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Come on – a chords tutorial for Blues? For just three chords?

Yes. It’s more than just three chords. And chords can help you not only to play the rhythm but also to help you with your solo playing!

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Chord Basics (not guitar specific)

What’s a chord? Simply put, at least three notes played together. Wait – strictly speaking it should be three different notes played together. Two notes only give an interval called dyad or double stop when played on a guitar. The only exception is a power chord: root and fifth (sometimes also root and fourth) played together, not a real chord but usually accepted under this name by guitar players.

The basic chord where all others chords are derived from is the triad. As the name says, it consists of three (tri = 3) different notes. The first one is usually the root note. Then we have an interval to the second note and another interval to the third note. These intervals are usually of about the same size: they are made of major and minor thirds. These intervals determine the sound of a chord.

Now what’s a third? Why don’t we use a chromatic scale to avoid things like major and minor thirds? Why not just a third is three semitones, period? That’s because all these intervals are relative to the scale. And the most common scale in Western music (music of the “Western hemisphere”, not Country music) is the diatonic major scale, because it is based on mathematical relations between the frequencies (). So all interval names and therefore chord names are derived from this scale. Even if you play the Blues using a pentatonic scale.

To understand the chords better it’s useful to take a look at our band member’s instrument – the piano (or keyboard). Why? The keys are aalready build upon the C major scale: all white keys belong to it. So let’s take a look at it and name the intervals:

unison:  1

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