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Here's something I wish I'd realized when I first started playing. If you know the right set of chords you can play them in basically any order and they'll soun

by Tycho 9y ago

Here's something I wish I'd realized when I first started playing. If you know the right set of chords you can play them in basically any order and they'll sound nice. If you take scale like C major, there's a chord that goes with every note of the scale. On a piano this would be mean playing three note chords on the white keys only, all the way up. So for the key of C that gives you C_major D_minor E_minor F_major G_major A_minor B_diminished C_major Now here is the cool part: you can play those chords in virtually any order and they are going to sound good (although probably better to skip the B diminished chord, and also helps to start or end on C). It also works in the relative minor key, in this case A minor (still just white keys on the piano, essentially): A_minor B_diminished C_major D_minor E_minor F_major G_major A_minor Those chords are all easy to play on a guitar. It would also be easy to do this in the key of G major (E minor) on the guitar. They key doesn't actually matter, but those are easy for beginners. You can just number the chords 1 to 7, then pick any sequence of numbers, eg. 145623, or 4545261, and play it, and it will sound good, and you can make up a melody or a finger-picking pattern to go with it. For some sequences you might need to get a bit creative and vary the timing (eg. some chords will work better if you move through them faster than average, some you can linger on for longer than average), but you could make lots of good music from that alone.

mrkgnao 9y ago
> C_major D_minor E_minor F_major G_major A_minor B_diminished C_major A good way to see where this comes from is to note that the major scale with C as the tonic ("root") note is C D E F G A B (the white keys on a piano), and starting at any note in the sequence and taking every other note (for a total of three) gives you three-note chords called "triads": C = C E G (skip D, take E, skip F, take G) Dm = D F A Em = E G B F = F A C G = G B D Am = A C E Bdim = B D F The intervals between successive notes are (major or minor) thirds, hence these chords are constructed by ascending (moving up the scale) in thirds. The Wikipedia page does a good job of explaining how you can construct chords like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(music) You can take four notes at a time instead of three to get seventh chords. I've been playing for quite some time, and have also known bits and pieces of theory for about the same amount of time, but I've never really applied the latter to my playing until recently. I'm getting into playing Bach and so on and find that I'd really like to understand, e.g. Roman numeral analyses, and being fluent in basic theory and how it "looks" on your instrument is key to this.
beat 9y ago
People looking at this should also look at the Circle of Fifths (google away). It shows intervallic relationships between notes and chords, from the most consonant to the most dissonant. Most folk and rock music is built on the Circle of Fifths. For example, for a G, the adjacent notes on the circle are C and D. If you're playing in the key of G, you will probably have C and D chords as well. Millions of songs consist of just G, C, and D. Likewise, A/D/E, C/F/G, etc. So the basic 15 "cowboy chords" are enough to play countless songs in several different keys. More importantly, once you get the sound of Circle of Fifths changes, you'll find that you can easily play most songs entirely by ear, in any key!
lambdas 9y ago
Tycho as in the Scott Hansen Tycho? If it is then I would like to say four years ago I listened to your music in a depressed slump, a week later I picked up the guitar and never looked back. Either which way, that's some good advice and as a beginner it's hard to realise these things if you're self learning. Scales can feel like a practice routine rather than a palette.
- Tycho 9y ago
  Not Scott Hansen Tycho, although I'll need to check out his music now that you mention it. Theory can be very dry and confusing and frankly off-putting, but the above I think is something anyone can absorb and then start using. If you play chords from that set you can sing and make up a tune with the comfort that any of those chords is going to be a good option to play next, so it's very liberating and you can quickly try different things.

by Tycho 9y ago

mrkgnao 9y ago

> C_major D_minor E_minor F_major G_major A_minor B_diminished C_major A good way to see where this comes from is to note that the major scale with C as the tonic ("root") note is C D E F G A B (the white keys on a piano), and starting at any note in the sequence and taking every other note (for a total of three) gives you three-note chords called "triads": C = C E G (skip D, take E, skip F, take G) Dm = D F A Em = E G B F = F A C G = G B D Am = A C E Bdim = B D F The intervals between successive notes are (major or minor) thirds, hence these chords are constructed by ascending (moving up the scale) in thirds. The Wikipedia page does a good job of explaining how you can construct chords like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(music) You can take four notes at a time instead of three to get seventh chords. I've been playing for quite some time, and have also known bits and pieces of theory for about the same amount of time, but I've never really applied the latter to my playing until recently. I'm getting into playing Bach and so on and find that I'd really like to understand, e.g. Roman numeral analyses, and being fluent in basic theory and how it "looks" on your instrument is key to this.

beat 9y ago

People looking at this should also look at the Circle of Fifths (google away). It shows intervallic relationships between notes and chords, from the most consonant to the most dissonant. Most folk and rock music is built on the Circle of Fifths. For example, for a G, the adjacent notes on the circle are C and D. If you're playing in the key of G, you will probably have C and D chords as well. Millions of songs consist of just G, C, and D. Likewise, A/D/E, C/F/G, etc. So the basic 15 "cowboy chords" are enough to play countless songs in several different keys. More importantly, once you get the sound of Circle of Fifths changes, you'll find that you can easily play most songs entirely by ear, in any key!

lambdas 9y ago

Tycho as in the Scott Hansen Tycho? If it is then I would like to say four years ago I listened to your music in a depressed slump, a week later I picked up the guitar and never looked back. Either which way, that's some good advice and as a beginner it's hard to realise these things if you're self learning. Scales can feel like a practice routine rather than a palette.

Tycho 9y ago
Not Scott Hansen Tycho, although I'll need to check out his music now that you mention it. Theory can be very dry and confusing and frankly off-putting, but the above I think is something anyone can absorb and then start using. If you play chords from that set you can sing and make up a tune with the comfort that any of those chords is going to be a good option to play next, so it's very liberating and you can quickly try different things.