The Only Theory Lesson You’ll Ever Need – Part 3
In Part 1 of The Only Theory Lesson You’ll Ever Need, we covered the foundational elements of music theory: the musical alphabet, the concept of whole steps and half steps, and the use of accidentals (sharps and flats) to fill in the blanks between natural notes.
In Part 2, we used that information to take the next step forward: constructing major scales and understanding keys.
Here in Part 3, we’ll take the final step and use our knowledge of major scales to harmonize them with chords.
This is where music theory really starts to come alive because it gives the musician insight into why certain chords work together to form complementary sounds. You can use this knowledge to empower you to learn songs by ear or to write your own songs. You can also use this knowledge for transposing to other keys, which is essential when applying capo strategies. Rock and roll!
Happy Together
Understanding major scale construction is critical to your understanding of all music theory, but by itself, it’s not very exciting. However, harmonizing the major scale – otherwise known as, “building chords” – is much more exciting, because it clues us into what chords are in what keys, and why they sound good in certain combinations.
This is a major hurdle to get over for anyone who wants to write their own songs! It’s also incredibly helpful when learning any music by ear (be sure to check out my post, The Lost Art of Learning By Ear, as well as any of the Guitar Noise series on Ear Training, beginning with Happy New Ear, for more on this awesome topic), and that could mean learning a song from your iPod or just hanging with other musicians in an informal jam session.
Here’s the scenario: You love your classic rock and so you’re learning the Bob Dylan song, “Like a Rolling Stone.” You see from your trusty music book that it seems to have no sharps or flats, which would indicate to you that we’re playing in the key of C. But how do the chords of the song – C, Dm, Em, F, G, etc. – relate to this? Why these chords and not some others? How did our boy Bob know what chords would sound good together?
Never fear, Grasshopper. Learning to harmonize the scale will reveal the answers!
Stacking Thirds
Take another look at our C scale: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.
Now let’s follow a process called “stacking thirds” to build a three-note chord, or triad, from each note of the scale.
To “stack thirds”, we’ll just pick a starting note, leap-frog over the next note to land on our next target note, and again leap-frog over the next note to land on our final target note. This gives us the three notes of our triad, and we “stack” these note, figuratively-speaking, on top of each other.
C…leap-frog over D to land on E…leap-frog over F to land on G.
Our C chord, then, is comprised of the starting note plus the two targets: C-E-G.
Quick Music Lingo Note: “Stacking thirds” refers to two different concepts. We “stack” them, by figuratively sitting the higher notes of the scale on top of the lower notes. So in our C chord, C would be the lowest note, E would sit on top of it, and G would be the highest note.
“Thirds” refers to the span of three notes. Counting from C (as “1”³) to E (as “3”³) encompasses three notes: C, D and E. Likewise, E (“3″³) to G (as “5”³) also encompasses three notes: E, F and G. Taken together, every triad is regarded as having a root note (“1″³), a 3rd and a 5th.
If you want even more information on this, check out Guitar Noise’s article, The Power of Three.
Using the leap-frog method of “stacking thirds”, we can finish harmonizing the C scale by building triads on each of the scale tones:
D yields…D-F-A
E yields…E-G-B
F yields…F-A-C
G yields…G-B-D
A yields…A-C-E
B yields…B-D-F
Done. Now what does it all mean?
Let’s Get Diatonic
Without going into why the following information is true (we can save that for a future theory lesson), suffice it to say that the triads you just built from the major scale yield the following chord names (items in the list are shown as SCALE DEGREE = ROOT NOTE = TRIAD NAME):
1 = C = C major
2 = D = D minor
3 = E = E minor
4 = F = F major
5 = G = G major
6 = A = A minor
7 = B = B diminished
These chords are the diatonic harmony in the key of C, meaning they are the triads that naturally occur in the key, using just the notes of the major scale to build them. Because these chords are all constructed from the same family of notes – the pitches of the major scale – they will sound complementary to one another in just about any context.
So if you’re wondering why Bob Dylan chose C, Dm, Em, F and G for “Like a Rolling Stone,” it’s because he knew – either technically or instinctively – that those chords are all from the same family of notes and sound good together (and he’d do the same sort of thing with “I Shall Be Released,” although in a different key!).
This is powerful information for the developing musician/songwriter, because it gives you a guideline to follow for learning or writing songs. For instance, if you were trying to learn a song by ear, rather than use the trial-and-error method, where you just take a stab at whatever random chords you know in hopes of hitting a good one, use the chords that are diatonic to the key as your first choices. Only when you can rule them out, should you look to non-diatonic chords for your answers. This is a much more efficient way to go about your musical business, and ultimately much more professional. It also takes away some of the mystery of song construction and makes you feel more empowered as a musician!
Primary Chords
Now that you know how to harmonize one major scale, guess what? You know how to harmonize all of them!
Because all scales are constructed from the same major scale formula, they all have the same relationships and the same do-re-mi sound. Because they have the same relationships, the chords that we build by “stacking thirds” are always the same type at the same scale degrees! Check it out:
Major scales will always yield MAJOR CHORDS at the 1, 4 and 5 degrees of the scale. These are referred to as the primary major chords in a key. In our above example in the key of C, we get C (1), F (4) and G (5) chords.
Major scales will also always yield MINOR CHORDS at the 2, 3 and 6 positions – which are referred to as the primary minor chords in a key – as well as a lone DIMINISHED CHORD at the 7 spot. In the key of C, we get Dm (2), Em (3) and Am (6), as well as B diminished (7).
Understanding these concepts and committing them to memory takes practice. Since you have already gone through the process of writing out some of the more common major scales in Part 2 of this theory lesson (you have, haven’t you?), you should take it a step further now and harmonize those scales with chords. Go ahead and stack the thirds, and then write out the name of the triad that each scale tone yields. You may be interested to see that the combinations of chords you’ve been playing in your songs are there for a reason!
I’ve prepared a handy-dandy worksheet to help you out:
Changing Keys
Knowing what chords fall at what scale degrees in a key is the secret to transposing songs from one key to another. It’s as simple as using the scale degrees to help you substitute one chord for another.
For example, you know that every major key has major chords at the 1, 4 and 5 positions in the scale. If the song you’re playing is in the key of C and it consists of the C (1), F (4) and G (5) chords, you can transpose this to any other key by just using the 1, 4 and 5 chords of the new key in the same spots in the song. Simple substitution!
This is not only an important idea to understand in general about music; it’s a critical concept to understand if you want to use a capo effectively, since capoing and transposition usually go hand in hand. Check out The Definitive Lesson: Essential Capo Strategies as well as the Guitar Noise lessons Turning Notes into Stone – A Basic Guide to Transposing and The Underappreciated Art of Using a Capo for a ton of useful information on this topic!
topacio
November 25th, 2014 @ 10:15 pm
this is great information. but wouldn’t it be easier to memorize the circle of fifths? whats the advantage of knowing how to stack thirds?
Charlie
November 3rd, 2012 @ 10:10 am
Kaylee,
I left a little out of my last post. With the C chord, play the c note on the 5th string with your pinky, play the g note on the 6th string with your ring finger. Sorry for any confusion.
Charlie
November 3rd, 2012 @ 7:05 am
Hi Kaylee,
What I know of music theory will fit on the back of a small fly, but I know what sounds nice. I found that if you play the low E string in a C chord, especially when plugged in, you’ll get this booming bass ‘noise’ which seems to overpower the entire C chord. You can either not play the string, or, use use your pinky (have to change the C chord form) and play a G on that lower E. You will hear a much better sounding C chord. Sort of majestic. You can do the same with a D chord. Use your thumb (yes, you have to break the rules here) and play an F# on the low E string. Beautiful sound, really opens up the entire guitar. Have fun.
Kaylee
November 2nd, 2012 @ 4:05 am
Hi there
Great article. I’m loving your whole website, it is by far the best free lessons on the web.
One question if you could please clarify for me.
The c major chord c e g. And I understand there are more that three notes in the chord. So why is the 6th string (e note) not played? I have assumed it is because c is the root note and so the chord begins there??
Many thanks for all your lessons
Kaylee
Jim Bowley
November 17th, 2012 @ 11:48 am
Kaylee,
Glad you liked the theory lesson. As you figured out, the chord name “C” implies that the lowest note you hear will be a C bass note. So even though the note E is, in fact, part of a C triad, we play strings 5-1 and leave out string 6 altogether. From a technique standpoint, you’ll want to try and mute string 6 with your thumb, since it’s pretty hard to just magically miss it while you’re rockin’ out!
But to add onto what Charlie said, there are some other options. You can play the low G with finger 3 and the low C with finger 4, but technically this creates a C/G chord. Some folks use it as a substitute for C; try it out and see what you think. There are some songs that call for C/E, and in this case, you can go ahead and play the open string 6. This chord is usually used to lead into an F.
Hope this helps a little!
Cheers,
jb
Tsekpo Emmanuel
August 9th, 2012 @ 3:21 am
I’ve been following your lessons from the very scope to this point and i see your lesson as better. I want you to clarify this for me. Should i use a Cmajor triad when im playing in C key or any triad can fit in AND explain the difference between the 1 3 5triad and the 1 4 5M and 2 3 6m. Thanks
Jim Bowley
August 16th, 2012 @ 9:13 am
Hi –
In the key of C, you can play any of the triads from the key and they will fit musically. By “use”, I’m assuming you mean “improvise”. But the individual triads work best over their respective chords (for example, Dm triad over a Dm chord).
As for the second question, it’s easy to confuse the numbering system, so let me try and clarify. Any triad is made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of its respective scale, so that’s why people say triads consist of 1-3-5. They are referring to the NOTES. For example, a C chord contains C, E and G notes.
When we harmonize a scale with triads (chords), such as in this lesson, we wind up with major chords at the 1st, 4th and 5th SCALE DEGREES and minor chords at the 2nd, 3rd and 6th degrees. The 1, 4 and 5 here refers to the positions in the scale that yield major chords. In the key of C, that would be C, F and G chords. (But each one of those chords is constructed from a root, 3rd and 5th note).
It definitely has the potential to be confusing; often we have to read through theory lessons more than once to understand the concepts.
Hope this helps!
Matt
June 8th, 2012 @ 8:39 am
This is a great series and easy to understand. I appreciate all that you do! It would be nice to see an article on this regarding the minor scale or maybe just a clear relationship and those worksheets are perfect!
David Hodge
June 8th, 2012 @ 1:11 pm
Hi Matt
Thanks for writing. This definitely has been a great series of articles. I don’t know if James has written one on minor scales as yet but we can offer you this one, called “Minor Progress” https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/minor-progress/ here at Guitar Noise. Hope you find it helpful.
Peace
Jim Bowley
May 21st, 2012 @ 8:53 am
Hi Aaron –
From a THEORY standpoint, simple chords – triads – consist of only three note names. For example, a C chord is made up of a C, E and G. You can achieve this by following the “stacking thirds” method.
However, in terms of APPLICATION to your instrument – guitar, naturally – a C chord would seem to be made up of more than just three notes. After all, a basic open C is played using strings 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, correct? Correct.
The catch is, all of those notes are just a specific combination of C, E and G:
String 5, fret 3 = C
String 4, fret 2 = E
String 3, open = G
String 2, fret 1 = C
String 1, open = E
So you can see that our 5-note C chord is still just using the three notes of the triad, but in two octaves (low and high C and E, with only one G).
Now depending on the VOICING of your chord (the shape you choose, such as a barre chord C), your specific combination of C, E and G may be different, but that C chord will still only consist of those three letter names. Try out a barre shape and you’ll see what I mean.
Hope this sheds more light on it!
jb
Aaron
May 19th, 2012 @ 11:42 pm
I really enjoyed the course. but just did’nt get the ‘stacking thirds’ part. coz’ i thought the notes that make up the chord are the ones that you fret, but the notes are completly different. so could you please explain it again for me.
Jim Bowley
May 16th, 2012 @ 8:07 am
Agarwal,
Glad you’ve enjoyed the series! First thing I would do is go back and read those sections again slowly, since theory concepts take a little time to sink in.
To quickly summarize, the “Let’s Get Diatonic” section is simply telling you how the triads – the ones you built by “stacking thirds” – are NAMED. For example, the triad D-F-A is called “Dm”.
The “Primary Chords”section is showing how every key will have the same TYPES of chords at the same position in the scale (scale degrees) – major chords at 1, 4 and 5, minor chords at 2, 3 and 6, and a diminished chord at 7. Since all major scales are built from the same formula…and all chords are built from the scales via the same method…the chords that result will all be of the same TYPE (major, minor, diminished).
If you download the worksheet and fill in the answers, I think the concepts will become clear. I hope this helps!
Agarwal
May 16th, 2012 @ 4:07 am
Sir,
I really enjoyed going through your “only-theory-lesson-you-need”.Thanks.
But i am not able to understand anything in “only-theory-lesson-you-need-part-3” once i get to the “lets get diatonic” section and below.Please help me.Thanks.