Author: Gianni C.

3 simple 12 bar blues forms

by Gianni C. on November 10, 2009

I am quite a big fan of the blues, and I definitely advice studying no matter if you like it or not, as the majority of modern music originates or relates to this genre.

The most popular blues form is based around 12 bars. The first four are usually filled by the I7 chord. So this is the first characteristic of the blues: when we talk about a ‘blues in C’ we don’t strictly mean C major. The center of gravity of the whole structure is based around a Dominant 7th chord (the chord that sits on the 5th degree of the Harmonized Major Scale, so to speak) instead of a major7th chord. The following two bars are filled by another Dominant 7th chord, but this time on the fourth degree (IV7). Two bars of I7 follow. The last four bars are made up by one bar of V7 (the dominant chord on the 5th degree), one bar of IV7, one of I7 and finally another bar of V7 to ‘turnaround’ back to the top.

| I7 | | | |

| IV7 | |I7 | |

|V7 |IV7 | I7 |V7 |

In the video I suggest two more advanced forms. Just download and print out the PDF file, learn the chords and go to the next step, the pentatonic.

Printable PDF: Three Basic 12 Bar Blues Forms

Posted in From the major scale to (hopefully) understanding how things work.

Chord scale exercise

by Gianni C. on November 10, 2009

Printable PDF: Chord-Scale Ex.

This is an introduction to how to use the right scale for the chord of the moment. I will not be talking about modes yet as I find this creates a bit of confusion at this stage. We have seen how on every degree (=note) of the scale we can build a triad of some kind and add a 7^th to it. These are three examples so you can have the most popular ‘chord shapes’ to play with and on 3 different string sets.

The first is an example in G major: the roots of the chords are all on the 6^th string.

To find the correct scale for the chords just play a G major scale starting from the degree the chord sits on (like I do in the video).

G maj7 = G major from G to G (1^st degree)

Am7 = G major from A to A (2^nd degree)

Bm7 = G major from B to B (3^rd degree)

And so on…I am sure you get the idea.

The next is an example in C major: the roots of the chords are all on the 5^th string. Watch the video and find the related scales

And again this is an example in F major: the roots of the chords are all on the 4^th string. You know what to do…

Posted in From the major scale to (hopefully) understanding how things work.

Simple song analyzed

by Gianni C. on November 10, 2009

In this video I show some examples of very simple chord progressions that originate from the Harmonized Major Scale.

When I say ‘one, four, five’ I mean the song is built by the 1st, the 4th and 5th chord of the harmonized scale. So such song would be C major, F major, and G major and if I wanted to write its structure I’d write it with roman numerals: I IV V. as an example you can think of songs like ‘Twist and shout’, ‘La Bamba’ or similar…again this is just the very basic stuff!

Other common structures are II V I (‘two, five, one’ = Dm G C in C major), I VI IV V and so on…

As I said this is just the beginning, I’ll show you how to understand more complicated songs. Also, will post in the near future a list of analyzed chords progressions patterns for you to use in your songs.

Posted in From the major scale to (hopefully) understanding how things work.

From the major scale to the harmonized scale (Pt.2 7th chords)

by Gianni C. on November 10, 2009

How to add the 7th to triads from the major harmonized scale?

We have already seen how to find the triads that belong to the major harmonized scale.

..adding the 7th is very simple. If we stack another note a diatonic third apart from the last note we have found, we will have Seventh chords. As a matter of fact, the notes we have used to build the triad where the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the major scale…the one we are adding is the 7th note of the scale. In C major it will give us the following 7th chords.

Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7 Am7 Bm7(b5)

Here you will find the most common 7th chords guitar shapes, just print out the file.

Printable file: Common 7th chords

Posted in From the major scale to (hopefully) understanding how things work.

Understanding how triads and other chords are built

by Gianni C. on November 10, 2009

How to analyze triads and more advanced chords?

The starting point is the major triad, in the example in C major, but this concept is valid for all keys, as usual.

The C major chord is built with these three notes:

C E G

As we said this triad is built with the Root (C) the 3^rd (E) and the 5^th(G) of the major scale. Also, if we calculate the intervals between the Root and the other two notes we notice that there is an interval of a major 3^rd between C and E and of a perfect 5^th between C and G.

So if I wanted to write a formula for the major triad I would write

C E G

1 3 5 (Root-Major third-Perfect fifth)

If now we want to find the chord C minor all we have to do is lower the 3^rd of the chord (E is lowered to Eb)

So now the triad for C minor is

C Eb G

1 b3 5 (Notice how the formula changes Root –Minor Thirds – Perfect fifth)

From this I can tell that the difference between a major and minor chord is in the 3^rd.

—

The diminished and augmented triads can be told from the 5^th.

If C major is C E G

C augmented is C E G# (I have raised the 5^th of a halfstep)

Formula 1 3 #5

C diminished is C Eb Gb (a minor triad with the flattened 5^th)

Formula 1 b3 b5