How to Sound More Like Your Guitar Heroes

How many CHORDS IN C MAJOR SCALE do you know? With out using the circle of fifths, you can determine those chords. Let Me Help You Out! But also lets say for a moment that you know these chords already. If that is you great! this with give you the why and how of these chords.

But for a moment let me put together a scenario for you. Lets say you stumble upon an opportunity to fill in with a show band who’s guitarist is out sick. Upon your arrival the music director or band leader greets you and tells you what tunes your playing and adds that they play them just a little different. No Problem right? Till this happens.

Then he hands you the sheet music of the arrangement they use. Then he tells you to be there tomorrow night about half an hour before curtain time. Then he rushes out before you can ask any further questions. Let me add to this, the entire band is gone also.

This happens more often than not!  So let me strip all the problems away from this and narrow it down to just one problem!  What Key is this tune or tunes played in?  Do you know by the sheet music where to find that information?  I’m going to show that to you as well but first.

Toes – Zac Brown & Jimmy Buffet

Why C Major Scale Chords Will Make You Question Everything

There are few chord combinations that are as essential or as commonly used as C, F, and G. Master these three and you will be able to play an infinite number of popular songs from the last 100 years or so, from John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane”  to Neil Young’s “Love is a Rose” and Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind”  to my favorite Zac Brown and Jimmy Buffet singing “Toes”

This is why most lessons teaching start with these three chords. What are chords? Several notes played together make up a chord. The C chord, for example, is made up of the notes C, E, and G, which is also called a Triad meaning a chord built using three notes.

This is also the first chord in the key of . (A key is a musical term for a set of chords whose root notes form the major scale). Further, a key’s chords will sound like they belong together when played in a chord progression.

The remaining six C Major Scale Guitar Chords are D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, and B diminished. All major scales contain seven notes and they all use the major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished chord formula. All of these chords are built by stacking thirds on top of each other.

Will Formulas Ever Rule The World

So to build the first chord, we start at “C”, stack a third (the third note “E”) and another third (G). That’s how we get the C major chord. C- E- G.

Next is the D chord. Again, starting at D, begin stacking thirds. So if the first note is “D”, the third note will be “F” and the fifth note will be “A”. Thus, D- F- A = D minor.

Going by the same formula, the E minor will have the notes E- G- B.

The F Major chord will be made up of the notes F- A- C.

The chord from the fifth degree of the C Major Scale is G Major. Its notes, G- B- D.

A minor is made up of A- C- E , and the B diminished consists of B- D- F.

Keeping It Simple

This is known and taught as the simplest key due to its lack of sharps or flats.  Also as a side note, a common way to number these chords is by using Roman numerals I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii (numerals that represent a major chord are usually upper case, while minor and diminished chords are normally lower case).

So in conclusion, the chords in C Major Scale are C- D- E- F- G- A- B.  : No sharps or flats, only natural notes. Scale Formula: 1- 2- 3- 4- 5- 6- 7 and Scale Intervals: W- W- H- W- W- W- H.

My Final Thoughts

As you can see some aspects of music really isn’t as hard as you might think.

A little knowledge will take you a long way. I do hope this helped in some small way.

What is the 2nd most popular key that pop music is written in today?

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Astala