All About Chords, part 1

by Darrin Koltow

How does this sound: instead of sitting down with a bunch of boring theory textbooks, you can use
*music* to understand how harmony and chords work on the guitar. Does that sound like a cool way to
learn about guitar harmony?

If you think so, then that's how we'll start our exploration of chords: with a tune. Actually, a chunk from
a tune. Let's check it out.

Strum each of these chords twice, anywhere on the fretboard.

C, Am, F, G7, C

Now, let's work backwards to understand just how this musical phrase *works*, in terms of the chords
that we find in it.

G7 to C

Look at the last chord change: G7 to C. Why do we play this? Why not play an Eb7b9 or an F#13b5? Or
even something simple like an F major? What's so great about a G7? Well, play those other chords with
C, and listen to what your ear says about each. That will give you the best answer.

The most satisfying chord to play before the C is the G7. What the heck does that mean: "satisfying?" It
partially means what we *expect* to hear, what we are accustomed to hearing, and what we've heard in
a billion other phrases and tunes.

So, what is it about the G7 that makes playing it before C so satisfying? A few things. Let's talk about
'em:

- The sweet note of the G7: B

- The no-no interval, or tritone
- The movement of a perfect 4th up from G to C

Let's look at each of these under our musical magnifying glass.

The sweet note

The sweet note of a chord is its third: In G7, that's a B. Play a G7 without a B and you'll see why B is
sweet.

The G7 sounds pretty drab without that B, doesn't it? It's like putting up a Christmas tree but not
decorating it. Let's put that B back in before things get out of hand.

The B is what gives the G7 its peppy, optimistic sound. And there's another reason why B is important in
helping G7 to C sound satisfying.

B is just a wee little bitty bit shy, one half-step shy to be exact, from C. This closeness of B to C causes
tension. It's like that box of chocolate Pop Tarts way up on the top shelf that the little kid can almost but
not quite reach. We like to have this tension and resolution combo, and the B helps provide it.

The no-no interval, or tritone

There's another reason why the G7 moves so satisfyingly to the C. It's called the tritone interval. This
interval will make your straight hair curly, your milk go sour, and will propel the G7 smack into the C
with cataclysmic force. (That last sentence sounds great if you pretend you're Charlton Heston.)

The tritone is an *interval*, which means it's two notes: B and F. Play a B and an F, listening to how
unusual they sound together and how much tension they produce. In fact, play this tab:

Listen
Tritone to minor 6th

This movement of the unstable tritone to the stable minor 6th (the C and E notes) is another reason why
G7 to C sounds good.

By the way, there's an interesting newsgroup message that relates some of the beliefs that Ancient
Greeks and others had about the tritone. To read this message, surf to this subdomain:
groups.google.com. When you're there, click Advanced Groups Search. Then, enter this text in the box
that reads "Message ID": cornell.791886334@michigan

Up a fourth

What's the last reason why G7 to C will put a smile in your step and a twang in your Tang? What's the
root of the G7? The G. What's the root of the C chord? The C. What's the interval between these two
roots, G and C? A perfect fourth. *Chord movement by an ascending perfect fourth generally sounds
good.*

We can even take that a bit further by saying that a huge number of chord movements in most types of
songs use ascending perfect fourths (or a descending perfect 5th).

Listen to some examples of this interval: play a D note followed by a G note. Just play notes now, not
chords. Then, play a G followed by a C note, and an A followed by a D. Now, let's flesh this idea out by
playing a chord progression that moves only in fourths. Play this:

C, F, B dim, Em, Am, Dm, G7, C

Notice I said "fourths" and not perfect fourths. Almost all of the movements here are ascending perfect
fourths. One movement, from F to B, is not a perfect fourth, but our furry friend the tritone.

How does this progression in all fourths sound to you? Personally, I think it's pretty cool. Ya got tension
from the B dim and G7, ya got a mix of all the chord types in the major scale: minor, diminished, major,
and you're moving by one of your ear's favorite intervals: the ascending perfect fourth. All is well with
the universe. Go in peace.

What can you do with it?

What can we use this all fourths progression for? For one thing, use it to write tunes. Let's say you've
come up with a melody and you don't know what chords to put to it. No problem. Assuming the melody
is in C major, sing the melody while strumming the all fourths progression given a little while ago. Play it
slowly; listen carefully; feel the Force...whoa, sorry. Wrong movie.

Chances are, your melody will sound pretty good over those chords for at least some of the notes.
Wherever it doesn't sound so good, either change the melody, or swap out the chord.

How to practice

The V7-I progression is pretty important, so you want to practice it in as many keys as you can manage.
The progression we did in this section is in C. Let's transpose the progression to other common keys.

Keep in mind that you can play the following chords anywhere on the fretboard at least at first. Don't
worry about playing a particular voicing, playing all over the neck, or playing on just a certain string or
strings. Just play the form of the chord you feel most comfy with.

Let's do V7-I in these keys: F, G, A, E, D and for extra credit, Gb.

Here are the chords:

Key F: C7, F
Key G: D7, G
Key A: E7, A
Key E: B7, E
Key D: A7, D
Key Gb: Db7, Gb

Now, that shows *what* to practice. But, *how* do you practice 'em? That breaks down into where to
practice 'em, then how often, and other questions.

First, as said a short while ago, play the above progressions in each key wherever you feel most
comfortable playing them. This would likely mean open position chords if you're a beginner.

Practice the V7-I progressions until you can play them in time with a metronome. Start with 90 BPM,
and play a phrase like this:

| V7 V7 | I I | V7 V7 | I I |

In other words, strum the V7 twice, then the one twice, and repeat that sequence. Then, go on to the
next key. This might be more fun if you had a playalong partner to do it with. So, here's the midi file
that you can use for that: FiveOne5keys

And here is the notation for the V7-I progressions in the list above:

Once you get good at playing these progressions, you'll want to keep playing *while you switch keys*.
In other words, if you're strumming along to G7 and C, you'd want to have a buddy or a computer
program call out the next key at random. "Key A!" "Key E!" and so on. It's your job and your joy to play
through without missing a beat.

In the next installment of All About Chords, we'll look at why chords are built in thirds, the progression
every guitarist must