Question about the family chords

Chords are built in thirds - basically every other note of a scale. If you harmonize (make chords from) a major scale, you get this - for example, in the key of G:

Scale: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G
Chords:
G-B-D = G major
A-C-E = A minor
B-D-F# = B minor
C-E-G = C major
D-F#-A = D major
E-G-B = E minor
F#-A-C = F# diminished

So why :
G chord family is : G, Am, C, D
Why don't we take Bm, Em ....?

So why :
G chord family is : G, Am, C, D
Why don't we take Bm, Em ....?

But we DO.

When someone told you that the "G family" consists of G, Am, C & D, they missed out those other family members. Bm, Em & F# dim. There's one chord (triad) for every degree of the scale.

The "basic" idea is that you can harmonise any note on the scale using just three chords - those built on the 1st, 4th and 5th elements of the scale; so in G that would be the chords G, C and D.

Moving on from that, Em is only different to G by 1 note - G has the notes G, B and D, and Em has the notes E, G and B - so you can use it as an easy substitute. Taking that logic one step further, the notes in the chord of C are C, E and G - again, it's only different from Em by one note. Similarly C to Am and D to Bm.

So whilst fitting the basic chord grouping of G, C and D into a 4-bar line works quite nicely, it does sound a bit chunky, and as the difference between G and Em is only one note, and that from Em to C is also only one note, it's safe to use Em as a passing chord to produce a sequence on G, Em, C and D - which you'll hear in something like twenty million songs written over the last fifty years.

Am and Bm form part of your chord family for the key of G as Noteboat has shown, and I think Fretsource hit the nail on the head when he said you'd been sold duff information. Try using the other chords. Let us hear the results.

A :-)

This "family" concept seems to come from the 'Guitar for Dummies' book, but has been taken out of context. The author starts with basic open chords and then adds a couple as he moves to different keys.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-play-chords-in-the-a-family-on-the-guitar.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-play-chords-in-the-d-family-on-guitar.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-play-chords-in-the-g-family-on-guitar.html
etc.

So now we must wait for David's 'Idiots' book to see if idiots teach chords the same way as dummies! :lol:

Don't have to wait. I treat it in the guitar books the same way as I did in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bass Guitar, and the same way I have in the lessons here at Guitar Noise. This lesson in particular might be of help:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/the-power-of-three/

Your "family" is created by forming diatonic triads, just as Notebook has shown. But it's also important to understand that while knowing any chord "family" is a great place to start, you can run into almost any chord in any given key, whether they are family or not. After all, families are always entertaining guests. :wink:

Hope this helps.

Peace

Before you can build a solid understanding of how chords are grouped, it is necessary to understand the structure of scales.
http://www.greenwichguitars.com/understanding_scales.htm

Check out the link below to read an explanation of three part chordal harmony. This will explain why certain chords are grouped into particular families.
http://www.greenwichguitars.com/building_chords_in_three_part_harmony.htm

Here is a Key / Chord Reference. This page will tell you the name of every chord in every key. Click on the chord symbol to open a window displaying chord charts. You will also find links to chords of each basic key written out in tab and standard notation.
http://www.greenwichguitars.com/chord_and_key_reference.htm

I hope that these links will help.

Here are a couple of tables that some have found useful.

Here are the 13 different keys (one key, Gb/F# appears twice), their relative (natural) minors and the notes they have.
Major Relative Key I ii iii IV V vi vii°
Key Minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
----------------------------------------------------------------
C major A minor C D E F G A B
G major E minor # G A B C D E F#
D major B minor ## D E F# G A B C#
A major F# minor ### A B C# D E F# G#
E major C# minor #### E F# G# A B C# D#
B major G# minor ##### B C# D# E F# G# A#
F# major D# minor ###### F# G# A# B C# D# E#
F major D minor b F G A Bb C D E
Bb major G minor bb Bb C D Eb F G A
Eb major C minor bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Ab major F minor bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Db major Bb minor bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Gb major Eb minor bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F
----------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a table of how you build the basic triad chords from the notes in a scale:
Notes by scale degree Notes by name (in C)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 C D E F G A B C Chord no. Chord name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 3 5 C E G I C major
2 4 6 D F A ii D minor
3 5 7 E G B iii E minor
4 6 8 F A C IV F major
5 7 9 G B D V G major
6 8 10 A C E vi A minor
7 9 11 B D F vii° B diminished

And here's the same table, but with four note chords (sevenths):
Notes by scale degree Notes by name (in C)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 C D E F G A B C Chord no. Chord name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 3 5 7 C E G B Imaj7 Cmaj7
2 4 6 8 D F A C iim7 Dm7
3 5 7 9 E G B D iiim7 Em7
4 6 8 10 F A C E IVmaj7 Fmaj7
5 7 9 11 G B D F V7 G7
6 8 10 12 A C E G vim7 Am7
7 9 11 13 B D F A viim7b5 Bm7b5

what is the pricnple or rule ( why we chose this chords ) that chose the family chords?
Example the A chord family is : A, D, E
D chord family is : D, Em, G, A
G chord family is : G, Am, C, D
C chord family is : C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am

That's not all of them. At least not in a diatonic sense. What you have here is:

In A You have a I IV V
In D You show a I ii IV V
In G you show a I ii IV V
and in C you have a I ii IV V

Each of these keys have other chords that come from these major scales as well.

What you should understand, is that every note in the major scale, can be used to form its own specific chord type (i.e Major, Minor, Diminished", in a specific pattern. These chords, taken together, form a sort of "family". At least from a starting out point, this is the basis of diatonic harmony, where every chord built from a given scale is made of notes that all cone from that scale.

Best,

Sean