Learn EVERY Chord and Chord Symbol - The 7 Systems

Alright, welcome to this video where you will

learn

how to play

every

chord

and how to read

every

chord

symbol

that you will see in music, first

learn

ing seven

systems

of thought, what chords are, they are the harmonic basis of most Western music. They help create the overall mood and emotional impact of a piece, more specifically, there is a structured collection of notes that are used in music to convey harmony, for example, in a song there is usually a singer singing the melody and the rest of the band playing the notes that make it up. harmony by playing chords professional musicians use this knowledge to read a special type of music called lead sheet music lead sheet music gives you the melody and harmony chords these

symbol

s represent different chords then you can read the melody line and add the harmony below the melody playing foreign chord notes also helps you read normal sheet music faster.

The popular music you buy at a music store usually includes the regular sheet music with the notes for the right and left hand, as well as the main sheet music on top with the melody and chords, being able to read the chords will help you understand how the composer wrote the sheet music, which will help you read it faster. Additionally, with this video I created the Chord Formulas Manual, a quick reference guide to help you become an absolute master at playing and reading each chord in the chord symbol, as well as taking your first steps in playing the piano with style. of chords, click here to download the free manual or click the link in the video description below, all good for the super beginners we're going to start with. the concept of notes and build from there, if you already understand this concept, feel free to skip to this timestamp.

Okay, first the concept of notes on the keyboard. Notice that we have a pattern of two and three quarter notes, so two three two three two. three on the entire keyboard, up and down, around those five black notes, there are seven white notes, so in total we have 12 unique notes and these 12 notes are repeated up and down on the keyboard, let's learn these notes, so that the seven white notes are each a letter. of the alphabet, so the first note here before the two quarter notes is the letter c and if we go up the keyboard to the right, we go up consecutive letters, after C there is D, then e, around these two quarter notes we have c d e and then from that we go to F right in front of the three quarter notes, then G and then right on G, back to a and then B and then look, we go back to C right before the two quarter notes, then c d e f g a b and then, back to C, now quarter notes note that each quarter note is between two white nodes, so the quarter note here is between a c and a d, so this quarter note can be called a c sharp or a d flat. each quarter note has two names, flat means below sharp means above, so this note is below D, so it is called D flat, this note is also above C, so it is called C sharp and these are the flat and sharp signs, so now you know, the notes that the next concept you want to learn are called intervals intervals are two notes or the distance between two notes if I have two cents here I can have a close distance or a very close distance. wide The same thing on the keyboard could have an interval with a very narrow distance or a very wide distance the distance of the interval is measured in the number of keys, so from one key to the next it is called the minor second interval.

Now the white and black keys look different, but they are all the same. Each count is a key, so from here to here is also a minor second distance which is a minor second interval, so from here to here is also a minor second this distance from one key to the next these are distances of minor second minor second intervals and they are also called semitones the next and the amplitude that we have after a minor second is a major second interval, this is also called full step distance notice with a major second, we have a key between our two notes, so this is also a major second because it has a key inside our minor second and the major second intervals we have what is called minor third which has two keys inside and major third which has three keys inside of the following distances, the following intervals have unique names, so we have a perfect fourth, a tritone and a perfect fifth, after that it goes back to that minor major pattern. so we have a minor 6th interval, then a major 6th interval, then a minor 7th interval, then a major 7th interval and finally we have an octave, this is from C to C, so when you go from a single note to The next single note is an octave.

Well, this is one to one, this is also an octave. Now you know the notes that are singular intervals that include two notes. Now we finally get to chords which are three or more notes. There are two

systems

for constructing all of our standard basic chords. The first system we are going to learn is the spatial system, looking at how the chord notes are spaced by intervals. First we have major and minor chords. A major chord is a major third interval like this, so we have three keys plus a minor. third interval, see how we have two keys inside, so we have three plus two, which creates a major chord and since we have C at the bottom, it's a C major chord, a minor chord is the other way around, so has a minor third that has two keys. in and a major third that has three keys in it, okay now let's play an A major chord, so first we find one then we need a major third, we have three in, then we need a minor third, so we have two in, so now we have a major chord if you want to turn it into an A minor chord, all we have to do is lower the middle note, so now we've changed that middle note, so now we have two here and three here.

A minor third plus a major third. and if we turn it up again now we have three again here and two here, so our major chord is a major third plus a minor third and if we have a major third plus a major third, this is called an augmented chord, so two major thirds intervals are one augmented chord two minor third intervals called diminished chord these four types of augmented and diminished major minor chords are called triads try means three so these are three note chords now let's learn the chord symbols for triad chords here they are all chord symbols For these chords, you'll notice here that there are several ways to write a chord.

This is because chord symbols have evolved over time and a standard way of writing symbols has never been established. If you see just the letter like this, that always means it's a major chord, so if you see a c, it's a C major chord, if the letter is followed by an m, a capital m is major and a lowercase m is minor. , you will also see the name of the chord shortened like this and you will see these symbols a. triangle means major a minus sign means minor a plus sign means increased and a small circle means decreased and don't worry if you forget all these symbols within the free chord formula manual.

I have organized a complete list of chord symbols for you that you can reference. Any time is fine, now that you've learned three note chords, let's learn four note chords. Four note chords are chords with three notes plus an extra note. Now the first four note chord you need to learn is our major seventh chord. We can say that the C Major Seventh chord is a C Major Triad with a Major Seventh interval, so we are playing the C Major Triad and adding the note one Major Seventh interval above C. Remember all our distances interval to calculate the note that is in a major seventh interval above. the C you don't have to count up, you don't have to do it instead, you can count backwards, so we have an octave two C and the major seventh interval is just one key away from this upper C, so octave Seventh major and if we go one more, we get to our minor seventh, so our C major seventh chord is our C major triad with a major seventh.

Now this brings us to our next chord, which is our C dominant seventh chord and that's a C. Major triad with a minor seventh interval, so octave major seventh minor seventh okay, here's a summary of what we've learned so far: we have our four diminished and augmented major minor triads, each with a different combination of major thirds and minor uppercase m means major. Lowercase m means minor. We also take that major triad, that major chord, and add a major seventh interval to get a major seventh chord and a minor seventh interval to get a dominant seventh chord.

Now we can do the same with the A minor chord. A chord with a major seventh interval is called a minor major seventh chord. The name describes it well. It is a minor chord with a major seventh. A major minor seventh chord. A minor chord with a minor seventh interval is called a minor seventh chord, so it is not a minor. seventh chord you can just say a minor seventh chord with the diminished triad we can add a minor seventh to get what's called a half diminished seventh chord to get a full diminished seventh chord we just call a diminished seventh chord we play our chord half diminished seventh and then we lower that top key Note One More, so you could say this is a C diminished triad with a major sixth interval.

The best way to look at it is three minor thirds because remember our diminished chord is made up of two minor thirds one two one two now we're just adding another one on top of it one two so a diminished seventh chord is three minor third intervals. Lastly, an augmented chord with a minor seventh interval is called an augmented seventh chord, so these are our seventh chords. Now let's learn the chord symbols. for 7th chords, since our 7th chords are primarily a triad plus a minor or major 7th interval, the 7th chord symbols are our triad symbols plus a minor or major 7th interval symbol, e.g. here's a C minor triad, a C with a lowercase m, a minor seventh chord in C adds a minor seventh interval, so we add a seven, just a seven just means a minor seventh interval.

The C minor major seventh chord has a major seventh interval, so we write major seven in parentheses. Uppercase m means major, so we have our tested symbols and our seventh interval. symbols, so here are all of our triad symbols again to our C minor triad symbols, we can add sevens to create C minor seventh chords again, the seven just means a minor seventh interval and also add the different symbols to the major seven in parentheses to create the major seventh of C minor. the chord symbols capital M seven maj7 and the triangle major sign seven below are the augmented seventh chord is an augmented triad with a minor seventh interval, so we just add seven.

Our major triad can be used to create a major seventh chord and a dominant la dominant seventh chord. The seventh chord has a minor seventh interval, so we can add seven after our major triad symbols. However, adding a seven after these major triad symbols confuses these chord symbols, say C major seven, making you think of this, not this, so we actually created these chord symbols. our major seventh chord symbols, this actually makes sense if instead of looking at symbols like this major triad symbol with a seven, we look at it like this, the letter c indicates a major triad with major seventh interval symbols just like here but without the parentheses. less to write last from our diminished triad, we can create a diminished seventh chord and a diminished seventh chord for our diminished seventh chord, we simply add sevens after our diminished triad symbol, so this is an exception to our rule that a 7 means a minor seventh. interval for our half diminished seventh chord we have a special symbol is the diminished chord circle symbol with a slash, so this means a C half diminished seventh chord.

Okay, these are our seventh chord symbols, our major minor and augmented triad symbols with a minor seventh. interval symbol just the seven, our proven major triad and minor symbols with major seventh interval symbols, our diminished seventh chord symbols that break the rule of seven, meaning a minor seventh interval, and our special middle symbol seventh chorddiminished so we just finished learning the spatial system for playing our standard basic chords how chords are spaced by intervals we had our triad chords spaced by major and minor thirds and our seventh chords with triads and major and minor seventh intervals the second system of how to play all our standard basic chords the chords are the system of degrees of the major scale thinking of each note of the chord as a degree of the major scale here is the ordered sequence of notes of the C major scale notice that the c major scale is just the seven letters c d e f g a b and then it goes back to C so it's just the seven letters with the first note repeated, let's try the major scale so here's a and then here's the major scale now notice it's the same thing, all seven letters are present A B C D E F G and then back to a it's just that here the C the F the G are sharp each major scale plays the seven letters the scales only differ in which letters are sharp and flat the F major scale starting on F here it's just f g a b c d e f and notice here that the B is flat which all the major scales have in The common thing is that they are all spaced the same way.

This is the major scale formula. Full step Full step Half step Full step Full step Full step Half step Remember that a full step is a major second interval, so from one key and then two keys up. you have one key in, a step and a half is a second minor interval, just one key for the next start on any note and you use this formula to create a major scale, so starting here on C we have a full step and then another full step and then Here it changes to a half step, so we just go to the next key and then we have a full step, then another full step, then another full step and finally we have a half step, so from one key to the next.

I can start with any key on the keyboard, use that formula and I will have a major scale. Now let's try B flat, so here's a B flat meaning below, so here's our B flat and now we start on our B flat, now we have a full sip. We go up another full step now half step now full step full step another full step and then finally we have a foreign half step as there are 12 single notes, seven white notes and five black notes. We have 12 starting places to apply the formula, so we have 12 main scales.

Here are the seven major scales that start with a white note and then here are the five major scales that start with a quarter note each. of those scales is spaced the same way with that major scale formula and each of those scales has eight notes eight scale degrees one two three four five six seven eight now this is how you create chords from scale degrees like this which here's our C major scale again one two three four five six seven eight now when you play the first third and the fifth degree of a major scale you get a major chord, so our major chord is one three five if you play 135 of a C major scale you get a C major chord.

Same thing, if you play one, three, five of a major scale, you'll get an A major chord. Now, to create the other chords, we use sharp and flat scale degrees, so to play a minor chord, all we do is flatten the three, so we take that three and moving it down one key, we're flattening it, so now we have a flat three five our C diminished chord is a flat three flat five so a flat three flat five our augmented chord is one three sharp five so sharp means that 'We're going up one key so this is five, this is five sharp.

Now we say we want to play a chord, so here's our scale one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight, so our major chord is one, three, five, our minor chord is a flat. three five our diminished chord is a flat three flat five and our augmented chord is a sharp three five so we're just taking the first third and fifth degrees of the scale and flattening and sharpening the degrees of the scale the first degree of the scale is called the root of the chord, then the root of a C chord is C and the root of an A chord is A.

The degrees of the third scale are called the third of the chord and the degrees of the fifth scale are called the fifth of the chord. Now let's look at our four notes. chords, so our four note chords will use the scale degrees first third fifth and seventh, so if we have our C major scale again one two three four five six seven eight this is our one three five and seven, like this that we're going to play all the different four note chords Now, adjusting the three, the five and the seven, whether it's flat or sharp, so that when we do nothing, just one, three, five seven, that's our C major chord seventh.

Now, if we flatten the seven, which is our C dominant seventh chord, we can also adjust. the degree of the Fifth Scale here in the dominant seventh chord so that we can sharpen the five that creates a V sharp C dominant seventh chord. Note that these four notes are also the augmented 7th chord that we learned in the spatial system from thinking that the sharp three five is an augmented triad and the flatted 7 creates a minor seventh interval with the root, so in the spatial system Of thought we have an augmented triad with a minor seventh interval, so we can think of it as an augmented seventh chord and now that we're thinking in major scale degrees we can also think of this as a dominant seventh chord one three five flat seven with a sharp five we can also flat the five so here we are back on the five now let's flat the five this creates a C dominant seventh Flat five chord next we have our C minor seventh chord which is a flat three five flat seven and then we also have our C minor major seventh chord which is a flat three five seven Sonata flat seven a foreign seven and then we also have our half diminished seventh chord which is a flat three flat five flat seven and then we have our diminished seventh chord which is the same thing except we're going to double the flat seventh so one flat three flat five double flat seven then seven flat seven double flat seventh and yes, this is also the sixth degree of the scale, but generally the Musicians say double-leg seventh, so the seventh flat scale degree twice is fine and here's a rundown of all the standard basic chords in the major scale degree system to think about both triads and triads. triads.

Seventh Chords One thing I want you to notice in this chart is the minor seventh chord and the half diminished seventh chord. What is the difference between these two chords? If you notice that the half diminished seventh chord is the same except that the fifth scale degree is flat. the minor seventh is a flat three five flat seven and the half diminished seventh is a flat three flat five flat seven, so you could say that the diminished half seventh chord is a minor seventh chord with a flat five if you remember our symbol for half diminished seventh chord is a circle with a bar through it another way to write C half diminished seventh is C minor seven flat five right because it's the same as that minor seventh chord with a flat five these are two ways of writing the same chord these both have the same notes, as you can see now that you have knowledge of the major scale degree thinking system, you can read even more chord symbols, chord symbols with scale degree designations, such as five-flat , so here are the chord symbols for the half C. diminished seventh chord we have the C minor seven flat five as well, more rarely, you may see a C minor seven minus five flat five and minus five mean the same thing other chords that we learned also have major scale degree designations we have our C dominant seventh sharp five chord is also called the C augmented seventh chord and we have our C dominant flat seventh chord, we have our symbols that we have already learned, so we have that c OG 7 and that c plus seven, so C OG and C plus both mean c augmented. and then you have the 7 after, here we can also see the chords as a C7 chord, so a C dominant seventh chord with a sharp five or a plus five and then with our C five flat dominant seventh chord we have the five flat or less. five, now that we understand how the major scale degree system works, we can now read chord symbols with major scale degree designations, such as 5 flat and five sharp, which sometimes makes us think of the chord in a different way , like a C dominant seventh chord with a sharp five instead of an augmented seventh chord.

Also, when it comes to symbols, musicians can think of the chord in the same way, but write them differently with different uses of superscripts and parentheses. A superscript is a number or letter written slightly above another character as in the first. the St is a superscript, you can have five different musicians write C minor seven flat five differently, you can have C minor seven flat 5 without superscripts, you can have it with the superscript flat 5 but not the seven, you can put that superscript flat 5 in parentheses you can have both the 7 and the flat 5 in superscript and you can have that 5 flat in parentheses these are all the same chord just different ways of writing it depending on what pocket of the music world you're in, you know. spatial and major scale degree systems to play all the standard basic chords, you will ultimately use a combination of both understandings, for example, with the diminished seventh chord, many find it easier to visualize it spatially as three intervals of minor third instead of a flat one. three flat five double flat seven however as we move into the next systems of thought you will rely more on the major scale degree system ultimately you will gain what is called chord vision someone says you play a major seven and you intuitively know what it looks and feels like. as we have just taken the first step to the chord vision, conceptually understand what the chords are, then download the chord formulas manual, print the standard basic chord formulas, pages, an experiment, play all the chord formulas , go through that process, you'll really start to internalize the chords and start developing the chord vision right now we're going to learn the next three systems of thought by replacing add and omit notes from the standard basic chords that we just covered. learn to create new types of chords, so first we're replacing here's our C major chord, the scale degrees are one, three, five, now we can replace that three and play a four instead of a suspended C chord four.

We can also replace that three with a two. Instead, this is called a suspended C two chord. Both chords feel like you're suspended like you're suspended in the air and you want to touch the ground. There is a feeling of need to resolve. This wants to go down here and this year it wants to go down here. You also can. resolve in the minor triad and you will notice that sus4 has a greater need to resolve than sus2 and for the chord symbols we simply write our C major chord symbol followed by sus4 and sus2, sus means suspended now too if we add the flat 7 to that so 1 3 5 7 flat we have our dominant seven chord and we can replace that three with this dominant seven chord as well, so instead of three we can play four and now you have a suspended four chord C7 or you can play two and now you have a suspended C7, two chords and symbols, we do the same thing: we would write C7 followed by sus4 or sus2, so that's our seven dominant suspended chords and one more thing with chord symbols if you just say C sus or C7. sus, refers to the sus4 chord.

Well, these are the types of chords that we replace notes in, so we replace the three with the four or the three with the two. The next system of thought is to add notes to our basic chords. First we can add the sixth scale. degree to our major and minor triads, so here's our C major triad, our C major chord and we add the sixth scale degree which is a C major sixth chord and if we have a minor triad with the sixth scale degree which is a C minor six chord, these are the six chords, so this is our first new chord by adding notes to our standard basic chords by adding the sixth scale degree to the major and minor triads to create six chords and these are the symbols for the six chords if you just say C6, which is a C major. sixth chord and for the rest of the symbols it's the same, you have uppercase M, lowercase M, you have an abbreviated version of the chord names and you have the triangle major sign and the minor minus sign below as far as adding notes to our basic chord.

We can add what is calledextension nodes so that our triad scale degrees are one three five and our seventh chord scale degrees are one three five seven and we have different sharps or flats for those scale degrees depending on what type of chord it is. Notice these are all odd numbers so any other number starting from one now we can continue from that seven to eight and continue to nine ten eleven twelve and thirteen and we can extend our rope to include those odd numbers of 9 11 and 13. so we continue going up odd numbers one three five seven nine eleven thirteen these are our extension notes this 9 11 and 13.

We can add these extension notes to our standard basic chords, suspended chords and six chords, so for example with our major triads and minor, we can add the nine, so here is our C major chord with the nine which is our C major chord add9 we can also have the C minor with the ninth scale degree which is our C minor chord add nine as well you can have the csus4 chord and add the ninth scale degree which gives you a c sus4 add 9 chord and you can also have your C major six chord with your ninth scale degree and now you could call this a C6 add 9 chord where we write add nine just like our last two chords, but more commonly this chord is given a special symbol and is written as C six bar nine, so it's like a C six and nine chord, so it's written C six slash nine and we can also have that minor six chord with the nine and here also instead of writing C minor six add nine it is more common to write C minor six slash nine, that's why they are called six nine chords, they have their own special symbol , but in general, when a composer adds nine to a chord, he writes adding 9 after the chord, the same goes for addition. the other extensions 11 and 13. will write add 11 and add 13.

Okay, I just showed you examples of how to add extensions to our triads, suspended chords and six chords. Now let's add extensions to our seventh chords with seventh chords, it's a little bit. different let's say we have a C Major Seventh chord and then we add the ninth degree of the scale, you don't write C Major seven, you add nine, instead you would write C major nine, this is called C major ninth chord when we add the ninth degree from the scale to seventh chords we get what are called ninth chords, let's say we have our minor seventh chord in C and we add the ninth degree of the scale, this creates a ninth chord in C minor, we don't write C minor seven , we add nine, we write C minor 9. if we have a C dominant seventh chord on the ninth degree of the scale, this creates a C dominant ninth chord we don't write C7 add9 we write C9 so here we have our seventh chords and our seventh chord symbols from before, when we add 9 to all these chords they become ninth chords and all sevens become nines now let's look at our dominant seventh chord again when we add the ninth degree of the scale it becomes a chord of C dominant ninth so we would write C9 now when we add the nine and the eleven becomes an 11th chord, so this is a C dominant eleventh chord and we write C eleven.

Now, what if we didn't include nine and only had eleven? So it's not an eleventh chord, instead we would call it a C7 chord and it adds 11, so it's only an eleventh chord if it includes both the 9 and the 11. foreign now, when we add the 9, the 11 and the 13, we have a 13th chord, so this is our C dominant 13th chord and we would write C13. It should include all the extensions that came before. to be a 13th chord now, what if we only had the 13th? So it would be a C7 chord. Add the 13th chord.

We have the C7 where everything is connected and then we add the 13th on top. Now what if we have our C7? Our nine. we don't play the 11 but we play the 13. Well, this is all connected, so it's a C9 and then we would write C9 adds 13. So this is a C9 adds 13 chord and it's the same with all of our other sevenths. chords, so here's our C major seven, our C major nine, our C major 11 and our C major 13. and this is a C major 7, sum 13. Now you may have noticed something: our first note of the major scale is one, no, it's the eighth.

Note that they are both C the rest of our scale degrees two three four five six and seven are the same single notes as 9 10 11 12 13 and 14. So by playing one three five seven and nine eleven thirteen, we actually cover the seven unique notes within a scale if we raise another odd number to 15 we go back to C that's why we don't have a 15° chord we already have a c are next we can add altered notes to our chords this is where we flatten and sharpen our extensions, so for example we could take our dominant seventh chord one three five flat seven we could add the nine or how about a flat nine which is called the C dominant seventh chord flat nine we are altering the nine by lowering the key of the nine one to convert it to a flat nine the flat nine is an altered note another example is what if we play the major seventh chord with an eleven?

Now we can alter the eleven by raising it one key to make it a sharp 11. These are examples of altered notes by altering the extensions by sharpening or flatting them, let's learn. all the alteration possibilities, so here is our seventh chord structure and here are the extensions 9, 11 and 13. Now these are all the possible accidentals, we have flat 9 sharp 9 sharp 11 and flat 13. So, just like than our extensions, we can add altered extensions to the chords that we have learned, there is actually a special dominant seventh chord that is used primarily in jazz where these four altered extensions are added, so it is a C7 flat 9 sharp 9 sharp chord 11 flat 13, this chord is called the C7 alternate chord and instead of writing all that, composers simply write C7 alt, this means a dominant seventh chord where you play some or all of the altered extensions.

Some are because jazz is an improvisational art form that you improvise now also what are considered altered notes are the flat 5 and sharp five now here, what note is our Fifth Scale degree? Well, it's a G-flat and the 5-flat is a G-flat and the 5-sharp is the G-sharp. Note that our sharp 11 and flat 13 are the same notes G-flat and G-sharp, so flat 5 has the same letter name as sharp 11 and sharp 5 is the same letter name as flat 13. It's because that some people will also describe the alternate C7 chord as a C7 chord with flat 5 sharp five flat 9 and sharp nine instead of all the altered extensions Jazz is a very improvisational art form and in my experience the form The way they write and describe chord symbols can also be quite improvised, so in summary, to seventh chords composers can add extensions, altered extensions and sharps and flats, the five chord symbols, that's how I like. write chords with extensions and accidentals added so that we have our root, so if we are playing a C chord, the root is C, if we are playing a G chord, the root is G, then we have the quality of our major chord minor decreased increased, etc. then we have a designation of a seventh ninth chord 11 or 13 and then in parentheses we have the extensions or accidentals added, so here we have a seven in C major and we add an 11.

So, we are adding an extension of 11, now let's modify that 11. So now we have a C major seven sharp 11. Note that we didn't write the word add with altered notes again. The use of chord symbols is not standardized, so you may see a sharp 11 added somewhere, ultimately it doesn't matter. As you understand what someone is saying now, as we have already learned, if I play a C major seven and then add the 9, 11 and 13, we get a C major 13 chord. Now what happens if inside that C major 13 I want the 11 sharp? we would write C major 13 sharp 11.

The sharp 11 in parentheses lets the reader know that the 11 inside the C major 13 is sharp now, what if I skip the 9 and just add the sharp 11 and 13? So I would write C major 7 and sharp 11 and 13 in parentheses like this, some people instead of a comma write a slash like this and you might see the numbers written on top of each other like this, so you have 13 and then the 11 held below. If the largest numbers will always be written at the top, that's all a composer can add to the standard basic chords, our triads and seventh chords.

You can also add the sixth scale degree to our triads to create six-chord extensions to our standard basic chords. as altered notes to our standard basic chords, in addition to our standard basic chords, we can also add extensions to our suspended chords and six chords. Well, our next system of thought is to skip notes. There are many reasons why you would want to delete. notes of your chord the first reason is the limitation of an instrument. I'm teaching you to play the piano. I have 10 fingers, so my limit is to be able to play 10 notes at a time, however, on an instrument like the guitar you are limited to six notes per guitar.

It only has six strings, so only six notes can be played at the same time. Well, what if I want to play a C13 chord, a C7 chord with all the extensions, it's seven notes, so on the guitar I would have to skip one of these notes, but which one should it be? I get rid of, we need to get rid of a note that will cause the least amount of confusion, well we can't get rid of the root note, imagine how much confusion it would cause if I got rid of the C in a C chord.

The 13th is also important because we are playing a 13th chord. It wouldn't be a 13th chord without the 13th. The three and the Seven are important because they tell us what type of seventh chord we are playing in the three most common seventh chords. chords the three and the seven are different in our major seventh chord we have a three and a seven in our dominant seventh chord we have a three and a flat seven and in our minor seventh chord we have a flat three and a flat seven the three and seven actually Define what type of seventh chord it is note in addition to the root what note is the same in each chord the five each of those chords has a five the five does nothing to tell your ear what type of chord it is playing then if we are forced to get rid of one of these notes it would be the foreign five that can only play six notes can omit the five from the chord and play a C13 omit five without confusing anyone foreign because we still have that three and the flat 7 The 9 and 11 aren't that important either, which brings us to the second reason you would omit a note from a chord: it is to make the chord less tense.

If you wanted to make a less tense version of this chord, you could eliminate the 11. Also, the reason this sounds less tense is because the 11 clashed with a three. The reason 11 and three clash is because the interval they create is very tense and sounds like certain intervals are tense. It sounds like this minor second, call this tenth a dissonant sound. Intervals are the opposite of tense timing They sound nice and stable like this perfect fifth we call a consonant sound The intervals that a chord is made up of will determine its sound in regards to dissonance and consonants Chords are made up of many intervolic relationships, for example, our seventh chord is made up of six intervals, so we play a seventh chord one three five seven we have this interval here we have this interval here we have this interval here we have this interval happening we have this interval happening and we have this interval happening so You're hearing all those interval relationships when you hear a 7th chord when you add the 9, the 11 and the 13.

You're hearing 21 interbolic relationships at the same time, so here are all our intervals again: the dissonant intervals are minor, major second, minor second tritone. seventh and major seventh notice that there are degrees of dissonance, this minor second feels more dissonant than this major second, the intervals are everything else, so let's go back to our C13 we left out 5. What is this mysterious dissonant interval between the three and 11? This is a minor knife interval the notes are E and F the 3 is an E an E to the next D is an octave a perfect octave after a perfect octave we have a minor ninth our dissonant sounding minor ninth is an e and a F and A minor which sounds dissonant The second is also an E and an F The minor second and the minor ninth are counterpart intervals The counterpart intervals sound the same in terms of dissonance and consonants the 11 can be omitted to get rid of the minor knife interval dissonant and make the chord sound less tense and dense in the chord symbols, in addition to the word omit, you will also see the word no, so C13 No 5 no 11.

The last reason you would want to omitone note of a chord is to create what are called power chords so here is our C major chord if we omit all three we create what is called a power chord which is commonly used in rock music. It's a very consonant chord, so rock musicians can add a lot of distortion and overdrive effects to it. You'll hear this chord in songs like Iron Man by Black Sabbath and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. Note that by omitting the three we omit the note that determines whether the chord is major or minor.

Now I know you're looking at this and saying, isn't that just a perfect fifth interval? Usually just two notes when you play a power chord you will also double the root like on this C Note side. 3 people also write the power chord as C5 okay so that replaces the addition and omission and you can actually do all three at the same time so here's the C7 it's a standard basic chord now let's add the nine now is the C9 chord let's replace the three with the four and omit the five we can call this a suspended C9 chord four not five the next system of thought is to use alternative bass notes in our chords, so for example we could play a C9 chord G major and below that G major chord we can add a B, so we would write this chord as G, bar, B, this is called a bar chord, the G represents the chord and the letter after the bar represents. the bass note, the lowest note, also notice that B is inside our G chord, it's the three of the chord, so we could also play an inversion of this chord where we move the G from down here to up here.

We also have the notes of the G chord only with B as the lowest note. Composers will use these barre chords if they want to emphasize the bass notes and create a melodic line in the bass, for example we could have three chords, the C major chord, that barred B chord we just learned. and an A minor chord, so C major, G over B minor, see how that creates this baseline of C B A versus without the slash, this descending line that is created from the chords is called a downstroke, too can be called next line cliché instead of root as a bass note, composers can use a different note of the chord to color the sound of a chord differently, for example, the notes of the G chord are g b d g slash B and G slash d feel less resolved and less stable, so composers can use slash chords for this effect.

Now, another way composers use slash chords is to make it easier for someone to mentally process a chord, for example you might have a B flat and C chord. This is pretty quick to understand, just play a B flat chord and a C below it, this chord is also a C11 not 305. For many people B flat C is a faster way to process this chord. Well, our final system of thought is to stack chords on top of each other, also called polychords. A polychord is written as a fraction, for example you may see D over C7, then D in the numerator and C7 in the denominator, this represents two chords, it means playing a D major chord over a C7 chord.

Do you notice anything here with this polychord? When we play a D major chord over a C7 chord. It's also our C13 sharp 11 chord right one three five flat seven nine sharp 11 13. Therefore, poly chords, like our barre chords, can be used as symbols that make processing a chord easier for many people, it is easier to process this chord. like a D major chord over a C7 chord instead of a C13 sharp 11 chord, now there are also more advanced uses of polychords where they are used to create complex harmonies which are outside the scope of this video, but now if any Once you see the symbol, you know what it means, you're just stacking two chords on top of each other, well you did it, we just went from learning keyboard notes to polychord fractions, so in short, we learned how to play our basic chords standard. two systems of thought: the spatial system that processes chords as intervals and the major scale degree system that processes chords as degrees of the major scale, then we learned how to adjust those standard basic chords.

By replacing, adding, and omitting notes to create new chords, we can replace all three. of the chord for two or four to create suspended chords we can add the sixth scale degree to our major and minor triads to create six chords then to our basic standard chords suspended chords and six chords we can add extensions and alterations we can also skip notes from the chord to make it sound less tense and dense or to create power chords, we then use alternating bass notes in our chord to create barre chords and stack chords on top of each other to create poly chords, both systems of thought. can be used to process a chord faster, we can actually look at our different thinking systems in terms of the time required to mentally process.

Accord, the spatial system requires a lot of mental processing time to see all those intervals, the major scale degree system is a little faster if you know your major scales, using alternate bass notes or chord stacking can reduce the mental processing time for many people; However, as we learned, it is important to understand a chord spatially intervally because it tells us why the chord sounds dissonant or consonant. why it is also important to understand the spatial system these are the seven systems of thought for playing each chord that you will see in music if for some reason you see a chord that was not covered today you will still be able to reason it based on what you have learned today, for For example, you might see a C plus two chord.

You know that C plus 9 is a C major chord and then you add the ninth degree of the scale so you can reason that a C plus two is a C major chord, where you add the second degree of the scale, finally, today we learned all chords, but not the chord voicings. I like to compare chords versus chord voicings, since two different chicken soup recipes, the chords tell you that the soup has olive oil, garlic, onion, celery, carrots, chicken thighs, and water. The voicings of the chords tell you how much of each ingredient? and how to prepare them here is the C major chord C and G and here is a voicing notice for the C major chord here we have three C's, one E and two G, and They are uniquely laid out on the keyboard in the chord formula manual as a last minute edit.

In fact, I added a final chapter on standard basic chord voicings, both triad and seventh chord voicings in terms of next steps. Download the manual. Have fun exploring everything we've learned today and become an absolute master at playing and reading each chord. and chord symbol, then learn the standard basic chord voicings and take your first steps to playing the piano with professional chord style. Well, that's all for this lesson. Thanks so much for looking. I'll see you in another video, thanks foreigner.