Chords and Harmony

Why learn chords?

Musicians can be divided into two groups: those who read sheet music and those
who play using the chord method.
If youre a sheet music player, you may think that you dont need to know about chords.
However, I believe that understanding how chords are used in a composition will make
it much easier for you to read and understand the piece.
Even for classical music! Just like todays songwriters, composers of classical music used
chords to create their harmonies. Chords are the foundation of all our music.
Here is an example:

This is the first phrase of Largo in Eb major by Chopin.

Now Im not a particularly good sight-reader and this looks pretty intimidating to me.
But when I write down the chords, it instantly becomes a lot easier for me to read.
Because I know how to form chords, I can predict what the notes will be and what
shapes my hands need to assume.
Here is the same phrase with added chord symbols:

It may be a little hard to read in the picture, but the chords are: Eb, Bb7, G7/B, Cm,
G7, Ab, Fm, Eb/Bb, Bb7, Bb7/Eb, Eb.
I notated some chords as slash chords, for example G7/B. This is a G7 chord but with a
B tone in the bass.

Now its just a matter of playing the correct melody note in the right hand and the bass
note in the left hand, and filling in the rest with chord tones.
I dont really need to read each individual note: I can assume with a large likelihood of
success that most of them will be tones from the chord. And if they are not, then playing
a chord tone will still sound acceptable.
I do this on all my sheet music pieces now: first find the chords and write them above
the music. It makes the structure of the piece more understandable to me, and I learn it
quicker.
By making the chords visible, the dots on the page are no longer arbitrary and unrelated.

The different types of chords

Lets start by looking at chords. In future articles Ill go into greater depth: how to
construct chords, how to use them, and why you would want to use them even if
youre a classical player.
But for now, a quick overview.

What is a chord?
If youre wondering exactly what a chord is: You make a chord by playing 3 or more
tones together. Thats it, as simple as that.
But which tones? Well, that depends on what you want to use the chord for.
Not all chords are the same. There are roughly six different types of chords and each of
these types has its own function in the language of music.

The most important tone in the chord is called the root tone. This is the tone that the
chord gets its name from. For example, the C major chord is built on the root tone C
and is of the type major.
You can use each of the 12 unique tones on the piano as the root to build a chord on, but
in this article well just look at C.
Here are the different chord types:

The major chord

This is the C major chord:

Major chords are the most common chords in our music. The tones in this particular
major chord are: C (the root tone), E and G.

The minor chord

This is the C minor chord:

The minor chord has two tones in common with the major chord, but the middle tone is
different: an Eb instead of the E. Minor chords are often labeled as having a sad
sound.

The dominant-7 chord

This is the C dominant-7 chord:

Chords can have more than 3 tones. It is possible to extend major and minor chords
with additional tones, but most of these do not change the type of the chord: it stays
major or minor.

However, by adding a Bb to the C major chord we do change its character and thereby
its function. The resulting chord is called the dominant-7 chord (or just 7 chord).

The diminished chord

This is the C diminished chord:

It looks a little like the C minor chord but with a Gb instead of a G. You can make a
diminished chord by lowering the highest tone of a minor chord, or the top two tones of
a major chord.

The augmented chord

This is the C augmented chord:

Not only can you lower tones, you can also raise them. Here, we have raised the G to a
G# to form an augmented chord.
An augmented chord has the same function as a dominant-7 chord, and they can
substitute for each other. (Often they are combined into one chord.)

The suspended chord

This is the C suspended chord:

By taking a C major chord and playing an F instead of the E, the chord becomes
suspended. These types of chords create tension that is often resolved by playing a
major chord.
Try it: play the C suspended chord followed by C major. Can you hear how C major
relieves the tension created by the suspended chord?

An audio example
As you can see in the pictures above, what causes the differences between these chord
types are the distances between the tones that make up the chord. These distances are
called intervals and we look at those in detail here.
To illustrate these different chord types, I have made a recording that plays these chords
in the order they are listed in the article: first C major, then C minor, and so on. The
recording ends on a final C major chord.

How to construct chords

You dont need a 1000 Chords Dictionary to be able to read and play chords. You
can learn how to form chords on your own, because chords are built using simple
formulas.
A chord is three or more notes played at the same time. Its as simple as that. Of course,
the trick is to know which three notes
Obviously, not all combinations of notes sound good. Particular combinations each have
their own name: there are major chords, minor chords, dominant-7 chords,
diminished chords, and so on. See a demonstration of the different chord types
Of each chord type, there are 12 possible chords: one for each note. So there is a C major
chord, a C# major chord (which is the same as the Db major chord), a D major chord,
and so on. There is also a C minor chord, a C# minor chord you get the drift.
The note that names the chord is called the root note. So in the Cmaj7 chord, the root
note is C. The chord quality (or chord type) is maj7, which is short for major chord
with an added 7th.

Whats the difference between all these chord types? The way they sound, of course:
each type has its own unique sound. For example, major-7 chords such as the Cmaj7
have a warm sound, while dominant-7 chords like C7 sound very bluesy.

Chord formulas
To form a chord you simply apply a formula to the major scale named by the root tone.
This formula tells you which notes from the scale make up the chord. Each chord type
has its own formula.
So to build any type of chord, you need to know:

the major scale for the root tone of that chord, and

the formula for that chord.

I am assuming that you already can play the 12 major scales. If not, learn the major
scales first.
Lets put this knowledge into practice.
The formula for major chords is: 1 3 5
We know that the scale for C major is:

CDEFGABC
1 2 345 678
If we fill in the numbers from the formula, we get: C E G. These are the tones of the
C major chord. Make sense? Thats all there is to it.
Tip: When we say: The 3rd of the chord we mean the third tone from its major scale, E
in the previous example. (So we dont mean the 3rd note in the chord, but in the scale.)
A major scale only contains 7 unique tones but sometimes we count to 13! We call these
extended tones because they extend beyond the octave. The most common extended
tones are 9, 11 and 13.

Its important to realize that note 9 is the same as note 2, 11 is the same as 4, and 13
is the same as 6:

CD E F G A B
12 3 4 5 6 7
89

1 1 1 1 1
0 1 2 3 4

There are also formulas that contain the symbols b and #. The b stands for flatten or
lower by a half-step and # stands for sharpen or raise by a half-step.
For example, the formula for a minor chord is: 1 b3 5.
You know that 3 is the third note of the scale, so to get b3 we lower the third note by a
half-step.
Likewise, the formula for an augmented chord contains a #5: this is the fifth note raised
by a half-step. Any note can be raised or lowered but 3, 5, and 7 are the most common
ones.

The chart
Chord naming rules and chord symbols are not always very consistent. Often the same
chord can have multiple names. The chart lists the most common symbols.
Note that the numbers in the formulas always indicate positions in the major scale.
Major chords:

Chord
name

Chord symbol

Formula

Major

(nothing), maj, ma,

M,

135

Major 6

6, maj6, ma6

1356

Major 7 maj7, ma7, M7, 7,

1357

j7
Major 9

maj9, ma9, M9, 9,

j9

13579

Major 11

maj11, M11, 11,

1 3 5 7 9 11
j11

Major 13

maj13, M13, 13, 1 3 5 7 9 11

j13
13

Major add
9

add9, /9

1359

Major 6/9

6/9, 9/6

13569

Chord
name

Chord symbol

Formula

Minor

m, min, mi, -

1 b3 5

Minor 6

m6, min6

1 b3 5 6

Minor 7

m7, min7

1 b3 5 b7

Minor 9

m9, min9

1 b3 5 b7 9

Minor 11

m11, min11

1 b3 5 b7 9 11

Minor 13

m13, min13

1 b3 5 b7 9 11
13

Minor
major 7

m(maj7), mM7,
m7

1 b3 5 7

Minor
major 9

m(maj9), mM9,
m9

1 b3 5 7 9

Minor chords:

Minor add 9 m(add9), m/9

1 b3 5 9

Minor 6/9

m6/9, m9/6

1 b3 5 6 9

Chord
name

Chord
symbol

Formula

Dominant
7

1 3 5 b7

Dominant
9

1 3 5 b7 9

Dominant
11

11

1 3 5 b7 9 11

Dominant
13

13

1 3 5 b7 9 11
13

Dominant chords:

Diminished chords:

Chord name

Chord
symbol

Formula

Diminished

dim,

1 b3 b5

Diminished 7

dim7, 7

1 b3 b5 bb7
(bb7 = 6)

Half-diminished m7b5, m7(7)

5,

1 b3 b5 b7

Augmented chords:

Chord

Chord

Formula

name

symbol

Augmente
aug, +, +5 1 3 #5
d
Augmente aug7, 7#5, 1 3 #5
d7
7+5
b7
Suspended chords:

Chord
name

Chord
symbol

Formula

Suspended
sus, sus4
(4)

145

Suspended
7

7sus,
7sus4

145
b7

Suspended
2

sus2

125

Tip: If the chord symbol is some kind of complicated chord, like Cmaj13, and you dont
know how to play all the additional tones, then you can simplify the chord to its basics.
In this case, the basic chord is the major chord, so you can get away by playing only 1
3 5. It might not sound entirely as intended, but it will still sound good.

Altered chords
Occasionally, you may come across a weird-looking chord symbol such as G7b9 or
C7b9#5. The b9 and #5 indicate alterations to the chord.

Alterations change the color of the chord but do not change its character and purpose.
As always, b means to lower a tone by a half-step and # means to raise the tone a halfstep.
The chord G7b9 contains the tones of the G7 chord with an added 9th that is lowered a
half-step.
The tones of the G7 chord are: G B D F
The 9th from the major scale of G is A, but we still need to flatten it. (Remember that
the 9th is the same as the 2nd degree from the scale.)
The final chord is: G B D F Ab
The chord C7b9#5 also contains a lowered 9 (Db in this case) and its 5th has been
raised (to a G#).
That makes the tones for this chord: C E G# Bb Db
If the chord symbol is 7alt, then you are free to make your own alterations. Usually only
the 9th and the 5th are altered, but raising or lowering the 11th and 13th also happens.
Sometimes the alterations are put in parentheses: C7(b9). That is especially helpful on
chords that already have a b or # in their name: C#9 is a C# dominant-9 chord, not a C
chord with a raised 9!
Occasionally, the symbols - and + are used for b and #. For example: C7-5
Thats it! If youre already comfortable with building chords from scale degrees then
altered chords should not cause you any problems.

Simplifying chords

If you play from leadsheets or you downloaded a chord chart from the internet,
you may occasionally find chord symbols that you dont know yet how to play.
Heres the trick: the only thing that really matters about a chord is whether it is major or
minor. You can safely ignore anything else about the chord.
For example, you may encounter the chord symbols Am9 and D13.
The first one is an A minor chord with an added 7th and an added 9th.
The second one is a D dominant-7 chord with an added 13th but it could also have a
9th and 11th, depending on how you voice it.
If that didnt make any sense to you and you have no clue how to form these chords,
then keep what you know and throw away the rest.
In our example:
Am9 can be simplified to Am, which is A minor. Thats a very simple three-tone chord.
D13 can simply be played as D major. Again, a very simple chord.
When you play Am instead of Am9 and D major instead of D19, the tune probably wont
sound quite like its supposed to, but it wont sound bad either. You can get away with it!
The only important thing to get right is the distinction between major and minor. If you
mix those up, something will sound bad.
To recap:

A chord symbol that has an m or min (or sometimes a minus sign) can be

simplified to a minor chord.

Any other chords can be simplified to a major chord.

And if youre really not sure, you can simplify even further to a power chord.
(There are a few other chord types too, such as diminished and augmented, but well
ignore those for now. Just worry about major and minor.)

Diatonic chords
The key that a piece is written in does not just determine the possible melody
tones, but also the chords that can be used.
The diatonic chords are the ones most likely to make an appearance. These are the
chords that can be built on the tones of the keys scale. They do not borrow tones from
other scales.
Lets assume were playing in the key of C. That means were using the tones from the
C major scale.
The C major scale is: C D E F G A B C
We can build a three-note chord also called a triad on each of these tones.
This is the formula: We pick a root tone to start from, then skip one to find the second
chord tone, then skip another to find the last chord tone.
The first chord is C major: C E G
See what I did? I started on the first tone from the scale, C. Then I skipped a tone, D, to
land on E. Then I skipped another tone, F, to get to G. And I know that the combination
C-E-G is called the C major chord.
The second chord is D minor: D F A
This time I started on D, skipped E, found F, skipped G, found A. Very simple.
If we apply that formula to all tones in the scale, we find the following chords:

Chord

Tone
s

C major

CE

G
D minor

DF
A

E minor

EG
B

F major F A C
G major

GB
D

A minor

AC
E

B
BD
diminishe
F
d
Or viewed slightly differently:

CDEFGABCDEF
C
C E G
major
D
minor
E
minor
F
major
G
major
A
minor
B dim

D F A
E G B
F A C
G B D
A C E
B D F

Here it is in sheet music notation:

For any piece in the key of C, these are the most common chords. (Actually, B
diminished is much less common than the others.)
Not all of the chords have the same type: some are major, some are minor, and one is
diminished.
For any major scale, the order is always as follows:
1. major
2. minor
3. minor
4. major
5. major
6. minor
7. diminished

Try it for yourself on the scale of F major: F G A Bb C D E F

You should find the following chords:

Chord

Tone
s

F major

FAC

G minor

G Bb
D

A minor A C E
Bb major Bb D

F
C major C E G
D minor D F A
E
EG
diminishe
Bb
d
Minor keys
We can also build chords on the tones from a minor key. Lets take the key of A minor.
We will use the natural minor scale to build the chords, except for one.
The natural scale of A minor is: A B C D E F G A
These are the same tones as the scale of C major, although in a slightly different order.
That is because A minor is the relative minor of C major.
Because the two scales have the same tones, we can simply use the diatonic chords from
the key of C major, but we now begin at A instead of C:

Chord

Tone
s

A minor A C E
B
diminishe B D F
d
C major

CE
G

D minor D F A

E major

E G#
B

F major F A C
G major

GB
D

Pay attention to the 5th chord, E major. This is the exception. If we used the natural
minor scale as we did for the other chords, this chord would have been called E minor.
Instead, we use the harmonic minor scale, which has a G# note instead of G. The reason
is this: the 5-chord should have a strong, powerful sound, even in minor keys.
In sheet music notation the chords are:

Again, notice the G# on the E major chord.

Seventh chords
The chords we looked at so far were triads, chords with only 3 tones. We can add
another tone on top to make them seventh chords. Adding this 7th will refine the
character of the chords.
(We could add more tones too, to make 9th, 11th, or even 13th chords, but these
additional tones dont have as much impact on the character of the chord.)
Back to the key of C and the C major scale: C D E F G A B C
We made our chords by skipping tones. Skipping another tone and adding the next note
to our C major chord makes it a C major-7th or Cmaj7 for short: C E G B
The second chord then becomes Dm7 (D minor-7th): D F A C
Get the drift? Here are all the diatonic 7th chords:

Chord

Tone
s

Cmaj7

CEG
B

Dm7

DFA
C

Em7

EGB
F

Fmaj7

FAC
E

G7

GBD
F

Am7

ACE
G

B halfdim7

BDF
A

In sheet music:

Now what did I mean by refining the character of the chords? When we had just 3tone chords, F and G were both major. Now, however, F has become a major-7 chord but
G is a dominant-7 chord.
A major-7 chord and a dominant-7 chord have two very different functions in the
language of music.
The 5th chord in the key, in this case G7, is therefore usually played as a four-tone
chord, to make this distinction between major and dominant-7 clearer.

Like I said, the 5-chord is special.

Also, B diminished was refined to a B half-diminished-7 chord (and not a fully
diminished-7 chord). Note that Bm7b5 is another way of writing B half-dim7.
The order of diatonic seventh chords in a major key is always:
1. maj7
2. m7
3. m7
4. maj7
5. dominant-7 (or just 7)
6. m7
7. half-dim7 (or m7b5)

We can also add 7ths to the chords from a minor key:

Chord Tones
Am7

ACE
G

B halfdim7

BDF
A

Cmaj7

CEG
B

Dm7

DFA
C

E7

E G#
BF

Fmaj7

FAC
E

G7

GBD
F

Again, these are simply the chords from C major in a different order. With the exception
of the the 5-chord, E7, which has also become a dominant-7 chord here.

Roman numerals (and the number system)

We have seen that it is possible to build chords on the tones of the major or minor
scale (the diatonic chords).
Often, these chords are not referred to by their name, but by a number. And not a
regular number like 1 or 6, but with Roman numerals.
In case you forgot all about them, here are the Roman numerals 1 to 7:

12 3 4 5 6 7
I II III IV V VI VII
If we were to write the diatonic chords from the C major scale using Roman numerals, it
would look like this:

C Dm Em F G7 Am Bdim
I ii iii IV V7 vi vii
Notice the following:

Major chords (C and F) are written using capitals.

Minor chords (Dm, Em and Am) are in lower-case.

The dominant-7 chord (G7) is written as V7.

The diminished chord (Bdim) is written as vii

Occasionally, you may also see the following notation:

C Dm Em F G7 Am Bdim
I IIm IIIm IV V7 VIm VII

Why use these Roman numerals instead of the chord names? Because using the
numbers allows us to talk about chords and chord progressions independently of the
key.
For example, the chord progressions C F G7 C and F Bb C7 F can both be written as I
IV V7 I.
The first is in the key of C and the second in the key of F, but otherwise they are
identical:

Roman numerals: I ii iii IV V7 vi vii

Key of C:
C Dm Em F G7 Am Bdim
Key of F:
F Gm Am Bb C7 Dm Edim
One advantage of using numbers instead of chords is that it becomes easy to transcribe a
piece from one key to another.
Example. Here is the beginning of Misty in the key of C:
C

Gm

C7

Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

Suppose you want to play it in another key, say G. First, you replace the chord names
with Roman numerals:
I

Vm

I7

IV

Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

Then you look up the chords for the new key and fill them in:
G

Dm

G7

Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree

The principle works the same for the chords from a minor scale, although the symbols
are slightly different (because the chords have different qualities).
For example, the key of A minor:

Am Bdim C Dm E7 F G7
i ii III iv V7 VI VII7

It is also possible to use Roman numerals to describe chords that are not diatonic. In
other words, chords that are borrowed from other keys.
For example, the chord bIII is the 3rd chord (III), in major (uppercase letters), lowered
by a half-step (b). In the key of C, this would be the Eb major chord.
You may also see a sharp symbol combined with a Roman numeral: #IV in the key of C
is the F# major chord.
It is not uncommon to add a qualifier to the Roman numeral. Examples: IVmaj7, II7,
#IVdim7. To find the real chord, substitute the Roman numeral for the n-th chord
from the scale.
You may have heard of the Nashville Number System. This is the same principle,
although it works with plain-old numbers instead of Roman numerals. So instead of IIV-I youd see 2-5-1, but they both mean the same thing.

Solfege is yet another system, except that it doesnt use numbers, but syllables:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti
And finally, each of the diatonic chords can also be given a name that more-or-less
describes its function. Different chords have different functions in their key. Ill keep the
details for a future article, so Ill simply give you the list here:

1
Tonic
2
Supertonic
3
Mediant
4
Subdominant
5
Dominant
6
Submediant
7 Leading tone (or subtonic)
So now you know that when people talk about the I-chord or tonic, they mean the
first chord from the key.

Building chords from intervals

We have already seen how to build chords using major scale degrees. But we can
also build chords from intervals, by stacking minor third and major third intervals on
top of the root tone.
For example, lets look at a major chord, C major. It consists of the tones C E G.
The interval from C up to E is a major third (4 half-steps).
The interval from E up to G is a minor third (3 half-steps).
This interval formula, root + major third + minor third, applies to all major chords. The
other chord types have their own formulas:

Chord
name

Formula

Major

root + maj 3rd + min 3rd

Major 7

root + maj 3rd + min 3rd +

maj 3rd

Minor

root + min 3rd + maj 3rd

Minor 7

root + min 3rd + maj 3rd +

min 3rd

Minor major root + min 3rd + maj 3rd +

7
maj 3rd
Dominant 7

root + maj 3rd + min 3rd +

min 3rd

Diminished

root + min 3rd + min 3rd

Diminished 7

root + min 3rd + min 3rd +

min 3rd

Halfroot + min 3rd + min 3rd +

diminished
maj 3rd
Augmented

root + maj 3rd + maj 3rd

The table above only lists chords that are built using thirds. Of course, you can think of
all other types of chords in terms of intervals too.
For example, the interval formula for a suspended chord like Csus4 (C-F-G) is: root +
perfect fourth + major second. And a major 6 chord such as Cmaj6 (C-E-G-A) is: root +
maj 3rd + min 3rd + major 2nd.
And so on Figuring out the interval formulas for all the other possible chord types is
left as an exercise for the reader.
Alternatively, you can look at intervals this way: A major chord consists of the root, the
tone a major third up from the root, and the tone a perfect fifth up from the root. After
all, C up to G is a perfect fifth interval.
Personally, I dont often think about chords in terms of intervals, but I do believe that
learning this skill will add to your understanding of the language of music.

Inversions
Chords are made by playing three or more tones at once. Often we will play chords
in root position, which means that the lowest tone is the root tone of the chord.
For example, C major in root position is played as: C E G (from low to high)

Often it is useful to put the chord tones in a different order. Well go into the reasons
why later, but for now Ill show you how to play such inversions.
If there are three tones in the chord, as in the C major chord above, we can play it in
three different positions:
1. Root position (or fundamental position)
2. First inversion
3. Second inversion
In first inversion, you take the lowest tone and put it on top. Now the chord becomes:
E G C. In terms of major scale degrees, the chord is now: 3-5-1
In second inversion, you take the highest tone and put it at the bottom. Now the
chord is: G C E. In scale degrees, the chord is now: 5-1-3
(You can also make the second inversion by taking the first inversion and putting its
lowest tone on top again.)
The number of tones in a chord determines the number of ways the chord can be played.
So four-tone chords can be played four different ways.
For example, the Cmaj7 chord:
1. Root position: C-E-G-B (1-3-5-7)
2. First inversion: E-G-B-C (3-5-7-1)
3. Second inversion: G-B-C-E (5-7-1-3)
4. Third inversion: B-C-E-G (7-1-3-5)
Its as easy as that.
In popular music, inversions are usually notated as slash chords, which look like:
chord name/bass tone.
An example is Cmaj7/E. This means you should play the Cmaj7 chord but so that the E
tone is at the bottom. In other words: in first inversion.

The classical way is a little trickier; it uses intervals to notate the inversion. For triads
(three-tone chords):

Root position: just the chord name

First inversion: chord6 because the root is now a sixth interval above the bass
tone

Second inversion: chord64 the root is now a fourth above the bass tone and the
3rd of the chord is now a sixth above the bass tone

Confused yet? Here are the notations for seventh chords (i.e. chords with four tones):

Root position: chord7

First inversion: chord65

Second inversion: chord43

Third inversion: chord2

Notice that from top to bottom, the inversion numbers go from 7 to 2. Thats a handy
trick to remember this notation scheme.
Anyway, I prefer the slash chord method to notate inversions.
The main reasons for using inversions are: a) playing a smoother bass line, b)
voiceleading. But that is for a future article.

The power chord

The power chord is a simplified chord, used mostly by rock guitarists but it also
has a place on the piano.
Remember that a major chord consists of the first, third and fifth degrees of the major
scale. A minor chord is like a major chord but with the 3rd lowered a half-step.

A power chord, however, just has the 1 and 5 and omits the 3rd. Because we leave out
the 3rd in a power chord, it is neither major nor minor.
You can play a power chord whenever a major or minor chord is required. In fact,
because the 1 and 5 are present in every chord except for diminished and augmented
chords, you can substitute power chords almost everywhere.
The reason rock guitar players love power chords is that you only have to learn a single
handshape in order to play all possible power chords. Also, when you apply a lot of
distortion to the sound, power chords sound better than full chords.
Power chords are not very common in piano music. But they are useful if you want to
play chords way down low on the keyboard.
With those low tones, adding the 3rd makes the sound too muddy, so playing just 1-5
will sound better than 1-3-5.
The notation for a power chord, for example the C power chord, is C5. Less common is
something like C(omit3).