This week we are going to continue discussing the basics of chord construction, major and minor triads, using shapes to your advantage when playing and building chords. We're also going to harmonize through a major scale and use the resulting triad shapes to play through Keep Me From Blowing Away.
When you harmonize the chords as I show at the end of the lesson, as we did with the shapes for major and minor intervals, take note of the shape between the root (pinky) and the 5th (first finger). You'll notice it never changes except on the B diminished chord (the "weird one") because a diminished chord has a flatted 5th, so you'll have to drop the 5th down 1 fret there.
I hope this doesn't feel like a dull topic, because it really contains some powerful stuff! Enjoy playing with it and let me know if you have any questions!
Chris
Topics and/or subjects covered in this lesson:
standards
Chris Eldridge
Keep Me From Blowing Away
Linda Ronstadt
The Seldom Scene
Chord Theory
Print Chords & Tab
Loop 0:00 What You Will Learn
Loop 1:19 Chord Theory Part II
Loop 14:45 Harmonizing Up the Scale
Loop 15:25 Closing Thoughts
Loop 16:20 Keep Me From Blowing Away Using the Harmonized Scale
Comments
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Chris, I'm really getting a lot out of the theory discussion. Playing the music while understanding why it works makes the whole thing really enjoyable! Thanks!
Great! We'll do more of it in the future.
I knew about stacking thirds for major and minor triads as well as the role of major and minor triads in the harmonized scale, including the diminished seventh. However, after years of lessons and study, I had never encountered the simple rule for finding major and minor thirds on adjacent strings until this lesson. Thanks to Chris for illuminating that particular insight in this lesson, and shame on me for stumbling between fret and string while overlooking something that now seems so obvious. I especially appreciate the task assigned at the end of the lesson, which is to discover the triad sequence (rooted on the fifth string, I suppose) of the chord progression that forms the melody of the song. This exercise pulls together the details of the lesson well.