Is there a resource that groups chords that commonly sound good together?
I'm pretty new to guitar, but I like experimenting with my chordbook and finding chords that sound good with one another. I'm curious if there is an online effort at all that I could check out.
For example, Am, C, and G sound really nice and I can hop between them and it seems to flow.
Curious what other "groups" there are that I can play with. And is there a technical term for chords that seem to fit nicely together?
Posted Jul 11, 2010, 3:47 AM UTC
3130
Chords within a particular key generally sound good together. I will explain this for a major key, but other keys follow similarly.
A major key is created by starting with all of our notes. A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# ... etc. The (pitch) distance between each of these is called a half-step (or a semitone), and they loop around in either direction. Note that there are no sharps between B and C; and E and F (these notes are a half-step apart). The cool thing about guitar is that each fret is actually a semitone/half-step! So if you start with the open bottom string E, and place your finger on the 1st fret you are then playing an F!
Now that we have our notes, we follow a pattern of whole (W) and half (H) steps, each half step being a fret on your guitar, and a whole step consisting of two half steps. This pattern is WWHWWWH. Starting on the note C and following this pattern will give you the following notes for the key of C major:
C - whole step (2 frets) - D - whole step (2 frets) - E - half step (1 fret) - F - ...
or (the ones in bold)
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
So we end up with the following notes in the key of C major : CDEFGABC, and we dismiss the notes C#, D#, and all of the other ones we skipped over.
Based on this collection of notes, you can build chords, by considering them as a sequence, and taking the 1st, 3d and 5th note. For example, we can start on the C, and get:
1st : C 3d : E 5th : G. (see how this is the 1, 3 and 5 of CDEFGAB?) Which is the Cmaj chord. Also, since C is the first note of the key of C major we call this the I (roman numeral 1) chord for the key of C major.
We can also do this starting on other notes in the key. For example, starting on the A (and looping around to C when we get to the end), we get:
1st : A 3d : C 5th : E. (CDEFGAB)Which is an A minor chord (an Amaj would have a C#), and since A is the 6th note in the key of C major, we call this the vi (roman numeral 6) chord for that key. We also make the roman numeral lower case because this happens to be a minor chord.
You can do the same thing starting with G, and see that a G major chord is the V (major roman numeral 5) chord of the key of C.
Building a chord in a similar way for each tone, you will discover that this process will give you the same sequence of major, minor, and diminished chords for every major key:
I ii iii IV V vi viidim I
In other words, the chord built on the first note will be major, the one built on the second will be minor, etc.
So Am, C and G are the vi, I and V chords of the key of C major. Some other chords that you might try in your progressions in this key would be d min(ii), e min(iii), F Maj(IV) and b dim(vii-dim).
Of course, if you try playing them randomly you might find that your results are not as pleasant sounding... there is a further, very vast, science to constructing pleasant sounding chord progressions... but I think that would be too much for one post. Simply try different sequences, like I IV V I, or ii V I, or I I I I - IV IV I I - V IV I V... and make up your own through experimentation! Also try finding the chords of other keys. G major is pretty easy to start with, and then you'll get the idea.
edit: hopefully a bit more explanation in the beginning made this more clear.
^ tl;dr: If you learn some of the basics of music theory, like how certain notes relate to each other in a given key, you can find the trick you're looking for.
I really appreciate you writing all of this, and I will save it for reading later... but right now, it seems like you're giving me too much credit and/or assuming I know more than I do. I understand bits of what you're saying, but then it just turns into gibberish for me =.
Basically, there's a formula for figuring out which chords sound good together. It's quite daunting to be introduced to it but it's worthwhile to learn because it takes all the guesswork out of the equation.
What is the best way to dip my toe into it so it doesn't look like another language? Any recommended sites/book?
Another good way to grasp this stuff is the 1-4-5 thing.. but look at it this way (and we're talking bar chords here):
If you have a major chord whose root note (the note the chord is named for) is on the low E string, then two other major chords will go well with it and they are on the A string at the same fret and at two frets higher. The minor chords that go with it fall in the same shape and are three frets lower.
If you have a major chord whose root note is on the A string, then the two major chords that will go with it are at the same fret on the low E string and two frets lower on the low E string. There are 3 minor chords that go along that fall into the same shape and they are three frets lower.
The exact same thing goes for starting with a minor chord except the majors that go along are three frets higher.
That's about as simple as it gets for putting chords together based on the usual classical scales. If you can play major and minor bar chords on the low E and A strings, this will get you a loooong way.
Great post from virtuos_d. What might help you understand... is to look at a scale. In A major this will be
A B C# D E F# G# A
Virtuos then recommends grouping the chords based on the first, forth and fifth notes. So A, D and E will all sounds good together. This is the basis of 12 bar blues - the chords based on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale. Once you've had a play with that, add in the chord based on the third note in the scale (in this case C#), however due to technicals we will come to later, the third is played as a minor chord. So you are now playing with A, D, E and C# minor.
This works the same for any scale. C, F and G will sound good together in the key of C (check a C major scale, and you'll see that C, F, G are the 1st, fourth and fifth notes). Throw in the minor third (e minor), and to become a real pro, a minor 6 (a minor).
Hope that clears it up, rather than confuses more ?
Well you mentioned Am G and C. The root notes of these chords are at the 3rd fret on the E string (the G) and the 3rd fret on the A string (the C) and the 5th fret on the E string. Due to all the things mentioned in the above explanation, we can slide this grouping of chords up and down the neck and find other chords that fit together. For example, push it up 2 frets and you've got yourself A, D, and Bm. Those will sound good together too.
You original 3 chords sound good together because they are chords in the G major scale. G is the 1 chord, Am is the 2 chord and C is the 4 chord. You'll also find D to be quite pleasing with this group, seeing as it is the 5 chord. Likewise, Em (6) and Bm (3), will sound good as well. The only one left, the 7 chord at F#, fits as well, but it is a diminished chord and just sounds pretty weird.
Sorry - I kind of skipped over introducing notes, so I can see how after that first bit things got really confusing really fast.
This stuff is really just something that someone needs to explain to you once, and then you'll get it. If you have any specific questions to the above I'd be happy to explain.
Commenting to save for when I'm home with my guitar, great post, thanks.
Gracias
I'm also commenting to save this for future reference.
Great post