Introduction to chords – Lesson 11

There are three main types of chords:

Major chords (1 4 5)

Minor chords (2 3 6)

Diminished chords (7)

They are gotten from the 1, 4 and 5 degrees. They have three notes they are also called primary chords. This is the formula we use to derive our major chord

Root + major third + perfect fifth

Using the popular types of intervals we learnt ealier, we can break down this formula
(if you have forgotten about intervals and their interpretation using tones and semtones, click here to refresh your memory, because you would be needing it in interpreting the formulas that i would show you)

1 chord which is C            will give us C E G

4 chord which is F             will give us F A C

5 chord which is G            will give us G B D

Those are the three major chords that we have.

Minor Chords: The members of this chords are the 2, 3 and 6 chord.

The formula for deriving the minor chords is

Root + minor third + perfect fifth

Using this formula

We have:

2 chord which is D            will give us D F A

3 chord which is E             will give us E G B

6 chord which is A            will give us A C E

We have only one chord in this group, and that is the 7 chord.

The formula is

Root + minor third + diminished 5^th

7 chord which is B            will give us B D F

Play all the 12 major chords chromatically

Play all the 12 minor chords chromatically

Play all the 12 diminished chords chromatically

To get a minor chord, reduce the middle note of a major by a semitone

To get a diminished reduce the perfect fifth of a minor by a semitone