we're going to take a look at some ground rules for the theory behind things. notice i said 'theory,' not 'rules' - this is all truly theoretical and what you might perceive as beautiful might be someone else's 'wrong.' what we will be delving into will be the agreed upon harmony of things, and it is to be used as a guideline for creating real music, not the absolute law.
we're going to start with the basis of all diatonic harmony - the very humble, yet powerful, major scale. surely if you're one of my minions you'll have played this, likely in at least two forms...
Major - 3 notes per string
|-------------------------------5-7-8-|
|-------------------------5-7-8-------|
|-------------------4-5-7-------------|
|-------------4-5-7-------------------|
|-------5-7-9-------------------------|
|-5-7-9-------------------------------|
Major - position based
|---------------------------4-5-----|
|-----------------------5-7---------|
|-----------------4-6-7-------------|
|-----------4-6-7-------------------|
|-----4-5-7-------------------------|
|-5-7-------------------------------|
now, this is not a lesson on how to play the major scale, but instead a lesson on how to use it as a building block for other scales and chords. most theory students learn to utilize the major scale a skeleton for all other aspects of music, and we will do the same.
very simply, i'm going to take the same scale, and number each note. let's take the key of C, and lay it out.
C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
all we're doing is numbering the notes of scale instead of using the original note names. this will allow us to work with it without the bias of what specific key we're in. oh, and we're no longer calling them 'notes' when we leave out the keys - we'll instead refer to them as degrees.
so now that we have eliminated our letter names, we can begin to use this scale as a roadmap to other scales. the beauty behind this system is we can take the original numbers, and alter them to suit our needs, to create new scales.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 - Major scale
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 - Minor scale
what did i just say??? all these numbers is giving me a headache. nah, not really. i'm implying a simple set of rule changes to the major scale to make a new scale. if you take the 3rd, 6th, and 7th degree of a major scale, and lower them by one half step (one fret), you end up with a minor scale...
Major
|--------------------------------7-9-10-|
|-------------------------7-9-10--------|
|-------------------6-7-9---------------|
|-------------6-7-9---------------------|
|-------5-7-9---------------------------|
|-5-7-9---------------------------------|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4
Minor
|--------------------------------7-8-10-|
|-------------------------6-8-10--------|
|-------------------5-7-9---------------|
|-------------5-7-9---------------------|
|-------5-7-8---------------------------|
|-5-7-8---------------------------------|
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1 2 b3 4
the students on my roster learn both the major and minor scales at about the same time, but most do not compare the two to each other in this manner. if you can memorize how to play the major scale, you'll be able to alter it very easily into any new scale.
let's take a look at a previously undiscussed scale -
Harmonic Minor
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7
maybe you don't know this scale. maybe you don't want to know it. but using your pre-existing knowledge of the major scale, you can alter it in real time to create this scale - and it's way easier to remember b3 and b7 than to remember a whole new scale!
take a breath. are you still with me? good.
let's move on to chords now. using the same basic principles, we can start to analyze and alter chords in the same manner. let's have a look at a typical C major barre chord:
|-8--|
|-8--|
|-9--|
|-10-|
|-10-|
|-8--|
if we break down the notes that make up this chord, we get C, E, and G, with a couple of repeats in there. if i refer back to the original C major scale, you'll see that these notes match up to 1, 3, and 5.
so then, just like how we numbered out a C scale in degrees, we can do the same thing for chords. the numerology for a major chord will simply be called '135.'
now that we have a basis for major chords, we can begin to alter it to get different chords, as follows...
Major - 1 3 5
Minor - 1 b3 5
Augment - 1 #3 5
Diminished - 1 b3 b5
Sus2 - 1 2 5
Sus4 - 1 4 5
we can very easily modify our major chord into any of these shapes by following the instructions above. let's do an easy one, and switch c major to c minor. all i have to do is take my 3rd degree (in this case, E) and lower it to Eb.
|-8--|
|-8--|
|-8--|
|-10-|
|-10-|
|-8--|
how about you try to build the other chords listed in the same way?
study this, my young minions. we'll be using this technique of altering major scales and chords from here on out.
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