New answers tagged chords
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There are several useful substitutions for a chord that can be used to replace the cord or extend the chord. When you do this you are creating a new chord and one term that applies is poly chord. Although your post is NOT guitar specific I'd say one of the best sources of info on poly chords is Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene.
In short I'll list a few of the ...
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The general terms for whether two things -- notes or chords -- sound good together are "consonance" (good) and "dissonance" (bad).
Since at root this is a question of aesthetics, there's no rule. If you want to follow 19th century musical aesthetics, then any note (let alone chord) you add to one of those basic triads is dissonant, and ...
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The F chord comprises three notes - F A and C. It could even be argued that the C isn't necessary - although that would make it a 'two note chord' - which to a lot of folk isn't even a chord then.
Those three notes, then, when played simultaneously, make the triad known as F major. It matters not which octave any of the three notes are in, it's still F major....
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Yes. As long as you play (only) the pitches F, A, and C, it's an F chord regardless the order, spacing, doubling, or octaves of the notes.
If the notes are packed as closely together as possible, it's called "close position". If one or more are spaced apart, it's called "open position", which is what you're describing.
If the F is the ...
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A couple of things you should be aware of, first the Fsus4 shouldn’t be labeled as major since Fsus4 has no 3rd. Also, major chords don’t need to be labeled as maj, C and G is all you need.
I agree with Lawrence that this can’t be labeled as any key in particular, to me it mostly wanders around different tonalities every 2 bars, which is totally fine.
My ...
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With the given material, we can be pretty sure that it clearly is in C, and most certainly in C major. The fact that it begins in C minor is not that indicative of the overall mode, and there's plenty of music that begins with a different mode.
There are many clues for this assumption.
It's in C because:
it begins with a C chord;
it returns in C within the ...
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As you say, there's no one key that contains all those chords. But there's a lot of keys that it definitely ISN'T in :-)
There's some C major/C minor. Then some E♭ major (the relative major of C minor).
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The most common usage of half-diminished chords (min7b5) is as the ii chord in a minor key. In that regard, the parent scale of F#min7b5 is E minor, which, of course, is the relative minor to G major, where F#min7b5 is the vii chord.
A characteristic use of the half-diminished chord is within a ii-V-i chord progression. Here's a classic example: the ...
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I had to hunt down the definition, but I found some sources.
Secco means dry in Italian. In music the "dry" meaning of secco is without ornamentation. Non-arpeggio in plain English. Indicated by a bracket before chords similar to the wavy line for arpeggios, but with the opposite meaning.
I found definitions with general, recitative, and harp ...
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I remember that when I didn’t know anything about augmented 6th chords or tritone substitution and borrowed chords I was already playing and experimenting with this progression.
Now, beside the given answers I think it’s worth to recall that Ab7-G is borrowed from the parallel key C-minor, and reminds us also on the Andalusian cadence, which everybody has in ...
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Block chord is a term sometimes used in that sense, as opposed to arpeggio, or even "broken chord".
For reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_chord
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It is known as tritone substitution. It works because two notes out of the four are the same as two notes from the actual dominant of the next chord played.
Let's look at the notes: G (the target chord) has D7 as its dominant. D7 contains D F♯ A and C. Its tritone sub. which is A♭7 contains A♭ C E♭ and G♭.
It's always the 3rd and 7th that become 7th and 3rd. ...
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It's called "tritone substitution". The notes of Ab7 are Ab, C, Eb, Gb (or F#). This chord has two notes that are also present in the secondary dominant of G, ie D7 - C and F# - and Ab and D form a tritone (as do C and F#). Basically one can often replace a secondary dominant by the chord formed on its tritone.
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The Ab7 chord is considered an Ab augmented sixth chord, spelled [Ab C Eb F#]. The "standard" resolution of that chord would be to [G C E G] followed by G major, but it's acceptable in modern music (i.e., 20th century and later) to just go directly to G major.
The key concept behind augmented sixth chords is that the augmented sixth ([Ab-F#] in ...
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That mostly depends on the instrument and that instrument's performance practice.
I'll only answer for the instruments I know about, but that should explain how the question might have different answers depending on the target.
I will also - obviously - leave out anything related to monophonic instruments, for which specifically written explanation should be ...
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When playing, lift your wrist about 1-2 inches above the keys. Make your fingers arched, very arched. Make sure when you play you use strength from your arm and not your fingers as other answers have stated.
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A lot of these answers are only partially correct and some have incorrect information in them. I'll try to clarify.
It's important to understand that chord quality and construction is independent of scales. Yes, both are defined by intervals, but their construction is mutually exclusive.
A scale is a sequence of intervals. In western music, there are Major ...
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Your example piece is not absolute beginner material. It's hard for me to believe you really can't play basic chords like those and strike all the notes simultaneously. If you were asked to play a C major chord in isolation (not as chord within a performance piece) are you really unable to strike all the notes simultanteously?
Unless your teacher is being ...
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thankyou everyone. This has cleared it up. Of course, the accidentals carrying through in the same bar. I should be more awake.
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A capo changes the transposition of the instrument, and all notation should be written as if the capo is the nut. Note there is an accepted way to indicate that chord boxes are not at the nut. It’s with a Roman numeral indicating the fret number at the top of the chord box (not the lowest fret that is fingered).
The correct way to write a chord box for the C ...
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I think it's important to understand the structure of the major scale and the answer given by Son of Fire makes this explicit. You are not really given a formula for the chords in a key in my opinion, you are given the definition of a key, and a formula for building a chord. From these two kernels the rest follow. And since major and natural minor are ...
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The patterns derive from the three note triads built on each tone of the gamut of letters A B C D E F G. You call these the diatonic triads...
...notice that the pattern is really one pattern of seven chords where major and minor are just segments within that seven chord pattern.
The seven chord pattern can theoretically ascend or descend infinitely which ...
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One possible exercise is to practice playing the triads corresponding to a scale as you would a scale. So for A major, instead of playing A – B – C# – D – E – F# – G# – A, you can play the chords: A - Bm - C#m - D - E - F#m - G#dim
For minor scales you might want to invent a few variations of the exercise to cater for the flexibility in minor keys.
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I'm afraid your teacher is right. This is a problem common to all keyboard instruments and others as well (harp, guitar). It simply requires lots of practice and careful listening.
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Only a guess, as there's not a lot to go on.
It could be that you're trying to play with your fingers, as opposed to your hand. Yes, that sounds daft, but beginners sometimes think that a chord is like an extension of single notes together. Which it obviously is, but it won't be played as such.
Away from the piano, move your fingers from the knuckle joint. ...
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The book shows the major chord followed by the corresponding augmented chord, both in the same measure. Because they're in the same measure, the accidental associated with the major chord carries over to the augmented chord as well. So, for example:
X: 1
T: Augmented chord
K: none
M: none
"A"[A^ce]4 "A aug"[Ac^e]4|
Here is an image (in ...
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Fundamentally, chord symbols can only describe music that one is already familiar with. Try it with a piece of music you have never heard before...... it is not possible to extract anything remotely meaningful or consistent.
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Avoid triad-based harmony because, as you discovered, it sounds centred. Also avoid chords containing a tritone, e.g. C-F# as this creates a harmonic pull towards another chord.
Instead, play around with harmony based on descending fourths. This sounds much more ambiguous, so for any three-note or four-note chord you construct using fourths there are several ...
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All the answers offer good information but I like the one by wabisabied because it offers some logic behind the answer (even though I'd disagree with the actual statement it supports).
The fact is that every possible way to finger the chord serves a purpose. In choosing a fingering you need to satisfy a couple requirements: (1) does the fingering produce a ...
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"There is no one correct way."
But...
I like to fret open A with 213 because it prepares me for a quick transition to D without moving the index finger, and to E with just moving it back one fret. This is useful for playing in D and A.
My second favorite is to barre those notes with my index finger, leaving me open fingers to play boogie-woogie ...
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But I only know very basic music theory.
It may help to try to improve that.
I tried the perfect 5th, 4th, triads but they all impart an emotion on the sound which I don't want.
Perfect fifths and fourths create very specific sound that you may like or not. Concerning chords – perhaps your plugin simply generates other chords than the ones you need? This ...
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I think the two fingerings I use the most often are (D-G-B string order):
2-3-4
1-1-2, i.e. with short barree.
If I try to use three large fingers (1, 2 and 3), one of them ends up farther away from the fret which causes risk of fret buzz.
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The best way to play it with multiple fingers for ME is, as you describe, 2-1-3. Here’s why:
An A Major chord, in modern popular music, will most often be played as the I in the key of A, the IV in the key of E, or the V in the key of D. So this means it is most often moving to and from the Major chords D, E, G and B.
In any of these cases, 2-1-3 ...
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The concept of modal interchange (or "modal borrowing" or "mode mixture") is that you "borrow" a chord quality that is diatonic in the parallel key. If you're in, say, C major, you can borrow chords that are diatonic to C minor (and vice versa).
So to find opportunities to borrow diminished triads, let's first find where those ...
4
Single notes at a fixed interval don't sound good. I'm afraid you're mistaken in thinking that triads will sound any better.
What you may be looking for is harmony in thirds. Unfortunately they will need to be diatonic thirds (i.e. not consistently major or minor thirds) and they'll need to be sometimes below, sometimes above the melody note. And ...
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Unfortunately it's not as straightforward as that... :)
The question of whether a particular backing note sounds neutral varies case by case, depending on a variety of things such as whether the overall piece is in a major or minor key, what other harmonies are present before, during and after the backing note, and so forth. And we don't know your song...
...
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Are there any Neutral sounding harmonies?
No.
By the very definition of harmony they cannot be neutral. Harmonies occur when two or more sounds have frequencies with mathematical relationships which mean that reinforcement happens.
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There is no right way! There may be a right way for you, or me, but there is no universal right way!
Several reasons why one may be better can be found.
Using M A P will suit people whose fingers are fatter. Those three take up the least space.
Using M I A moves the I out of the way - as Justin says. It also facilitates moving directly to Amaj7, which can ...
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Different shapes/fingerings will often become more comfortable/natural with time.
Personally, I play it either as 1-1-1 (barre-like), 1-2-3, or 2-3-4. It kinda depends on what I'm playing whether I'll gravitate towards barre-like or the more "spelled-out" versions. Same thing with open D.
I find barre-like forms as the most effective ways to play ...
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I tend to organize this using modes.
A diatonic scale has good distribution across the octave and (in some sense, both in terms of spacing and with respect to the overtone series highlighting thirds and fifths) naturally supports the notion of choosing every other note (thirds) to build a diatonic chord. These notes are then placed in parallel to finish the ...
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With the help of all the above contributors and especially @piiperi I would like to answer my own question as a way to demonstrate newly learned knowledge that you have all taught me and hopefully make it easier for others trying to learn this as well.
As peri stated the process can be confusing to a newcomer counting intervals and then relating them to ...
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Trying to encapsulate an answer that's concise and short!
Triads are basically 'stacked thirds'. That is, notes 1,3,5, and 2,4,6, and 3,5,7 etc.It is a fact that each root is from a diatonic note in that key. Thus 1,3,5 in key C is CEG; 2,4,6 is DFA, 3,5,7 is EGB etc.Some of those 'thirds' intervals are major (M), others minor (m). One has both intervals ...
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You’re right Dave, the turnaround is:
F#m / D / |A D A / |
I haven’t researched other versions but this one is the vi, not the V.
I can clearly hear the F# in the bass and also the low note of the guitar. There are a few “variations” during the solo (I don’t want to say wrong notes/chords).
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For the purposes of this question, chords are most usefully defined as every other note from the root of the chord, with chords having their roots on each note of the corresponding scale.
Triads (3-note chords)
Given a major or minor scale, the chords, given by the scale degrees comprising each chord are
scale degrees
major scale example (C)
chord quality
...
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Let's look at diatonic notes starting from C. The white keys of the piano. These are the notes of the C major scale, and a similar geometry of intervals exists in all keys, it just starts from a different note and the white/black key distribution isn't so simple when you start elsewhere. The piano keyboard has been deliberately designed so that it is easy to ...
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The minor scale is just the major scale displaced by a 6th. It becomes clearer if we label the elements of the major scale below and then list the associated components of the minor scale.
Major scale = 1-Maj, 2-Min, 3-Min, 4-Maj, 5-Maj, 6-Min, 7-Dim
Minor scale = 6-Min, 7-Dim, 1-Maj, 2-Min, 3-Min, 4-Maj, 5-Maj
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As normal, you play the lower two strings open. You then play the Bb on the A string. On the E string though, you hold down the note G while lightly placing your 4th finger where C would be creating that false harmonic.
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How about: “chords that won’t make you a rich guitar player”???
All joking aside, I would and do call these jazz chords. I know they are not exclusive to jazz but then again cowboy chords are not exclusive to country music. The fact is jazz (in its all encompassing form, swing, big band, Dixieland, bop, etc.) is where these types of chords are used the most ...
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Howard Wright categorizes the shapes as "other moveable" chord shapes
http://hakwright.co.uk/guitarchords/index.html
http://hakwright.co.uk/guitarchords/explain.html#order
That's one of three categories:
(1) Barre shapes
(2) Other moveable shapes
(3) Open string shapes
Without listing all three categories I would call them non-barre moveable ...
answered Dec 29 '20 at 23:15
piiperi Reinstate Monica
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It is referred to as an open form chord and all 5 open chords, C, A, G, E, and D, form the "CAGED" system. So you can call this the G-shape, just as you referred to the bar chord as an E-shape. In fact you can move the open form G chord up to other positions by barring with your index finger and using fingers 3, 2, and 4 to get the other notes.
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