Chords 2

We already have our first chord, we have built it based on which notes or frequencies sound better together.

We have built our chord (C4, E4, G4) based on a note C4 that we have considered our root note.

Since it is built from our base note, we will call it chord I, for being constructed from our first note of the scale.

How could we obtain the chords for the rest of the notes? As you already know, the important thing is the positions or intervals, rather than the specific notes, so we will repeat what we have done for our root note. Notice the intervals we have used to build the chord. Focus only on the white keys, because our Major scale only allows us to use white keys. We have selected one key yes and another no.

Now we will do the same with the second note.

We have done the same to make the chord with C4 sound good, selecting one white note and skipping another. We will call this chord Chord ii because it is based on the second note.

For the third note (Chord iii)...

The fourth note (Chord IV)...

The fifth (Chord V)...

And so with each of the 7 notes of the scale. For each of our 7 notes, we will have a chord. I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii

Why do we represent some numbers as uppercase Roman numerals and others in lowercase? Because the uppercase ones represent 'Major' chords and the lowercase ones represent 'minor' chords. What does this mean, and why is there a difference if we have said that the note doesn't matter, only the intervals? And the intervals are always the same... Because in reality, we haven't always taken the same intervals.

Let's do a quick review:

When dividing the frequencies of 2 equal notes, C4 and C5, into 12 parts, we obtained the 12 notes of the keyboard.

From these notes, we selected our note palette, called Major Scale.

And to create our chord, we chose from the scale notes that sounded best with the first note, skipping one note of the scale (white circle) each time.

Notice how, despite having skipped only 1 note from the Major Scale (one white circle), there are 3 notes between the first note of the chord (2 black and 1 white), and between the second and third notes of the chord, there are 2 notes (1 white from the scale and 1 black).

You can also see this on the piano, between C4 and E4 there are 3 keys (1 white and 2 black) and between E4 and G4 there are 2 (1 black and 1 white).

Now notice what happens when we start the chord from the second note; we have also skipped 1 note from the scale, a white note, but now we have first skipped 3 notes and then 4 notes (instead of 4 and 3 as before).

Chord I

Chord ii

The chords that have a distance of 4-3 are called Major, and those with 3-4 are called minor. And remember that when something has different intervals, it sounds different. Therefore, major and minor chords sound different.

Here you can easily listen to all the chords.

Can it be subtle, but do you notice how minors sound somewhat "sadder" than majors?

In the next lesson, we will see how to use chords in Strudel 👉>>