Songwriting 101. Part 5: Diatonic Chords In A Major Key

C - Em - Dm - Am - G
my progression.

I already knew this stuff but it's a good lesson

Btw, you may want to change the video title, it says "A major key" while the video is about C major

Kole, could you make a video about the basics like you said at the begining of this... or at least point me in the right direction if there aren't enough responses?

there's a music theory lesson article
just type in music theory under lessons in the search bar

alright nice lesson

Ikary wrote: I already knew this stuff but it's a good lesson Btw, you may want to change the video title, it says "A major key" while the video is about C major

He isn't talking about the note A, he's talking about the word, a.

Wow Kole. That was pretty good man. I hope to see more.

Finally, a great lesson, Kole.

you should had put a lesson on intervals first, even just an introduction.. But still, it's a good lesson to start with composing.
Good job, Keep it up.

guitarist10 wrote: Ikary wrote: I already knew this stuff but it's a good lesson Btw, you may want to change the video title, it says "A major key" while the video is about C major He isn't talking about the note A, he's talking about the word, a.

Yep, just read the title again and you're right

liked it. Helped inspire me to take a second look at my chord chart thx

I'm impressed I gave you hard reviews and you stepped up and wrote on structure.

Now THAT'S a good lesson.

...but could you use different fonts please? Papyrus gets old.....

hahaha "a" major

Loving the lesson!

pretty cool. it reminded me of this. i had a freind who taught me this but diddent tell me the name of it. well, i got the baisic strucure at least. so now i know just that much more. thanx. im starting a binder full of music theory. i dont understand matrixes. if any body who reads this knows or if kole knows, quote this or email me at mattfinnell104@live.com

I have maintained for years that keys are merely methods of identifying conflicting notes and it is all about the RELATIONSHIP that note has to the scale.

Ikary wrote: Btw, you may want to change the video title, it says "A major key" while the video is about C major

"Diatonic Chords in a Major Key", hes just using C as an example.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for watching the video and I'm glad to see that the majority of you learned something and enjoyed it. Do feel free to ask me questions if you have any.

lauren1 wrote: Kole, could you make a video about the basics like you said at the begining of this... or at least point me in the right direction if there aren't enough responses?

I'm not sure if enough people would need a video on this, but I'd be happy to do one if there are. However, if you'd like to know more about the basics then I would recommend you visit ( www.thenextstepguitar.com ) and go to the lessons section. All the lessons are free and contain a lot of great info.

P.S. One of my fav. progressions: I - iv - iii - V or C - Am - Em - G

Best,

Kole

Oops... on the progression I meant I - vi - iii - V

very well done

wow when you said basics i guess you weren't kidding
but good job with it

not to sound like a dick. but this doesnt seem anything more than confusing. dont get me wrong. im not a beginner i felt you werent fluent with the directions. constructive critisism ?

1 they should know diminished it is your vii0 chord

for anyone that doesn't understand what the hell he is talking about it's because he didn't explain much to you

here i posted this in the mt forum but you need to know this to follow him if you have no previese expierience. and if you did you wouldn't be able to sit throught this video


you start wi the major scale

you make it by counting tones W= whole tone H= half tone

a whole tone is 2 frets

a half tone is 1 fret

the formula to make the major scale is :

WWHWWWH

we will use C maj for simplicity. the bold is the scale

C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B C
WWHWWWH

or
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
WWHWWWH

so the Cmaj scale is CDEFGABC

this is what is know as a diatonic scale. meaning there is 7 notes and each note must be a different letter. there are only 7 different letters but 19 notes in the cromatic scale

intervals

intervals represent a note. and define what is hapening to a note within a scale.

the intervals for the major scale are

CDEFGABC
1234567

when speaking in proper terms we would call these the following

C-1-perfect prime
D-2-major second
E-3-major third
F-4-perfect fourth
G-5-perfect fifth
A-6-major sixth
B-7-major seventh
C-8-perfect octave

and octave is the same note played 1 pitch(i think that is the right word) higher

sometime we augement (sharpen, #) or diminish (flatten, b or bb) various notes to make chords or fit the scale to a chord

C = perfect prime or diminshed second
C#/Db =augmented prime or minor second
D = major second or diminished third
D#/Eb = augmented second or minor third
E/Fb = major third or diminished fourth
E#/F = augmented third or perfect fourth
F#/Gb = augmented fourth or diminished fifth
G= perfect fifth or diminished sixth
G#/Ab = augmented fifth or minor sixth
A = major sixth or diminished seventh
A#/Bb = augmented sixth or minor seventh
B/Cb = major seventh or diminished octave
C = perfect octave or diminished ninth

these intervals continue over and over technically

you will notice the perfect intervals 1 4 5 8 are only flattened(b) once to become diminished where as the major intervals 2 3 6 7 are flattened(bb) twice to become diminished

there is a general rule that you do not double augment an interval. it is ok for a note such as F# to becaome aumented or sharpend to F## but we do not want it to be F###

general chords for a mojor progression are

Major(M) always capital when writing
minor(m) always lower case when writing
diminished(dim0) always lower and supposed to be followed by a degrese symbol but my comp can' do that


now for chords

this is how you form the simple triad chords we will be using staying wiht the key of C

Major intervals 1 3 5
minor intervals 1 b3 5
diminished 1 b3 b5

you must remember that when making a chord in the key of Cmajor only a C chord will use the C major scale. if you wanted Dmin for example you would need to forn the chord with the intervals listed above from the Dmaj scale, b3 giving it the minor tonality


to stay in key with Cmaj we must use the same notes as Cmaj in all our chords(for now cause we are just learning)

there is also a formula to stay in key in a major progression it is

Major minor minor Major Major minor diminished

so to stay in key we would use the chords

CMaj Dmin Emin Fmaj GMaj Amin Bdim0

so using these chords resolving back to Cmaj you would use the Cmaj scale

oh nice! i already knew about the progressive map, but you explained me why, nice job. The thing is i didnt understood why B is the ¨strage¨ chord.

whenever I play the B chord in the key of C major, I play it like this x2343x, I use that shape in other keys too, such as F# in the key of E minor, I also like taking the chord progression C D Em, in the key of Em, and adding in diminished chromatic passing chords, C, C#dim, D, D#dim, Em

cool Kole

Why couldnt you just say it was about cadences at the beginning?

I think the lesson was decent, but you need to play more!
The best way to make someone understand something is to SHOW them not TELL them, especially musically, you can explain each chord and show the progressions much more easily just through sound than with words...