Chord Notes?

[Journey55]

Hello, I was wondering if you guys could give me a list or some sort of chart that shows what notes are in commonly used chords (like Maj, Min, and 7th chords)?

[funkybass]

Major 7th chords- root,third, fifth, seventh
Minor 7th - root,b3,5,b7
Dominate 7-root,3,5,7
Major 6- root,3,5,6
Sus4- root,4,5
Add9-root,3,5,9
Min7b5- root,b3,b5b7
Minor 9-root,b3,5,b7,9
Augmented-root,3,#5
diminished-1,b3,b5

[Journey55]

Originally Posted by funkybass

Major 7th chords- root,third, fifth, seventh
Minor 7th - root,b3,5,b7
Dominate 7-root,3,5,7
Major 6- root,3,5,6
Sus4- root,4,5
Add9-root,3,5,9
Min7b5- root,b3,b5b7
Minor 9-root,b3,5,b7,9
Augmented-root,3,#5
diminished-1,b3,b5

For these do you take the scale that correlates to the key signature for the chord notes or something else?

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by Journey55

For these do you take the scale that correlates to the key signature for the chord notes or something else?

Yes.

Now for the something else. Key signature will tell you the key. If that is E major then you use the E major scale or E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D# for all of the E chords. Now if you had an F# chord in the song you would use the F# scale to make the F# chord. Or, know how to stack 3rds of the E scale to get the notes for that F# chord - which by the way would be an F#m chord. Long story, be glad to go into detail should you need.

Or use my old friend.

Major Scale Box. 

G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string

See an E major chord and using the above major scale box place the box's R over an E note on your fretboard and play the R-3-5 scale degrees of the pattern. See a C#m chord - place the pattern over the C# note on your fretboard and then use the R-b3-5 - because it's minor. Once you place the box and know what chord degrees you need the box will automatically have the correct notes under your fingers.

Memory pegs - all chords have a root and a five. Major chords will also have a 3, minor chords will have a b3, diminished chords will have a b3 and a b5. Maj7 chords will have a 3 and a 7. Dominant seventh chords will have a 3 and a b7. Minor seventh chords will have a b3 and a b7. As I never go beyond a 7th chord - leaving all the 9, 11, 13 etc. to the solo instruments those few memory pegs and the box will play 95% of what I do.

Not the only way, but, that "something else" you asked about.

[Warfender]

Know your intervals. Every 3rd note from the note you land on is a chord tone.

[lowendfriend]

Check out studybass.com and they'll give you a good grounding in chords and scales with lots of tools and help for free.

[Chris K]

Study the following watching a piano keyboard; you need to visualize this.

Chords are built from scales, by stacking thirds. From any note, the nearest is called the second, the second nearest is called the third.

Any major scale across two octaves (like CDEFGABCDEFGABC) can be represented by the numbers 1 -16 (in this case C =1, D =2 etc.) If you leave out every second number, you get two rows:

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 and 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16. These rows contain all chords that can be built from a major scale. These are called diatonic chords.

From scales we build triads: try to remember their sound/character and their names:
1 3 5 major (like C E G)
2 4 6 minor
3 5 7 minor
4 6 8 major
5 7 9 major
6 8 10 minor
7 9 11 diminished

We can also build 7th chords; try to remember their sound and their names:
1 3 5 7 major7 (maj7) (like C E G B)
2 4 6 8 minor7 (m7)
3 5 7 9 minor7
4 6 8 10 major7
5 7 9 11 dominant 7 (7)
6 8 10 12 minor7
7 9 11 13 half diminished (7b5)

good luck

[Phil Smith]

Originally Posted by Journey55

For these do you take the scale that correlates to the key signature for the chord notes or something else?

Yes and no...sometimes the chord you see will have notes not in the key signature.

Take "Autumn Leaves" in G minor for example:



There are a couple of chords with notes not in the "key" of G minor. Namely the D7b13(D F# A C E Bb), Gb7(Gb Bb Db Fb) and E7(E G# B D). This means you need to be able to spell out the chord independent of the key signature and that means fully understanding what the chord notation "shorthand" really means.

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by funkybass

Dominate 7-root,3,5,7

@ funkybass: I'm sure you meant
Dominant 7: R 3 5 b7

@Journey55:
those numbers directly map to intervals from the root note of the chord in question.
So in the key of C major you get a G dominant chord, it's R 3 5 b7 from the G, not from C.
So yes, know your 12 intervals.