9

Chords

In This Chapter

◆Understanding major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads

◆Extending chords to sevenths, ninths, and beyond

◆Creating altered, suspended, and power chords

◆Inverting the chord order

◆Writing chords into your music

Lesson 6, Track 41

More often than not, music is more than a single melodic line. Music is a package
of tones, rhythms, and underlying harmonic structure. The melody fits within
this harmonic structure, is dependent on this harmonic structure, and in some
cases dictates the harmonic structure.

The harmonic structure of a piece of music is defined by a series of chords.A
chord is a group of notes played simultaneously, rather than sequentially (like a
melody). The relationships between the notes—the intervals within the chord—
define the type of chord; the placement of the chord within the underlying key
or scale defines the role of the chord.

This chapter is all about chords—and it’s a long one, because there are many,
many different types of chords. Don’t let all the various permutations scare you
off, however; at the core, a chord is nothing more than single notes (typically
separated by thirds) played together.

It’s as simple as that. If you can play three notes at the same time, you can play
a chord.

This chapter, then, shows you how to construct many different types of chords,
with a particular emphasis on the type of harmonic structure you find in popular
music. (This is important; the study of harmony in classical music is much more
involved, with a slightly different set of rules.) And, when you’re done reading this
chapter, you can find a “cheat sheet” to all the different chords in Appendix B.
This appendix is a quick yet comprehensive reference to every kind of chord
imaginable—in every key!

Chapter