koctadinoc

Ok... Thanks a lot!

Burning Down

You're very welcome!

venjacques

Here you can see the inverted seventh chords.

The numbers come from the intervals above the bottom note in the chord (and upon its inversion). The long forms are: 753, 653, 643, 642 - for "root position", "first inversion", "second inversion" and "third inversion", respectively.

From the diagram above, you can see where the numbers come from (count your lines and spaces to match up those intervals. You can do it! :P )

Anyway, the abbreviations for each are highlighted. So your 4-3 chord is just a second inversion chord. These inverted chords tell you only one thing though: what your lowest pitch is going to be.

So a root position has the ROOT on the bottom
A first inversion has the 3rd on the bottom
The 2nd inversion has the 5th on the bottom
And the 3rd inversion has the 7th on the bottom. (3rd inversion can be called "4-2" or just "2" in some sources)

Triads (chords with 3 notes) work the same way

Your root position then is 5-3, first is 6-3, and 2nd is 6-4.

The abbreviated versions are: (nothing), 6, and (still) 6-4.

I hope you can figure that out on your own. Try drawing it.

__________________
It's just another day.

Burning Down

Probably open G - DGDGBD, or maybe even DADGAD. I see those the most, anyways.

blastingas10

Can someone list me out chords from most basic to advanced. I know all my major and minor chords. I'm guessing those are most basic? What would come next, 7 chords?

My friend will come up with a bassline and I try to put some guitar with it, I figure out the root notes and put chords with it, but I always just use basic major and minor chords. I feel like it kind of restricts creativity. I want to open up my chord vocabulary. Anyone have any advice?

I know some more advanced chords but not many. All the basic minor and major chords sound really good, I just want to expand.

blastingas10

I've been trying to come up with some unusual, or not so common chord progressions lately. Here's one, although I'm not sure if it's complete.

G major, A minor 11th, C add9 (only thing I know to call it. It's a C add9 minus the D note)x3

The next part starts the same (G, Am11, C add9), then it goes into B minor, B flat minor, A minor. Then loops back to the first part.

So, is it kind of unusual? I guess the only really unusual thing about it is that Bb minor doesn't belong in the key of G major.

venjacques

From a theory standpoint, there most common harmonies (and therefor 'chords') are Dyads - two note sonorities.
These are kind of bland though, so I'm sure you won't mind if I skip over them

From there, you have in conceptual design (and they way they're taught) this order:

Traditional 'Simple' Triads
Major Triads (C E G)
Minor Triad (C Eb G)
Diminished Triad (C Eb Gb)
Augmented Triad (C E G#)

After that probably come the 7th chords -
Dominant 7th (most common) (C E G Bb)
Major 7th (C E G B)
Minor 7th (C Eb G Bb)
Diminished 7th (C Eb Gb Bbb) (aka. diminished add 6)
Half Diminished 7th (C Eb Gb Bb) (aka. minor 7 b5)

These can branch off into more complex sonorities called Extended Chords
These are your 9th, 11th, and 13th chords. Generally you can do whatever you want with the 9th, 11th, and 13th (C 13th b9 #11 would result in C E G Bb Db F# A), but there are some limits.
Two that I can think of right now are:
1. Something like C minor #9 which would get you C Eb G Bb D#. The Eb and D# are the same thing, so it doesn't make too much sense to double something with a different name. This one would sound more like C minor 7 with a 3rd on top. But then resolution of the D# would go up to E, where as the C minor 7's Eb would go down to D or something.
2. There are some schools of thought that state your 11 should always be #11. But if it's your music, do whatever you want. Just make it sound good and make sense to you.

Instead of extended chords you could go into other relatively common sonorities such as the augmented 6th chords. Italian, French, German (and Swiss, for those of you who are crazy like I am). Remember, b6 has to be your lowest pitch to pull these off 'legally'
Italian - 1, #4, b6 (C F# Ab) - goes to either V or I6-4
French - 1, #4, b6, 2 (C F# Ab D) - goes to a V or I6-4
German - 1, #4, b6, b3 (C F# Ab Eb) - Goes to a V only*
Swiss - 1, #4, b6, #2 (C F# Ab D#) - Goes to I6-4*

* - people lump the german and swiss into the same chord called just 'german'. This is fine, but I differentiate. Sorry if I offended anyone here. Personally, spelling counts for me and those chords.

After basic triads, sevenths, extended chords, and augmented 6ths, you could go into added or sussed chords

C6 - C E G A
C4 - C E F G
C2 - C D E G

Gsus6 - C E A (kinda like a minor here... hmm )
Gsus4 - C F G
Gsus2 - C D G

After that it's all functional chords, so context of the chord progression-
The augmented 6ths do this, in that they must be followed by a particular chord.

Neopolitan (or phrygian II chord) does this. It's a first-inversion (3rd on the bottom) of a Major flatted two chord. So in C major (or minor) it's Db F Ab, with F as your lowest pitch.

Then you could always do secondary dominants - V/vi going to a vi of course. That kind of thing.

Then if you're feeling even more spry, you can go into quartal chords and secundal chords -

Quartal:
Augmented - (doesn't exist... C F# B#) ((B# and C are the same))
Major - C F# B
Minor - C F B
Diminished - C F Bb

Secundal:
Augmented - C D E
Major - C D Eb
Minor - C Db Eb
Diminished - C Db Ebb

Then you can get even crazier here and go into making extended chords and (essentially) 7th chords for the quartal and secundal sonorities.

If you can compute all these different things in your head, you're ready to make rationalizations for nearly any kind of grouping of notes. I've personally made a system to explain any set of pitches (from the 12 tone scale) you can come up with But that's just me.


--------------------


You said
C add9 (only thing I know to call it. It's a C add9 minus the D note)x3

C add 9 is like... C E G D.... (also called C2). I think you meant to say "minus the B note". If you mean your chord is C E G D, then yes; add9 is fine.

And the only thing that's unusual here is that you're going from A to Bb to B. It's just a chromatic passing chord. it's not too strange, and will sound like you're putting a bridge linking the B minor the the A minor.

Cheers!

__________________
It's just another day.

blastingas10

Thanks for the info, I didn't think it was really strange. I'm just trying to move on to less basic chords.


Do you have any tips on spicing up your chord progressions?

venjacques

Very simple way is for filler.

You can do this by adding a pattern of each chord like so:

Take a I vi IV V

Now go vii*/ before each one each time you change:

I - [vii*/vi] - vi - [vii*/IV] - IV - [vii*/V] - V
This spices it up with a little dissonance flair here and there.

You can do this to a crazier degree:

Let's add a ii/ vi/ vii*/ before each of the main chords each

I - [ii/vi - vi/vi - vii*/vi] - vi - [ii/IV - vi/IV - vii*/IV] - IV - [ii/V - vi/V - vii*/V] - V - I

This could give you some very interesting (and legal) sounds.

Supplementing like this is very common and should be regular in your repertoire.

Another way to make your bass line more interesting is to substitute chords.

That flat 6 from the augmented 6th chords is a useful thing to go from a vi chord (or iv6-3 or ii6-4 for that matter) down to a V chord. If you go for example
iv 6-3 - Italian+6 - V - I

Your bass line would go: 6 b6 5 1, which is smooth as silk.

You can then supplement each one with extra pre-chords that would just redefine that basis. You can then start realizing things in a background and foreground.

Speaking of before, the foreground is maybe that craziness with the

I - [ii/vi - vi/vi - vii*/vi] - vi - [ii/IV - vi/IV - vii*/IV] - IV - [ii/V - vi/V - vii*/V] - V - I

While the real background (and overall picture) is simply I - vi - IV - V - I
That beautiful sense of complicated simplicity is magic.

I saw recently where someone took a tritone variation of the chord he was going to. Let's talk actual letters here. Something like I - IV - V - I in C major would be:

C E G - F A C - G B D - C E G

And he put in the tritones between, like this:

C E G - b d# f# - F A C - c# e# g# - G B D - f# a# c# - C E G

You can get interesting sounds this way.

Now, in reality, whatever works to you works to you. You can breathe whatever you want into life because you say so. It's your music. You're the overall sayer of what goes on in your music. If you like the way that the ii13#11b9 moving to a Fr+6 chord sounds, then by all means, go for it. Your imagination is all the 'spice' your chord progression needs.

__________________
It's just another day.

blastingas10

About the first technique you address here, would those "filler" chords just be used as passing chords?