How to read chord charts.

[Yngwie 4String]

Yeah I can play some chords, but Id like to know how to read the charts that look like this:

Thanks in advance.

[santucci218]

hmm...can you get a bigger copy of that image?

[Yngwie 4String]

I cant seam to find a bigger image, so I tried to blow it up but it distorted.

[DocBop]

That really isn't a chord chart, its a chart of arpeggio/chord fingerings. The term chord chart usually refers to a piece of music with chords only written above the measures. So will saying wanting any piece of music that has chord symbols written above the measures.

You'll learn more creating your own chart of arpeggio fingerings.
Play your scale to be simple use your C major scale and your favorite fingering. Play up and down the scale and don't stop at the root up up to the 9th and down to 6th below, whatever lays conveniently for the fingering pattern.

Now play the triad of each chord of the harmonized scale for that fingering. Play the C maj, D mi, Emi, F maj, G maj, A mi, B dim, C maj. Play them in order going up and back down the scale, you might have to add a shift to grab a couple notes depending on the fingering pattern you choose. Now do the same thing only this time play up to the 7th. So CMa7, Dmi7, Emi7, FMa7, G7, Ami7, Bmi7b5, CMa7. Got it, now write it down and start your own chart.

To really learn music you have to sit down and figure this stuff out. You figure it out you learn more and it sticks better than buys some chart mucking with it. This why players spend hours in the woodshed working stuff like this out and then playing it. You not only learn the one thing you started to work on, but usually have a few other awe-ha moments while doing it.

Now you have C major and its chord fingering figured out, you only eleven more keys to go and four or so major scale fingering patterns left to go.

[hbarcat]

That's just a chart of common chords superimposed on a bass neck instead of the usual guitar neck. To get the most out of it, it's necessary to have a good understanding of how chords work (such as what makes a Cmaj, Cm, C7, etc...) and how they fit into a progression and other music theory concepts like scales and modes. This chart won't help with that; it's just going to show you where the notes are on the neck.

[Yngwie 4String]

Now play the triad of each chord of the harmonized scale for that fingering. Play the C maj, D mi, Emi, F maj, G maj, A mi, B dim, C maj. Play them in order going up and back down the scale, you might have to add a shift to grab a couple notes depending on the fingering pattern you choose. Now do the same thing only this time play up to the 7th. So CMa7, Dmi7, Emi7, FMa7, G7, Ami7, Bmi7b5, CMa7. Got it, now write it down and start your own chart.

Im 100% self taught and never had a formal lesson until this year. So a lot of what you said didnt make since to me, I just havent learn all that yet. I understand that you want me to start with Cmajor wich is

E:8, 10; A:7, 8, 10; D:7, 9, 10 then play it backwards.

then I think your saying to go right into Dminor, Eminor, Fmajor, Gmajor, A minor, B diminished, C major again. I have a book of scales in standard notation and tablature so I can figure them out. You want me to just play them all back to back right?

Then you want me to play them all again back to back but stop on the 7th note of each scale.

My thing is I dont see how playing these diferent scales will help me create chords. I also dont know what a triad is, or a harmonized scale. So if you can break that down for me Id appreciate it. I want to learn this stuff.

[bburk]

No, he wants you to play the triads (to start)

Start on the C at the 3rd fret of the A string. Look at the C chord in the chart. It shows the C at the 3rd fret, the E at the 2nd fret of the D string, the G at the 5th fret of the D string and the C at the 5th fret of the G string. If you play your major scale pattern starting at that C (A string) you will notice that the first, third, fifth and eighth notes correspond to those in the chart.

The first third and fifth notes of any scale are known as the triad and the triad is the most basic chord structure. If you just play the notes in the triad sequentially, you are playing an arpeggio. This is how bassists commonly outline a chord without playing an actual chord.

Now you can use the same scale pattern but start on the D (5th fret A string) and play only the first, third and fifth notes [and the octave]). D (5th fret A string), F (3rd fret D string), A (2nd fret G string), and if you shift back to the octave D (7th fret G string). This will outline a Dminor triad (look at D minor in the chart).

Now go ahead and move through all the other scale tones, outlining their corresponding triads. Emi, F maj, G maj, A mi, B dim, C maj. It may help to switch back to starting on the open E for the Emi.

There you go, now you know all the triads in the key of C.

Take your time and learn the notes in the scale and their chords. Learn both the scales and the triads with the open strings as well.

Good luck.

[gre107]

The chart is showing you the chord tones of a specific chord in a single position. Not appregios.

Chord tones are the I, III, V, and VII (The chart does not show 7ths though) of a scale (Major, Minor, Dom7, Dim7 etc...)

Chords are built from scales. Play every other note of a major scale stopping at the third note you play and you have outlined a major chord. (Appregio) Start on the second note of a major scale and do the same stoping on the 3rd note and you have appregiated a minor II chord.

If you want to play chords you play a group of notes at the same time. E.g. I, VII and III If this is a C major chord you would play C B and E skip the 5 (G) note if you want because it is so close to the I (or C) note that it makes no real difference in tonality to the chord voicing.

When playing through "Chord Charts" it is up to you to play notes that are in or not in the chord. A Real book is a common example of chord charts.

The chart that you show is pretty limited. You need to know and be able to play all of the notes on the instrument that fall in a chord. Otherwise you constrict yourself to playing in a limited area of the neck. You end up bouncing back and forth to specific positions when playing between chords and your playing will sound "choppy" and not fluid. Learning the modes apregios and various scales in all keys will remedy this.

If you get a theory for beginers book this will help a good deal to understand how harmony works and what you need to do to and then you will be able to make it your own.

All the best,

Gerry

[adammazza]

Docbop question on what you suggested. I'm just starting out and practicing some of the same things you suggested. What you are really doing is basically playing through all the modes of C major? For example D dorian, E phygian, etc? Is it not right to really think of them that way?

Does it also make sense to practice the inversions for each of these? For example I've been working on C major arpeggios and the various inversions, CEGB, EGBC, GBCE, etc up through 2 octaves. Though as I just wrote that I see I am basically hitting the arpeggios for 4 of those modes anyway.

Regards,

Adam

[bburk]

Originally Posted by adammazza

Docbop question on what you suggested. I'm just starting out and practicing some of the same things you suggested. What you are really doing is basically playing through all the modes of C major? For example D dorian, E phygian, etc? Is it not right to really think of them that way?

Does it also make sense to practice the inversions for each of these? For example I've been working on C major arpeggios and the various inversions, CEGB, EGBC, GBCE, etc up through 2 octaves. Though as I just wrote that I see I am basically hitting the arpeggios for 4 of those modes anyway.

Regards,

Adam

He is not suggesting that you play through the modes. He is suggesting that you play all of the triads in the C major scale. Then move onto arpeggios of the 7 chords, then onto all the other keys.

This is not the same as playing through modes as it's usually done as scales. The modes tell you what chord to play, but you are just playing arpeggios. For example for both Dorian and Phrygian you are playing a minor7 arpeggio, even though the underlying scale is different. It's fine to think of the underlying mode when playing the chord, but don't confuse chords and modes.

[Yngwie 4String]

I think I kind of get it. Ill have to devote more time when I get a chance, but I think I have a basic undestanding of what is going on. Thank you very much guys.

-Zach

[adammazza]

Thanks, I wasn't suggesting to play through the modes, but for me at the stage I'm at it's easier for me think about all the traids based off the the modes, since I cam play through the modes, and don't yet know the notes in all the various keys off the top of my head.

Adam

[Yngwie 4String]

Start on the C at the 3rd fret of the A string. Look at the C chord in the chart. It shows the C at the 3rd fret, the E at the 2nd fret of the D string, the G at the 5th fret of the D string and the C at the 5th fret of the G string. If you play your major scale pattern starting at that C (A string) you will notice that the first, third, fifth and eighth notes correspond to those in the chart.

The first third and fifth notes of any scale are known as the triad and the triad is the most basic chord structure. If you just play the notes in the triad sequentially, you are playing an arpeggio. This is how bassists commonly outline a chord without playing an actual chord.

so then by by playing A:3 D:2 D:5 and G:5 together I should construct the chord of C? My problems with this is that first you cant play D:2 and D:5 simultaneusly because only D:5 will count. Also its a supposed to be a tried meaning 3 notes together A:3 D:2 D:5 and G:5 is four notes. So I missed something.

[bburk]

Originally Posted by adammazza

Thanks, I wasn't suggesting to play through the modes, but for me at the stage I'm at it's easier for me think about all the traids based off the the modes, since I cam play through the modes, and don't yet know the notes in all the various keys off the top of my head.

Adam

Like I said, I think it's totally fine (in fact, it's probably the best way) to think of the chords based on the modes. This will help you when you have to start thinking about chord extensions, which is where the underlying modes really make a big difference.

To answer you question about inversions; Yes, of course it's useful to practice the inversions.

Be careful though.

CEGB, EGBC, GBCE are not the chords for any mode except for the key of C major Ionian mode. You might be able to play it over other modes, but strictly speaking in this context those notes outline CMaj7. The notes for the Phrygian mode in the key of C outline a Emin7 chord: EGBD -- not EGBC. Similarly for the Mixolydian mode (G7) GBDF -- not GBCE.

[bburk]

Originally Posted by 4StringFury

so then by by playing A:3 D:2 D:5 and G:5 together I should construct the chord of C? My problems with this is that first you cant play D:2 and D:5 simultaneusly because only D:5 will count. Also its a supposed to be a tried meaning 3 notes together A:3 D:2 D:5 and G:5 is four notes. So I missed something.

That's the difference between a chord and an arpeggio. All that chart shows you is where the chord tones are, not chord fingerings. if you wanted to, you could play (using you notation A:3, D:2, G:0 to play the entire triad. But that sounds pretty crappy in most contexts.

A bassist almost always outlines a chord by playing the chord tones in some sequence, rather then an actual chord (all notes at once).

I'm not saying that you can't play chords on a bass, you can. But for now, you should just concentrate on playing the arpeggios until you get more comfortable with chord structure.

The triad part is just the first, third and fifth notes. However, G:5 is also C, so that's the octave which is often played as part of the arpeggio. It's still only 3 different notes, but four different pitches. The 2 C's are basically interchangeable. So, try playing octave arpeggios up and back like this C E G C G E C E G C G E C and so on as you would practice a scale.


Any book on basic music theory will cover all of these questions in much more detail then you are likely to get here. This is really the fundamentals of music, and I definately suggest you pick up a book if you are rusty on this stuff.

[Yngwie 4String]

I know that bassist typically dont play cords, but right now I not in a band. I want to make the absolute most out of my instrument. Which to me means doing everything it is capable of. Im in a music theory course right now, but we are early in the year. Working on key signatures right now which is pretty easy for me.

[hunta]

I play chords on bass all the time. It's all about the voicing, and which chord tones you leave out. Aside from simple Major and Minor triads (Usually just root and 3rd) and the trusty power chord, I tend to use Major 7 (no 5th), Minor 7 (no 5th), Dom 7 (no 5th), and Major 10 (just root and 10th), and sus2. If you play them right it sounds great.