, and then three: 1 2 3 to C sharp. So the notes of F sharp major
triad are F sharp a sharp and C sharp.
Boom! For the record would usually
abbreviate the full name of a major
tried to just the root name without
specifying the major bit so a C triad is
assumed to be a C major triad if you
mean a minor triad which we're going to
cover in a second
you would have to specifically say C
minor so if somebody said it's an E flat
chord that would be an E flat major
chord. Seeing as the fifth note of any
chord is most often not flattened or
sharpened (it will be but that's for
later videos) in chord jargon we refer to
the fifth of the triad
as just the fifth not the major fifth
however as the third of a triad is quite
often minor we have to specify a major
or minor third that's the way we
describe chords it's just the way chord
terminology works. So to use the right
terminology we would describe any major
triad chord as being root, major third
and fifth. Root, major third and fifth. So
for example, an A major triad would be A
(which is the root) C sharp's the major third
and E is the fifth. In this way a triad
can be in any key but it's always the
root, major third and fifth within that
key it's a kind of useful code to
describe the structure of the chord. Ok
cool now what if we wanted a minor triad
well then we need what's called a minor
or flattened third in the chord instead
of the major third so the way we do this
is instead of going up four semitones
from the root to get a major third we
just go up three semitones to get the
minor third. So there's our C and then
we've got 1 2 3- E flat gives
us the minor third in the key of C and
the fifth stays the same. So in order
to get from that minor third up to the
fifth we now have to go up 1 2 3 4  semitones . So the code of a minor
triad is to go up three semitones to the
minor third and then four semitones to
the fifth. By the way this is a real
basics video with just doing first
things first there are different triads
which aren't major or minor but we're
going to do that in a more advanced
video. So,
let's learn to walk before we start
running.
Ok let's have a quick recap
different notes played at the same time
are called chords. That's a chord.
The most common chords used in western
music are based around three note chords
called triads such as that and that and
that. There are two types of triads: major
and minor. A major triad has a root, a
major third and a fifth and a minor
triad has a root, a minor third and a
fifth. The code to find out the notes of
a major triad is to go up four semitones
from the root to the third and three
semitones from there to the fifth. The
code for a minor triad is to go three
semitones from the root to the minor
third and four semitones from there to
the fifth. So major four and three; minor
three and four. And I guess it's worth
mentioning at this point that a major
triad has got a sort of what you might
describe as a happy sound whereas a
minor triad has got what you might
describe as more of a sort of sad sound
to it that's all completely
oversimplified but that's the basic
sound of a happy, major chord and a minor,
sad chord. So those two simple triads
major and minor triads actually cover a
staggering amount of music already and
you can play a simple version of
virtually any song using just major or
minor triads which is pretty damn cool!
So let's now cover how you write down (or
notate as we say in music) these chords.
There's a standardised system of chord
symbol notation. I say that but
annoyingly as we'll see soon enough its
not quite standardised and there are
different methods for describing the
same thing which is immensely annoying.
Anyway to notate a major triad it's dead
simple you just write the root note name
in uppercase simple so to write a chord
symbol for an A flat major triad you
just write A flat nothing else not A
flat maj or A flat with a capital M or
any guff like that just the note name. So
when I play an A flat triad on the
keyboard
the chord symbol will look like this:
Simple as that!
A flat one massively too big chord
symbol on the sheet of music okay let's
try that again so for a D major triad
for example if I play D, F sharp and A
which is the notes of a D triad then the
chord symbol would simply be D so that
means if I'm playing music and I see the
letter D as a chord symbol I know it's a
D triad which is the notes D, F sharp and
A like that now to indicate a minor
triad you write the note name of the
root plus a small m after the root so D
minor is written as capital D lowercase
m. So if I play D, F and A which is a D
minor triad then the chord symbol will
come up as D and small m. Now this is
where it starts to get slightly annoying
because the alternate chord symbol for a
minor is a dash after the root name
which looks like that.
So major chords are the root name
followed by nothing like that and minor
chords are the root name followed by a
small m like that. And the other way of
doing that is with a dash.
So as I said
before those two basic major and minor
triads cover an enormous swathe of music
however we must also know three more
chord types to have the main basics
covered and that involves adding the
seventh to those triads and this is
where if there's some potential
confusion if you don't know what's going
on.So let's cover the basic terminology
first as you'd expect the seventh of a
chord just means adding the seventh note
of the major scale in that key the posh
name for the seventh note of the scale
is the leading note as it leads back to
the root. So seven notes of C major are C D E F G A and then the seventh note is B
because it leads back to the root C so
the seventh of C major is a B. It's
really not rocket science is it? So if
you watch part one of this series you'll
know that the last interval of a major
scale from the seventh note back to the
root is always a semitone.So the
quickest and easiest way of working out
the leading note or the major seventh of
any major scale is just to go one
semitone down from the root so for
example here's a C and if I want to find
out what the 7th note of that major
scale is I just go down a semitone
because it's the same as going 1 2 3 4 5
6 7.So for example what's the 7th note
of an A major scale? Well you find your A
and then you go down one semitone and
it's a G sharp.
Simple as that. Boom! So that said let's
look at the first of these additional
three core types and that is the major 7
chord. This is the easiest one as you
just take a major triad as the name
implies like this then you add the 7th
note of the major scale on top. In other
words you add the major 7th. The
terminology would be root, major 3rd
fifth, major 7th and in a minute you'll
see why it's important to say major 7th
and not just 7th so what's the code for
a major 7? That's simple you just take a
major triad and add the major 7th to it
which is the note a semitone beneath the
root. So for example G major 7. There we
go we've got a G then it's four
semitones to the major 3rd- B. Three semitones
to the fifth D and then we go down a
semitone from that G to the F sharp and
that is the major 7th. So the notes of
the G major 7 are G B D F sharp and we
can do that in any key using that simple
formula. Now if the chord symbol for a 
major 7 chord is the root name in
capitals and then either the word M a J
in lowercase- Maj short for major in
lowercase followed by a 7. Or you can
have a triangle. I like having a triangle
so if I play the
notes of C major 7 which are C D G and B
like this the chord symbol that will
come up is a triangle and that means C
major 7 you can either have the 7 after
the triangle or if you don't have the 7
after the triangle it still means a C
major 7 so just to cover the alternate
way of writing major 7 I play my C major
7 chord and that comes up as C Maj and
then 7.
So far so good! So the next chord
type I'm going to give you is called a
minor 7 or minor 7th. As the name
suggests this chord has a minor triad but
instead of having a major 7th it has a
flattened or minor 7th giving the name.
That means that the 7th of the chord is
the note two semitones beneath the root
note now. So where we were in say C
before and we find our major 7th by
going down one semitone, now we go down
two semitones so the flattened or minor
7 of C is B flat which means that C
minor 7 would be a C minor triad with a
flattened 7th which is a B flat on top.
That's C minor 7 so the terminology
would be root, minor 3rd, 5th and flattened
7th. So for example to get a D minor 7 we
would start with the root D we go up 1 2
3 semitones to the F to give us the
minor 3rd. 1 2 3 4 semitones
up to give us the A. Now there's the root
we go down 1 2 semitones to give us the
minor seventh of the chord- C. So the
notes of D minor 7 are D F A and C. Ok so
the chord symbol for minor 7th is the
same as the minor triad it's a small m
except you add a 7 to it so you have the
root in capitals then a lowercase m
followed by a 7. So if I play C minor 7
which is C, E flat, G and B flat then the
chord symbol looks like that C, small m
and 7. Now the alternative way of writing
that is C and then a dash and 7 and often
when you have just a dash in a jazz chord
sequence the implication
is that it's gonna be a minor seven and
not just a minor triad.
Now that just
leaves the final chord type which is
called a dominant seventh or a seven for
short which is a mix of the first two. A
dominant seventh has a major triad- so in
C you'd have your major triad with a flattened
seventh so the B flat. You would say it
has root, major third, fifth, flat seven. So
for example to work out the notes of
let's say d7, you would take the root (D)
you go up 1 2 3 4 semitones
to get the major third (F sharp); 1 2 3 semitones to get A and then
you go to the root at the top and down
two to get the flattened seventh and
that- D, F sharp, A, and C (root, third, fifth,
flat seven) is the code of what a
dominant seventh or just a seven chord
(as it's abbreviated to) is. Now this is
super important to remember and it's the
thing that most people get wrong:
dominant seventh is the posh name for
this chord but it's almost always
abbreviated to just seven or seventh
like I just said. So an E flat dominant
seventh would just be called E flat
seven and that is really important
distinction to make. So if you want a
major seven you must specify major seven
because if you said E flat seven you'd
get a dominant seventh. The chord symbol
for a seventh chord is one of the
easiest chord symbols as you just write
the number seven. So let's have C7: C, E, G
and B flat, The chord symbol just comes up
as the seven.
So let's have a recap of
all this then a major seven chord is a
major triad with a major seven and that
sounds like that and the chord symbol is
the triangle. Minor seven chord is a
minor triad with a flattened or minor
seventh and that looks like this small m
with the seven and finally a seven chord
or a dominant seventh is a major triad
with a flattened 7.
Now the sharpest chisels in the tool
box maybe thinking hang on! There's one
missing from this set- what about a minor
triad with a major seventh? Well that is
actually a chord type but you won't find
it very often
apart from at the end of the James Bond
theme.
This chord type is slightly confusingly
called a minor major chord and now that
you've heard it you can kind of forget
about that for a while the main thing is
to focus on the three chord types we've
learned today which is the major seven
chord, minor seven chord and the dominant
seventh chord and in the next lesson
we're going to focus on how all these
chords link up.
Alrighty! We have covered
a lot today and hopefully now you are a
ninja expert on chords and how you
notate them and how you find out the
notes of each chord.In the next part
(part 3) we're going to find out how those
chords all linked together in functional
harmony and how they join up and that's
where the magic really starts to happen
that's really cool stuff. So be sure to
follow part three next week. In the
meantime go and grab your PDF worksheet
by following the link down below and if
you like the channel don't forget to
subscribe and ring that notification
bell to be told when the new videos come
out and I'll see you next time on
Get Your Sax Together!
Adios!
