Invert the Chords > Lose the Pick > Play Smoke on the Water
Montreux, Switzerland: 1971. Frank Zappa and the Mother’s of Invention play a concert in the theatre of the Montreux Casino on Lake Geneva. Deep Purple is in attendance, preparing to record Machine Head using a mobile studio rented from the Rolling Stones. Unwisely, someone shoots a flare gun into the rattan ceiling.
BAM: “Smoke on the Water” – #426 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (now available on your iPad). The first riff learned by generations of long-haired young rockers. Learned wrong. That is, incorrectly.
Ritchie Blackmore himself discusses the problem here. Most beginners want to play the power chords in root position, as fifths. They are actually inverted, and played as fourths. And most use a pick to strum the notes. They should be plucked and played as a double stop.
By plucking the notes, they can be sounded (and muted) simultaneously, giving the riff a machine-like feel. David Young gives an excellent walk-through on the ilearntoplay channel.
By combining what we learned in how to Build Piano Chords with our knowledge of Basic Intervals, we are ready to move beyond the triad. First stop: seventh chords.
Take a basic triad and add a note that is a seventh above the root to form a seventh chord. There are several different types of seventh chords, distinguished by both the type of triad and the type of seventh used. Here’s how to form the most common seventh chords in root position.
Major Seventh chord = major triad + major seventh
Seventh(or “dominant seventh”) chord = major triad + minor seventh
Minor Seventh chord = minor triad + minor seventh
Half-diminished Seventh chord = diminished triad + minor seventh
Diminished Seventh chord = diminished triad + diminished seventh (half step lower than a minor seventh)
An easy way to remember where each seventh is:
The major seventh is one half step below the octave.
The minor seventh is one half step below the major seventh.
The diminished seventh is one half step below the minor seventh.
You can step through each of the above seventh chords by starting with the major seventh and dropping one note a half step for each type: [click to continue…]
From our last post on Building Piano Chords, you should be able to form root position chords in any key. Root position simply means that the chord is played with the root as the lowest note. (The root is the reference note for a chord: the tone the chord is built on and named after. The tonic is the reference note for a scale.)
For a C Major chord, the root position has C as the lowest (or bass) note. This is the normal form of a chord — for example, C, E. G.
When a note other than the root is in the lowest position, the chord is said to be inverted. The first inversion of a C chord has E as the bottom note, for example, E, G, C. The second inversion has G in the bass, e.g., G, C, E. These are labeled as examples because the notes above the bass note can be in any order, it is the lowest note that defines the chord form.
Mario Ajero does a nice job of showing inversions, and teaches you the intro to “Let It Be” along the way.
If you’re a beginning guitarist, this is the place to start. Do as Justin suggests and learn the open D, A, and E chords first. With those, you can play a few hundred songs. Add the next five, and you can play a few thousand. As always, the video supplements are thorough and helpful. Here’s the D chord video:
If you find these lessons helpful, MMT encourages you to visit Justin’s site at justinguitar.com, and make a donation there.
Here’s Nate again, this time with a lesson on building chords in the key of G Major. From the last lesson on scales and the circle of fifths, you’ll remember that the key of G Major has one sharp: F#. So the scale runs as follows: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G.
The most basic chord is a triad, which consists of three notes stacked in thirds. To build a Major chord, start with a major 3rd, then stack a minor third on top. The G Major chord is a triad consisting of notes G, B, and D. G to B is a major 3rd, and B to D is a minor 3rd. In the lesson you’ll see that you can build chords by playing every other note in a scale.
Moving up a whole step and playing A, C, and E simultaneously produces an A minor chord. As you approach the top of the scale, extend it another octave to fill out the chords. For example, to form a D Major chord, you would press D (skip E), F# (skip G), and A.
Now for the good stuff. Take what you learned and move it down to C. Starting with notes 1, 3, and 5 (C-E-G), move the shape up the keyboard until you reach the C Major chord one octave higher. By playing every other note on just the white keys, you will play the following chord progression: C Major, D minor, E minor, F Major, G Major, A minor, and B diminished.
This progression of Major, minor, and diminished chords is the same for every major scale. The chords are often referred to by their position in the scale, and indicated by the corresponding Roman numeral.
Chord Symbols, Chords, Scale Degrees, Notes and Intervals in the Key of C Major
Roman numeral
I
ii
iii
IV
V
vi
vii°
Chords
C
D minor
E minor
F
G
A minor
B dim
Scale degrees
tonic
supertonic
mediant
subdominant
dominant
submediant
leading tone
Scale Notes
C
D
E
F
G
A
B
Interval from C
Perfect
unison
Major
2nd
Major
3rd
Perfect
4th
Perfect
5th
Major
6th
Major
7th
Harmony in Western music relies mainly on the primary triads: those built on the tonic (I), subdominant (VI), and dominant (V) scale degrees noted above. The chords themselves are often referred to by the Roman numerals I, IV, and V, which in the key of C would be C Major, F Major, and G Major.
While it’s not important to immediately memorize all of the names and nuances of notation, it is critical to understand the relationships between keys, chords, and scale degrees. Just knowing I, IV, V will take you a long way, since most popluar music is based on these three chords, sometimes with one or two others mixed in. Once you are comfortable building chords in common keys, it’s time to move on to chord progressions.
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