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Music Chords and Intervals · Acedra
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Music Chords and Intervals
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0:00
- Guys, normally I start these videos with a very chipper intro, but today it's time to get serious. If what's on this map is what I think it is, this video is going to be life-changing. Let's see what we got. (bells chiming) Love it. Today we're gonna talk about chords. I wanna make sure you really stay through the whole video, because in the beginning, we're gonna talk about how to find not just any chords, but the right chords. This is something I don't see anyone else on YouTube teaching.
0:31
The second thing we're gonna talk about is different chord types. If you're new to the channel, make sure to hit subscribe for more awesome piano videos like this. So, let's get into it.
0:42
A chord is basically three or more notes sounded at the same time. But before we can talk about chords, we have to talk about something called intervals. So an interval is basically a distance in music, and this is so easy, let me show you. If I start on a note, and I go to the next note, if I were to count that I would say, one, two, right? So the interval is called a second. If I were to count one, two, three, that would be called a third. If I counted one, two, three, four,
1:16
that would be called a, you guessed it, a fourth. Now, chords are based off of intervals in a way. So what we do for a chord is we take the starting note of our chord, which is called the root. In this case I am gonna make C the root of my chord. I'm gonna base my entire chord off of C. And then after we get the root, we get a third up from that, one, two, three, and then we get the fifth. One, two, three, four, five, the fifth note up. Okay, so root, second, third, fourth, fifth.
1:51
Root third fifth. And basically what that gives me is something called a triad. A triad is just three notes. So here it is, C triad, C major chord, it's all good. Now let's talk about major and minor chords. Well, you'll notice when I play this C chord, (piano note playing) in between the first two notes, I have one, two, three, four half steps. So let me show you that again. Here's our starting note, our root. One, two, three, four half steps. Then in between the top two notes, these two,
2:26
I have starting note, one, two, three half steps. So a major chord is laid out as four half steps on bottom, three half steps on top.
2:39
A minor chord on the other hand, is three half steps on bottom, watch this. One, two, three, and then,
2:47
one, two, three, four half steps on top. So the difference between major and minor is only one note. It's this third right here. In a major chord it's four half steps, or what's called a major third. In a minor chord, it's just three half steps, and that's called a minor third. Okay, here it is again, C major, C minor. And you'll notice the root and the fifth don't change. They both are gonna have the same root and the same fifth. It's just that third that's different.
3:22
And you could just think of a minor chord as a major chord but with a flat third. Let me show you what I mean. So here's a major chord. Again we have one, two, three, four half steps. And what I'm gonna do, remember a chord is just root, third, and fifth. I'm gonna take that third, and I'm going to flat it. I'm going to lower it. And all of a sudden, I've changed it from major to minor. (piano note playing) And we can do that with a different major chord. Let's say you've figured out E major.
3:54
(piano notes playing) So here we go, I've got one, two, three, four half steps. I'm gonna lower that third down, I'm gonna flat it, so that it's only one, two, three half steps. Now, all of a sudden, I've changed E major into E minor.
4:14
And of course you could go the other way, if you're starting on a minor chord, you can sharp that third to bring it back to a major chord. (piano notes playing) Now if you can just master your major and minor chords, you are going to be crushing it. So many songs just use major and minor chords. This is the bread and butter. This is the foundation of our modern music. Of course there is some extra stuff, like if you are doing jazz, you're gonna get into some crazy mind-bending chords.
4:42
But for the most part, major and minor is a huge majority of it. I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but I want you to take a second to drop a comment about what genre you most want to learn to play. Are you excited to do classical? Do you want to do pop? What about maybe rock, or EDM? Let me know what you most want to learn, because it helps me when I'm picking song examples and stuff like that. Okay, let's keep moving. Now let me blow your mind here, forget about major and minor
5:10
for a second. Let's talk about our scale, let's come at this from a scale standpoint. So the C scale, from the last video you'll remember, is all white keys.
5:21
So if I do a triad on the first note of that scale, (piano notes playing) that's gonna be C. And not only is it called the C chord, but in this case, since we're using a C scale, it's called the one chord. So, first note of the scale, one chord. Now, I could go to the second note of the scale, and make a two chord. Third note of the scale is a three chord. Four chord, five, six, seven, and you end back on C, and back on the one chord. So what we just did right there, this is so big,
5:55
is we've figured out all of our available chords in the key of C. So in other words, if your song is in the key of C, using a C scale, those seven chords are the right chords for your song. No more guesswork, that's the palette you have to work from. Here's what else is absolutely crazy. Did I have to figure out whether I was in major or minor, or diminished, or... No right? The scale automatically landed me on the right chords just, without me even trying.
6:29
So that comes back to the importance of knowing your scales. If you don't know them, check out my last video. But let's keep going here, let me show you another example. Let's say I'm using a G scale. (piano notes playing) And you'll remember that G scale has an F sharp, it's got a black key. Well, when we're making our chords, we've gotta remember that black key, that F sharp. So, I'm gonna go to, my G scale obviously starts on G,
6:58
and I'm gonna make my chord shape off of that. Okay, so it's root, third, fifth. Then I'm gonna go to the second note of the scale. Nothin' fancy. Third note of the scale, what you'll notice here is I would normally have an F, right? But in the key of G, do we have F? No, we've got F sharp, remember that black key, remember your scale.
7:23
Alright, let's go from the three chord to the four chord. Then the five chord, oh look, here would be another F again. So I just gotta remember to sharp it. And then, six chord, seven chord I would have F again. I'm just gonna remember to sharp it. And then, the one chord. So if I did that in fast motion, that would be one, two, three four five six seven one. And you'll notice, I never hit F, I always hit F sharp. (piano notes playing)
7:55
This is one of those moments in piano where understanding the concept is really easy. So we're just taking our scale again, and we're just going through with that same shape. But the hard part is actually applying it. The hard part is remembering your sharps, remembering your scale. Obviously, the more sharps you have to remember, the tougher this gets. Let's do like one more example of that, 'cause it's so powerful, and then we'll keep going and learn some other stuff with chords.
8:22
So stay with me here, let's try an F scale. (piano notes playing) And we remember our F scale has one flat, which is B flat, okay? (piano notes playing) So I'm never gonna play a B natural. I'm only gonna play B flat. So it's an F scale, therefore my first note is obviously, F. It's an F scale, I'm gonna start on F, and I'm gonna make my one chord, by using that root, third, fifth shape. Then, when I go up to my two chord, I would see I would have a B natural, so I gotta remember to flat it.
8:58
There we go.
9:00
I'm gonna keep going to three, and then four I don't have B, I have B flat. Five, six, seven I'm gonna flat that B, and, (piano notes playing) ending back on F. (piano notes playing) Obviously, easier said than done. And these chords actually have a name. They're called diatonic chords. Fancy word, but all it means is that they're the chords from your scale, they're the chords within your key. So let's take what we've learned about chord types, like major and minor, and what we've learned
9:34
about diatonic chords, and combine them. So here's what I mean. Let's say we're in the key of C again, just all white keys. And we learned that we can do that sort of thing, but let's take a second and figure out what's happening. Let's start with the one chord, starting on the first note of the scale, C. (piano note playing) Now if I count the half steps in between these notes, just like earlier, I'll figure out if it's major or minor. So here we go, starting note, one, two, three, four.
10:03
So this one chord was major. Four half steps means major. Let's go to the two chord. (piano notes playing) And I'm gonna count this one too. One two three.
10:16
This one only has three half steps, so that means the two chord is minor. Let's keep going to three. (piano note playing) I'm gonna count, here's my starting note. I'm gonna go one, two, three. Three chords minor. Four chord, one, two, three, four. So four half steps, this one's major. The five chord, let's count this one out. One two three four. So the five chord is major. The six chord, one, two, three. That one's minor. And the seven chord, I'll just tell you this is one we haven't gotten to.
10:51
This is called diminished. So we'll get to that in a second. That's one of our slightly more advanced chords. But I want to take a moment to reiterate that one, four, and five were major.
11:04
Two, three, and six were minor. Now here's the really cool thing. It works the exact same way no matter what key you're in. No matter what scale you're using, the one chord, the four chord, and the five chord are major. And the two chord, the three chord, and the six chord are minor. Let's look at one more example. We know from the scale video that our A scale is going to look like this. Now, the chords we're talking about, we know that each one
11:35
of these scale notes can also be turned into a chord. So the A chord would be the one, the B chord would be the two, C sharp would be the three and so on. And now we can also apply the major and the minor to that, so we know A is gonna be major, the two chord's gonna be B minor, the three chord's gonna be C sharp minor, and so on, and so on. And I want to stress, you could look at it from two different ways. You could go to the piano, and go through like we just did, just using your scale.
12:07
Or, you could really know about all the majors and minors, and map those like we just did. Either way, you end up with the same results. You end up with each note of your scale turning into a chord. So let me ask you this. If we're in the key of D, is the D chord gonna be major or minor? Well, that's the one chord, so it's gonna be major. Okay, how 'bout the B chord? Is that gonna be in major or minor? Well, since that's the sixth chord, that one's going to be minor, B minor in this key.
12:40
This is one of those things where you kinda get it when someone explains it to you, maybe. But you don't really see just how easy it is 'til you go to the piano and you start making chords out of these scales. And you see, oh man, the one is always major. The four and five, those are always major. Two, three, and six, those are always minor. And you notice that these patterns carry over no matter what scale you're in. So if you can master this in one key, it's really not
13:06
too much of a stretch to take it to a different scale. Okay, enough of the major and minor. Let's keep looking at some different types of chords. Now, I'm purposely gonna leave some of the more advanced ones out of this, like anything with four notes or more. Because if you're a beginner, and you're following along with this becoming a pianist journey, you are gonna have your hands full with major and minor. You need to really master those before you go on to anything else.
13:33
That said, there's a couple other chords that we can sort of get a little bit of a taste of. So, first one we'll talk about is that diminished chord from earlier. And what that means is we take a minor chord, and remember minors have root, flat third, and fifth, and then what we do is on top of that, we flat the fifth. So I'm gonna take this G, and flat, and then I end up with a diminished chord root, flat third, flat fifth.
14:04
Let me show you another example. If I'm starting on D major, I can see again I've got one, two, three, four half steps. So it's a nice major chord. I'm gonna go ahead and flat the third, (piano notes playing) and I'm gonna flat the fifth, and I end up with a D diminished.
14:25
So I went from D major, to D minor, to D diminished.
14:32
Something I forgot to mention are chord symbols. So all a chord symbol does is tells us the name of our chord. If we're reading it off a page, or telling someone else the chord, we want to know how to write it out. So, a major chord is just shown by the letter, so the name of the chord. A minor chord is shown by a little M next to it, and a diminished chord is shown by a little circle. Let's talk about a different type of chord called augmented chords.
15:02
Now, augmented chords are basically major chords (piano notes playing) with a sharp fifth. Okay, so I'm gonna take this fifth, and sharp it, (piano notes playing) and there is my C augmented chord. (piano notes playing) Let's do another example. I'm gonna take my F sharp major chord, and all I have to do to make it into an augmented chord is take the fifth and sharp it, I'm gonna raise it up a half step. So here's that sharp major. Here's augmented. (piano note playing)
15:35
Okay, last two chords I'm gonna show you, these are some of my absolute favorites. These are called suspended chords. And all that means is I'm gonna take the third, and suspend it, or move it, down to two. (piano notes playing) Okay, that's called a suspended second chord, or sus2. You can also take three, and move it, or suspend it up to four, and that's called a suspended four chord, or sus4.
16:07
And what's cool about these, is first of all, they're just gorgeous. (piano notes playing) But second of all, since they don't have a third, right? The third was either moved to the second or the fourth, so since they don't have a third, we can't actually tell if they're major or they're minor. They're completely ambiguous. So, I could be in a major key, (piano notes playing) and use a suspended chord, or you could be hearing that same suspended chord, (piano notes playing)
16:39
but it's still gonna work, even if I'm in a minor key. (piano notes playing) So these are really cool chords to play around with. Same thing for the sus4, beautiful in a major key. (piano notes playing) Also works in a minor key. (piano notes playing)
17:01
So play around with these, you've got a lot of different chord types to work on. Here's your action step for this video. I really hope last time you did all of your white key scales, because now what I want you to do is go through each of those scales and do your diatonic chords, like we talked about. (piano notes playing) And at the end of this video, I'll post a little reference guide of me doing exactly that, just going through every scale and playing those chords within that key.
17:31
It actually doesn't take that long once you know where you're going with it, but at home, you're really gonna want to work on this. So, genuinely, thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, be sure to subscribe to the channel. Like this video, drop a comment below, and share this with a friend to help them learn how to play, too. Until next time, this is Corey Lennox for Piano With Corey. Piano on. As promised, here's your reference guide
17:54
for all the diatonic chords for all the scales. Alright, here's C. And then we'll start with some flats, let's do it. One put on C, two put on D, three, four, five, six, seven.
18:09
End on one. We're only gonna do white key scales in this video because as a beginner, the black key scales can really throw you off, so let's just keep it simple, and keep going to the key of D. And the key of D has two sharps, F sharp and C sharp. So as I go through, I gotta remember that. (piano notes playing)
18:36
Okay, next up is the key of E, which has four sharps, and those sharps are F sharp, G sharp, C sharp, and D sharp. Okay, here we go. One, two, three chord, four,
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five six seven one.
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Key of F has one flat, B flat, so let's look at those. One two three four
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five six seven one.
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Key of G (piano notes playing) has one sharp, which is F sharp, so I'm just gonna remember that. (piano notes playing) Five six seven one.
19:19
Key of A, three sharps. C sharp, F sharp, and G sharp. (piano notes playing)
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And last one, key of B, this is kinda tough. This one has five sharps. So I'm gonna do it like this. One chord, two chord,
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three four five six
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seven, and one.
19:50
Okay, get to work and try these out today.
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