Lesson

Seven Systems: Spatial Chord Construction

are three or more notes there are two systems to construct all our standard basic chords the first system we're going to learn is the spatial system looking...

Root Chord

Formula Spatial Degrees

C Major

Spatial: M3 + m3
Degrees: 1 3 5
Symbols: C, CM, Cmaj
Active Formula: 1 3 5

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Spatial Chord Construction

are three or more notes there are two systems to construct all our standard basic chords the first system we’re going to learn is the spatial system looking at how the notes of the chords are spaced out by intervals first we have major and minor chords A major chord is a major third interval like that so we have three keys plus a minor third interval see how we have two keys inside so we have three plus two so that creates a major chord and since we have C at the bottom it’s a C major chord a minor chord is the reverse so you have a minor third which has two keys inside and a major third which has three keys inside [Music] okay so now let’s play an A major chord so first we find a then we need a major third right we have three inside then we need a minor third so we have two inside so now we have an a major chord if you want to make this an A minor chord all we have to do is lower the middle note so now we’ve shifted that middle note over so now we have two here and three here A minor third plus a major third and if we move it back up now we have three again here and two here alright 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 third intervals is an augmented chord two minor third intervals called a diminished chord these four chord types major minor augmented and diminished are called Triads try means three so these are three note chords now let’s learn the chord symbols for the Triad chords here are all the chord symbols for these chords you’ll notice here that there are multiple ways to write a chord this is because chord symbols have evolved over time and no standard way of writing symbols has ever been set if you see just the letter alone 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’ll also see the chord name shorten like this and you’ll see these symbols a triangle means major a minus sign means minor a plus sign means augmented and a little circle means diminished and don’t worry if you forget all these symbols inside the free chord formulas handbook I organized a complete list of chord symbols for you which you can reference anytime alright so now that you’ve learned the three note chords let’s learn the four note chords the four note chords are the three note chords plus an extra note now the first four note chord to learn is our Major Seventh chord we can say that a C Major Seventh chord is a C major Triad with a Major Seventh interval so we’re playing the c major Triad and adding the note a Major Seventh interval above the C remember all of our interval distances to figure out the note a Major Seventh interval above the C you don’t have to count all the way up you don’t have to do instead of that you can count the other way so we have an octave two C’s and the Major Seventh interval is just one key from this top C so octave Major Seventh and if we go one more then we get to our minor seventh so our C Major Seventh chord is our C major Triad with a major seventh now this leads 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 so here’s a summary of what we’ve learned so far we have our four Triads major minor diminished and augmented each with a different combination of major and minor thirds uppercase m means major lowercase m means minor we’ve also taken that major Triad that major chord and added a Major Seventh interval to get a Major Seventh chord and a minor seventh interval to get a dominant seventh chord we can now do the same with the minor chord A minor chord with a Major Seventh interval is called a minor Major Seventh chord the name describes it well it’s a minor chord with a Major Seventh a minor Major Seventh chord A minor chord with a minor seventh interval is called a minor seventh chord so not a minor 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 which we just call a diminished seventh chord we play our half diminished seventh and then we lower that top Note One More key so you could say that this is a c diminished Triad with a major sixth interval better way to think of 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 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 the seventh chords since our seventh chords are primarily a Triad plus a minor or major seventh interval seventh chord symbols are our Triad symbols plus a minor or major seventh interval symbol for example here’s a C Minor triad a c with a lowercase m a c minor seventh chord adds a minor seventh interval so we add a seven just a seven alone means a minor seventh interval the C minor Major Seventh chord has a Major Seventh interval so we write major seven in parentheses capital m means major so we have our tried symbols and our seventh interval symbols so here’s all our Triad symbols again to our C Minor triad symbols we can add sevens to create C minor seventh chords again the seven alone means a minor seventh interval and also add the different symbols for major seven in parentheses to create C minor Major Seventh chord symbols capital M seven maj7 and the triangle major sign seven next are 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 seventh chord the dominant 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 is confusing these chord symbols say C Major seven which makes you think of this not this so we actually make these chord symbols our Major Seventh chord symbols this actually makes sense if instead of looking at the symbols like this major Triad symbols with a seven we look at it like this the letter c indicating a major Triad with Major Seventh interval symbols same as over here but without the parentheses less to write lastly from our diminished Triad we can create a half diminished seventh chord and a diminished seventh chord for our diminished seventh chord we just 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 it’s the diminished chord circle symbol with a slash through it so this means a c half diminished seventh chord alright so these are our seventh chord symbols our major minor and augmented Triad symbols with a minor seventh interval symbol just the seven our major Triad and minor tried symbols with Major Seventh interval symbols our diminished seventh chord symbols which break the rule of the seven meaning a minor seventh interval and our special half diminished seventh chord symbol all right so we just finished learning the