Seven Systems: Major Scale Degree Thinking

Root C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B Chord Major Minor Diminished Augmented Major 7th Dominant 7th Minor 7th Half Diminished 7th Diminished 7th Suspended 2 Suspended 4 Major 6th Minor 6th

Formula

Spatial Degrees

C Major 7th

Spatial

Major triad with M7

Degrees

1 3 5 7

Symbols

CM7, Cmaj7

Active Formula

1 3 5 7

C Major 7th selected

Major Scale Degree Thinking

spatial system of playing our standard basic chords how chords are spaced out by intervals we had our Triad chords spaced out 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 is the major scale degree system thinking of each note of the chord as a degree of the major scale here’s the c major scale [Music] ordered sequence of notes notice that the c major scale is just all seven letters c d e f g a b and then you’re back at C so it’s just all seven letters with that first note repeated let’s try the a major scale so here’s a and then here’s the a major scale [Music] 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 every major scale is playing all seven letters the scales just differ in which letters are sharp and flatted the F major scale starting on F here is just f g a b c d e f and notice here that the B is flatted what all major scales have in common is they’re all spaced out the same way this is the major scale formula whole step whole step half step whole step whole step whole step half step remember a whole step is a major second interval so from one key and then two keys up so you have one key inside and a half step is a minor second interval just one key to the next [Music] start on any note and use this formula to create a major scale so starting here on C we have a whole step and then another whole step and then here it changes to a half step so we just go to the next key and then after that we have a whole step then another whole step then another whole step and then finally we have a half step so from just one key to the next key I can start on any key on the keyboard use that formula and I’ll have a major scale now let’s try B flat so here’s a B flat means below so here’s our B flat and now we start on our B flat now we have a whole sip up another whole step now a half step now whole step whole step another whole step and then finally we have a half step foreign since there are 12 unique notes seven white notes and five black notes we have 12 starting places to apply the formula so we have 12 major scales here are the seven major scales starting on a white note [Music] and then here are the five major scales starting on a black note [Music] each of those scales is spaced out 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 here’s how you create chords from scale degrees so here’s our C major scale again one two three four five six seven eight now when you play the first third and Fifth Scale 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 if you played one three five of an a major scale you would get an A major chord Now to create the other chords we sharp and flat scale degrees so to play a minor chord all we do is we flat the three so we’re taking that three and moving it down a key we’re flatting it so now we have one flat three five our C diminished chord is one flat three flat five so one flat three flat five our augmented chord is one three sharp five so sharp means we’re raising it up a key so this is five this is sharp five now say we want to play a chords so here’s our a scale one two three four five six seven eight so our a major chord is one three five our minor chord is one flat three five our diminished chord is one flat three flat five and our augmented chord is one three sharp five so we’re just taking the first third and Fifth Scale degrees of the scale and flatting and sharpening scale degrees the first scale degree is called the root of the chord so the root of a c chord is C and the root of an a chord is a the third scale degrees are called the third of the chord and the Fifth Scale degrees are called the fifth of the chord now let’s look at our four note chords so our four note chords will be using the first third fifth and seventh scale degrees 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 so we’re gonna play all the different four note chords Now by adjusting the three the five and the Seven either flatting or sharping so when we do nothing just one three five seven that’s our C Major Seventh chord now if we flat the seven that’s our C dominant seventh chord we can also adjust the Fifth Scale degree here on the dominant seventh chord so we can sharp the five that creates a c dominant seventh sharp V chord notice that these four notes are also the augmented seventh chord we learned in the spatial system of thinking the one three sharp five is an augmented Triad and the flat 7 creates a minor seventh interval with the root so in the spatial system of thinking 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’s us back at the five now we’re going to Flat the five this creates a c dominant seventh flat five chord next we have our C minor seventh chord which is a one flat three five flat seven and then we also have our C minor Major Seventh chord which is a one flat three five seven Sonata flat seven a seven foreign and then we have our half diminished seventh chord which is a one flat three flat five flat seven and then we have our diminished seventh chord which is the same except we’re going to double flat the seventh so one flat three flat five double flat seven so seven flat seven double flat seventh and yes this is also the sixth scale degree but usually musicians will say double flighted seventh so the seventh scale degree flatted twice all right and here’s a summary of all the standard basic chords in the major scale degree system of thinking both the Triads and the seventh chords one thing I want you to notice on this chart is the minor seventh and the half diminished seventh chords what is the difference between these two chords if you notice the half diminished seventh chord is the same except that the Fifth Scale degree is flatted the minor seventh is one flat three five flat seven and the half diminished seventh is one flat three flat five flat seven so you could say that the half diminished seventh chord is a minor seventh chord with a flat five if you remember our symbol for the half diminished seventh chord it’s a circle with a slash through it another way to write C half diminished seventh is C minor seven flat five right because it’s the same thing as that minor seventh chord with a flat five these are two ways to write the same chord these both have the same notes so as you can see now that you have a knowledge of the major scale degree system of thinking you can read even more chord symbols chord symbols with scale degree designations like flat five so here are the chord symbols for the C half diminished seventh chord we have the C minor seven flat five also more rarely you might see a C minor seven minus five flat five and minus five mean the same thing other chords we learned also have major scale degree designations we have our C dominant seventh sharp five chord also called our C augmented seventh chord and we have our C dominant seventh flat five chord we have our symbols that we’ve 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 it then here we can also see the chords as a C7 chord so C dominant seventh chord with a sharp five or a plus five and then with our C dominant seventh flat five chord we have the flat five or minus five so now that we understand how the major scale degree system works we can now read chord symbols with major scale degree designations like flat 5 and sharp five what we’re sometimes thinking of the chord in a different way like a c dominant seventh chord with a sharp five instead of an augmented seventh chord additionally as far as symbols go musicians may think of the chord 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 like in first so the St is a superscript you can have five different musicians write out C minor seven flat five differently you can have C minor seven flat 5 with no superscripts you can have it with the flat 5 superscripted but not the seven you can put that superscripted flat 5 in parentheses you can have both the 7 and the flat 5 superscripted and you can have that flat 5 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 alright now you know the spatial and major scale degree systems of playing all the standard basic chords ultimately you’ll use a combination of both of these understandings for example with the diminished seventh chord many find it easier to visualize it spatially as three minor third intervals instead of one flat three flat five double flat seven however as we move on to the next systems of thinking you’ll rely more on the major scale degree system ultimately you gain what’s called chord Vision somebody says playing a major seven and you intuitively know what that looks and feels like we just did the first step to chord Vision understanding conceptually what the chords are next download the chord formulas handbook print out the standard basic chord formulas Pages an experiment playing through all the chord formulas going through that process you’ll really start to internalize the chords and begin to develop chord vision all right now we’re going to learn the next three systems of thinking replacing