***************************************
*** GUIDE TO CHORD FORMATION
***
***************************************
Written by Howard Wright
Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk
Last
update 11th October 1996
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*** Copyright Howard Wright and the
olga-grunts ***
***
***
***
This document may be distributed freely as long as NO CHARGE is made ***
*** and
my name and email address are not removed. If you want to edit ***
*** or
re-format this document for public consumption, please contact me ***
***
first. If you try to make any money by selling this guide to chord ***
***
theory, in part or as a whole, you will be struck down by a bolt of ***
***
lightning. Probably. ***
****************************************************************************
CONTENTS
:
-----------
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Intervals
2.1 Interval flavours
2.2 Table of Intervals
3.0 Triads :
3.1 Major and minor triads
3.2 Suspended triads
4.0 7th chords :
4.1 Minor 7ths
4.2 Major and dominant 7ths
5.0 6th chord
6.0 9ths, 11ths, 13ths :
6.1 'normal' 9th, 11th and 13th chords
6.2 minor 9th, 11th and 13th chords
6.3 major 9th, 11th and 13th chords
7.0 X/Y type chords
8.0 'Add' chords and chromatic notes
9.0 diminished, half diminished and augmented
chords
Appendix
A : The Chromatic Scale
Appendix
B : List of all major and minor triads
Appendix
C : Circle of 5ths and Key Signatures
*****************************
*** 1.0
INTRODUCTION ***
*****************************
The
idea of this FAQ is to give you the information you need to be
able to
work out and understand which notes make up a certain chord.
Using
this FAQ you will be able to :
Work
out the notes you need for *any* chord.
Work
out what chord name should be given to a particular bunch of
notes.
A lot
of people are put off from delving into a little chord theory
because
there seems so much to learn, it often seems confusing, and
it's
hard to give hard and fast rules. When
someone posts a chord
shape
and asks 'What is the name of this chord' there are usually at
least
four different replies given. It is true that in a lot of cases
there
is more than one way to look at things, and often a chord
could
be given two names, but it's still surprisingly easy to get
to
grips with the basics of chord names.
What do
you need to know to be able to work out chord names for
yourself
?
Well it
is hard to give 'Golden Rules' of harmony or music theory
which
can be followed to the letter always giving the right answer.
However
there are a small number of basic guidelines which you can
follow
that should take 95% of the mystery away from music theory
as
applied to chords.
First
things first. To work out chord names the first and most
important
skill is to be able to count. Hopefully everybody
mastered
this skill some years ago, so we're off to a good
start.
The
second most important skill is to know the major scale.
Most
people will be pretty familiar with this too, but in any
case it
is very easy to learn.
The
scale is characterised by the distances between successive notes.
If we
choose G as our starting point, it goes like this :
Note of
the scale Distance up from root
note Actual note
------------------------------------------------------------------
1
(root note) 0 G
2
2 semitones A
3 4 semitones B
4 5 semitones C
5 7 semitones D
6 9 semitones E
7 11 semitones F#
8 12 semitones G
***
Important note for all you folks in America ***
Over in
Britain we have things called tones and semitones.
>From
what I know, you have things called whole steps and half steps.
The
conversion is :
One
tone = one whole step
One
semitone = one half step
As I'm
used to writing about tones/semitones, those are the words you'll see.
I think
you can translate easily enough to steps/half steps.
***
Another note for people in Germany and Scandinavia ***
I will
use the British conventions for note names - so there will be Bs and
Bbs. To
'translate' :
German/Scandinavian British/Others
H = B
B = Bb
Likewise,
if any of you that are used to Bs and Bbs see chord names like
H7, use
the above to translate back.
Anyway
...
The
pattern of tones and semitones is what characterises the scale.
Obviously
you can choose whatever note you like to start on, but if
you
simply count up in semitones, using the middle column above,
you
will get the major scale of that note.
It
makes things easier if we refer to the notes of the scale as
'the
7th' or 'the 3rd'. If we know we are talking about a major
scale
and we know what the starting note is, then we can work out
what
the '7th' or '3rd' of that scale is. We
use this idea to
"spell
out" chords - this is where you say something like :
The
major chord is made up of 1st 3rd 5th
This
means choose your starting note (the 1st) find the 3rd and 5th
of it's
major scale and you have the right notes for the chord.
The
advantage of this method is that it can be used to find *any*
major
chord - you just change the starting note.
If you
want to put in a little effort, you can quite easily learn
the
major scales of every key. That way you don't have to actually
count
up in semitones every time you want to find the 5th of a certain
key.
(See Appendix C)
BUT -
if you want to keep things really simple, counting will work
just as
well.
So, a
little example.
You
want to find out what notes are in a D major chord.
Your
starting note or root note is D (the 1st)
To get
the 3rd of the major scale count up 4 semitones - F#
To get
the 5th count up 7 semitones - A
So the
notes are : D F# and A
So all
this chord stuff comes down to these 3rds, 5ths and so on.
These
are called INTERVALS.
************************
*** 2.0
INTERVALS ***
************************
This is
a way of referring to notes by desribing the 'distances'
between
them.
In the
G major scale above, we can see that the distance between the
1st
note (or root note) and the 2nd note is 2 semitones - this is
called
a 2nd
The
distance between the root note (G) and the 3rd note in the scale
is 4
semitones - this is called a 3rd
Pretty
easy so far.
All you
need to do is count up from the root note using notes of the
scale,
and if you end up on the 5th note of the scale you have a 5th,
if
you're on the 7th note, you've got a 7th.
Surely
it can't be that simple ... ?
*********************************
*** 2.1
INTERVAL FLAVOURS ***
*********************************
Well
not quite. As well as major scales, there are minor scales.
You
could also have a 'weird' note or chromatic note that didn't
fit
into either scale.
To cope
with this, the intervals come in different flavours.
You can
have a minor 3rd or a major 3rd.
You can
have a normal 5th (perfect 5th) or an augmented 5th.
You can
have a 9th or a flat 9th
All
that changes here is that the 'distance' or interval is either
stretched
or squeezed by one semitone (half step).
So a
minor 3rd is a semitone less than a major 3rd.
An
augmented 5th is a semitone more than a perfect 5th.
You
will see a few different terms her which mean the same thing.
* An AUGMENTED or SHARP interval means one
semitone higher.
* A DIMINISHED or FLAT interval means one
semitone lower.
You
also have minor and major intervals which differ by a
semitone
- the minor interval is one semitone lower than
the
major interval.
Here is
a table of intervals with their corresponding 'distances' in
semitones.
********************************
*** 2.2
TABLE OF INTERVALS ***
********************************
Semitones Interval
-----------------------
0
Unison
1
flat 2nd
2
2nd
3
minor 3rd
4
major 3rd
5
perfect 4th
6
flat 5th (diminished 5th or augmented 4th)
7
perfect 5th
8
minor 6th (or sharp
5th/augmented 5th)
9
major 6th
10
minor 7th (flat 7th)
11
major 7th
12
octave
13
flat 9th
14
9th
15
sharp 9th/minor 10th (just minor 3rd one octave higher)
16
major 10th (just major 3rd
one octave higher)
17
11th
18
augmented 11th
19
perfect 12th (octave above perfect 5th)
20
flat 13th
21
13th
So to
work out any particular note, say the major 6th of an A major
scale,
start with A, find the distance for a major 6th (9 semitones)
and
just count up from A.
You
should end up with F#, so this is a major 6th up from A.
(see
chromatic scale - Appendix A)
So, to
recap. Chords are described or 'spelled
out' using intervals.
These
intervals tell you far above the root note the other notes of
the
chord are. By using the table above you can find out how many
semitones
you need to move up for any given interval.
Here is
a simple example.
Bm7 -
the spelling for this is : 1st, minor
3rd, 5th, minor 7th
Start
with B - count up 3 semitones for a minor 3rd - you get D.
Count
up 7 semitones from B to get the 5th - F#
Count
up 10 semitones to get the minor 7th - A
So the
notes are : B D F# A
So - if
you know the spelling of a particular chord (i.e the
intervals
which describe it) then it's simple to use the table
above
to find out what notes you need.
What if
you don't know the chord spelling ?
If you
just have a chord name, like F#m9, then you need to
know
how this chord is built.
The
basic building blocks of *all* chords are triads.
***********************
*** 3.0
TRIADS ***
***********************
These
are the basic building blocks of chords. A triad is a group of
3 notes
and determines the basic sound of a chord.
E.g if
the chord is a minor chord, it will be based on a minor triad.
If the
chord is major, it will be based on a major triad.
3.1
- Major and Minor triads
----------------------------------
The
major and minor triads are made up form these notes :
1st 3rd 5th
but
REMEMBER - use a minor 3rd for the minor triad, and the major
3rd for
the major triad.
A list
of all major and minor triads is given at the end of this
FAQ
(Appendix B). If you want to learn them, it makes life easier,
but
it's easy enough to just count up in semitones from the root note
to get
the notes for any triad you're interested in.
The
only difference between a major *chord* and a major *triad* is
that a
chord will usually have more than 3 notes, so you just
double
up on some of them. The root (1st) is most likely to
be
doubled, but you can double up on the 1st, 3rd or 5th,
although
you will get subtly different sounds.
Take C
major for example.
C major
triad = 1st, major 3rd, 5th = C E G
Everybody
knows this chord :
EADGBE
x32010
C
If we
look at the notes, we see it has :
(low to
high) : C E G C E
Which
is the same as : 1st 3rd 5th 1st 3rd
So here
the 1st and 3rd have been doubled.
Remember
that the root note must always be the lowest
note of
the chord. If you want to have the 3rd or 5th
at the
bottom of the chord, you have to write it as
C/E or
C/G meaning a C chord with an E (or G) bass.
See
section 7.0 for more details on X/Y type chords.
3.2
- Suspended triads
-------------------------------
The
thing to remember here is that the 3rd has been replaced
with
another note - either the 2nd or the 4th.
So
whereas with major and minor triads you have the 3rd to give
the
'flavour' of the chord (i.e major or minor), with suspended
triads
you have no 3rd, so the chord is neither major nor
minor.
A
suspended 4th triad would be : 1st 4th
5th
A
suspended 2nd triad would be : 1st 2nd
5th
As with
major and minor chords, you just double up on notes
to go
from the triad to the chord.
BUT -
you almost never double the 'suspended' note - you usually
only
double the 1st or 5th.
So take
Asus4 as our example.
Asus4
triad is : 1st 4th 5th = A D E
The
shape is :
EADGBE
x02230
Asus4
The
spelling for this is :
(low to
high) : A E A D E (1st 5th 1st 4th 5th)
So here
the 1st and 5th appear twice in the chord, with just one 4th.
So now
I've covered major and minor chords, suspended 2nd and suspended 4th
chords.
****************************
*** 4.0
7th Chords ***
****************************
4.1
- Minor 7ths
----------------------------
For
minor chords there is one common type of 7th - the minor 7th.
As you
might expect, you start with the minor triad, then add
the
minor 7th.
So, as
an example lets take D minor 7th (Dm7)
The
spelling is : 1st, minor 3rd, 5th, minor 7th
Using
the table of intervals above, we count up from D to get
the
other notes.
To get
the min 3rd, count up 3 semitones - F
To get
the 5th count up 7 semitones - A
To get
the min 7th count up 10 semitones - C
So Dm7
is made up of the notes : D F A C
If you
use the open D string for th D note, you could
use
these two shapes :
EADGBE
EADGBE
xx0211
xx0565
Dm7
Dm7
Min/maj
7th chords
-------------------
There
is another chord called the min/maj7th. This is a bit
of a
weird fish, but you might come across it once in a
while.
It's made up by taking the minor triad and adding
the
major 7th to it.
So
Dm/maj7th would be : D F A C#
4.2
- Major 7ths and flat 7ths
(dominant 7ths)
--------------------------------------------------------
With
major triads you can build 2 types of 7th chord.
If you
add the major 7th of the scale, you get the major 7th
chord.
If you add the *flat* 7th to the major triad you get
the
so-called dominant 7th chord.
When
guitarists talk about '7th chords' as in 12-bar blues etc,
then
they mean chords with the *flat* 7th.
Major
7th chords are written as Cmaj7, Dmaj7 etc but the flat 7
or
'blues' 7th is written simply as C7, D7 etc.
So for
a major 7th chord the spelling is :
1st
major 3rd 5th major 7th
If we
start with F as our root, and count up we get this :
Go up 4
semitones from F for major 3rd : A
Go up 7
semitones from F for 5th : C
Go up
11 semitones from F for maj 7th : E
So the
notes of the chord Fmaj7 are : F A C E
To
build an F7 chord, the only difference is that we add a
flat 7
instead of a maj7. So we add an Eb instead of E,
so the
notes of a F7 chord are : F A C Eb
As with
simple triads, you can double up on some of the notes
to make
a chord. With 7th chords you could
double up on
the
root, 3rd, 7th or 5th.
Take a
standard 7th chord, E7 :
EADGBE
020100
The
notes are : E B D G# B E, so the root and 5th have both
been
doubled.
**************************
*** 5.0
6th chords ***
**************************
To make
a 6th chord, start with the triad and add the 6th.
- But
note that the *major 6th* is added to make both major
and
minor 6th chords - the 'minor' or 'major' bit comes from
the
triads.
So -
for a C6 chord, start with a C major triad (CEG) and add
the
major 6th (A).
C6 = C
E G A
For a
Cm6, start with a C minor triad (CEbG) and add the major
6th
(A).
Cm6 = C
Eb G A
6/9 chords
--------------
These are
similar to 6th chords, but they have a 9th added, as you
may
have guessed !
I've
always seen this as major chords, but I guess there's no reason
why you
couldn't have something like Dm6/9
Anyway
they are built up by taking the basic triad, and adding the 6th
and the
9th.
So C6/9
would be : 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th
i.e the
notes are : C E G A D
(The
5th can sometimes be left out)
A nice
shape for this C6/9 would be :
EADGBE
x32233
C 6/9
******************************************
*** 6.0
9th, 11th and 13th chords ***
******************************************
Once
you move beyond 7ths and start adding notes from higher up
the
scale (.eg. 9ths, 11ths, 13ths) there is one very important
thing
to remember.
*** All
of these chords must have a 7th in them ***
Just as
there are 3 types of 7th chord (7th, min 7th, maj 7th)
you end
up with 3 types for 9th 11th and 13th chords by simply
adding
to the basic 7th chord.
To get
a 9th chord, add the 9th to the (flat) 7th chord
To get
a min 9th, add the 9th to the min 7th chord
To get
a maj 9th, add the 9th to the maj 7th chord
To get
11th chords you can add the 11th to the 3 types of
9th
chord, but most ot the time the 9th is not needed, so you
simply
add an 11th to the 7th chords to build the 3 types of
11th
chord, and similarly with 13ths.
If you
have a voicing of a 13th chord that *also* has a 9th or 11th
in it,
then that's fine : it's still a 13th chord, but most of the
time
these chords are just a normal 7th with an added note (9th, 11th
or
13th)
6.1
- 9th 11th and 13th chords
-------------------------------------
The
spelling for chords like C9, C11, C13 (i.e chords built on C7 - so
they
have a flat 7th in them) is :
9th
: 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, flat 7th,
9th
11th : 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, flat 7th, 11th
13th
: 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, flat 7th,
13th
It's
worth noting here that the 5th can be omitted from the chord.
The
*essential* notes for C9, C11 and C13 are the 1st, 3rd, 7th and
9th/11th/13th
6.2
- Minor 9ths, 11ths, 13ths
------------------------------------
The
same principle applies for the minor versions of these chords.
Start
with the minor 7th chord, and add the 9th or 11th or 13th.
So the
spellings are :
For a
minor ninth chord : 1st,
min 3rd, 5th, flat 7th,
9th
For a
minor 11th chord : 1st,
min 3rd, 5th, flat 7th,
11th
For a
minor 13th chord : 1st,
min 3rd, 5th, flat 7th,
13th
As
before, the 5th can be left out, but all other notes must be
in the
chord.
You
could also include the 9th in an 11th chord, or the 9th and
11th in
a 13th chord, but on a guitar this is usually not done.
6.3
- Major 9ths, 11ths, 13ths
-------------------------------------
Again,
a very similar principle. Start with the major 7th chord
and add
the 9th, 11th or 13th.
It's
very important to be clear on the difference between a 7th,
a min
7th and a maj 7th to be able to build these chords correctly !
The
spellings are :
maj 9th
: 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, maj 7th,
9th
maj 11th
: 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, maj 7th,
11th
maj 13th
: 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, maj 7th,
13th
(Again
the 5th is the only optional note)
A quick
example :
To find
the notes for A13 , we have A as the root.
Move up
4 semitones for the maj 3rd : C#
Move up
7 semitones for the 5th : E
Move up
10 semitones for the flat 7th : G
Move up
21 semitones for the 13th : F#
So A13
= A C# E G F#
Note
that when counting up large intervals, like 13ths, you
can
count up 9 semitones (21-12) to get the right note name
since
subtracting 12 just means an octave lower.
BUT -
when forming the chord, the 13th must be at the right
'distance'
from the root - i.e it must be more than an octave
higher
than the root, otherwise it is just an ordinary 6th.
*******************************
*** 7.0
X/Y type chords ***
*******************************
This
seems to be a commonly misunderstood term.
If a
chord is written as something like C/G then it simply
means
that you play the chord given by the first letter, with
the
bass note given by the second letter - in this example, we
have C
major with a G bass note.
Chords
like these may have a bass note which is already part
of the
chord itself, as in this example (C major is made up
of the
notes C E G , so the G bass is part of the chord)
or they
may have a bass note which is 'outside' the chord,
something
like E/A (A is not part of the E major chord).
Working
out what notes are in these type of chords presents
no
extra problems - simply work out the notes in the chord
given
by the first letter, then add the bass note.
These
X/Y type of chords can get more complicated than straight
major/minor
chords with things like Asus2/C#, but the principle
is the
same.
To work
out this chord, start with Asus2.
spelling
= 1st 2nd 5th
look up
the intervals in the table of intervals to get the
number
of semitones you have to count up for each note.
2nd = 2 semitones up from A = B
5th = 7 semitones up from A = E
so
Asus2 = A B E
therefore
Asus2/C# = C# A B E
(it's
standard practice to 'spell' chords from low to high)
***********************************************
*** 8.0
'Add' chords and chromatic chords ***
***********************************************
Just to
recap, here are the triads and chords I've covered so far :
Major,
minor, sus2 and sus4 triads and chords
Major
7th, flat 7th and minor 7th chords
9th,
min 9th, maj 9th, 11th, min 11th, maj 11th,
13th,
min 13th, maj 13th chords
All
other chords fall into the series of chords with 'added' notes
or
chords with altered notes.
---
Added chords ---
Chords
with 'added' notes are just what they sound like.
They
are usually written as something like Cadd2, Cadd4 etc.
Simply
start with the 'base' chord (C in this example) and add
the
appropriate note. You can of course add to any 'base' chord
whether
it's major or minor or whatever.
Be sure
you understand the difference between add2 and sus2 chords,
and
add4 and sus4 chords - the sus chords have the 3rd *replaced* with
another
note. The 'add' chords simply add to the triad, so Cadd2 would
be :
Cadd2 = C triad + 2nd = 1st, 2nd, maj 3rd,
5th
Csus2 = Csus2 triad = 1st, 2nd, 5th
Similarly
there is an important difference between 'add9' and '9'
chords.
A C9 chord *must* have the flat 7th in it (see above), but
the
Cadd9 chord will not - it's just a C major triad with a 9th added.
You can
carry on adding as many notes as you want. If you play around
with
alternative tunings you could quite easily come across chords
like
Aadd2add4, but most of the time you'll just have one added note.
You can
of course add a note to a chord that isn't a simple major
or
minor chord - you can have things like Csus4add9 etc.
---
Altered chords ---
These
are chords with chromatic alterations.
The
5th, 2nd, 4th, 9th etc can all be chromatically altered - i.e
moved
up or down by a semitone (halfstep)
Examples
of this are chords like E7#9 and E7b9
- the 9th of a normal E9 chord has been
sharpened in the E7#9, and
flattened
in the E7b9.
So what
are the notes for these ?
Well,
starting with the 'E7' bit :
E7
= 1st, maj 3rd, 5th, flat
7th =
E, G#, B, D
Now add
the #9 (count up 15 semitones from E) - G
So E7#9
= E G# B D G
Similarly
E7b9 = E G# B D F
There
are a few different ways to write these chords.
'-' and '+' signs are sometimes used to mean
'flat' and
'sharp'
respectively, but 'b' and '#' are used as well.
You
might even see 'dim' and 'aug' (diminished and augmented)
used
too for the same thing.
So E7#9
could be written as E7+9 or E7aug9
and
E7b9 could be written as E7-9 or E7dim9
With
these chromatically altered chords there is almost
no
limit on the number of chords you can create - most
of
these will be used in jazz, but some (like the E7#9)
appear
quite a lot in rock music too.
Too
work out the notes to these types of chord it's best to
start
with the 'basic' chord, then add the chromatic notes
to
this. So , as above for E7#9, start with E7, then add the
#9.
You may
find several chromatic notes in one chord -
like
A13b5b9 - treat it just the same way - build up the
A13
chord, then swap the 5th and 9th for the flat 5th and
flat
9th.
**********************************************
*** 9.0
Diminished and augmented chords ***
**********************************************
The
only chords left to cover are the diminished and augmented.
The
diminished chords is either written as 'dim' or sometimes using
a small
circle like the symbol for degrees.
A
diminished chord is made up of these notes :
1st, min 3rd, flat 5th, double flat 7th
(double
flat 7th is the same note as the major 6th, but it's
usually
written as double flat 7th - don't ask me why !)
So A
diminished would be : A, C, Eb, Gb
As a
point of interest, the intervals between successive notes in a
diminished
chord are ALL minor thirds.
This
means if you start to build a dim chord on a C, you end up
with
the same notes as for the A dim.
In
other words Adim = Cdim = Ebdim = Gbdim
= A+C+Eb+Gb
So when
you play a diminished chord, if you move it up the neck by
3 frets
you still have the same chord !!
There
is also a chord called the half-diminished, or diminished 7th.
I
usually write this one as somthing like E7-5 - just another name for
the
same chord. It's best if you're aware of the different names used
for the
same chord.
The
difference between this one and a 'normal' diminished is that the
7th of
the chord is a flat 7th not a double flat 7th (hence half-diminished).
So the
spelling is 1st, min 3rd, flat 5th, flat 7th
An
augmented chord is made up of these notes :
1st,
maj 3rd, sharp 5th
So A
augmented would be : A C# F
(Intervals
between successive notes are all maj 3rds - i.e 4 semitones)
You can
see augmented chords written as something like 'A aug' or 'A+'.
********************
*** Appendix A
***
********************
Chromatic
scale :
-------------------
Enharmonic
equivalents are written on top of one another
(i.e C#
is the same as Db etc)
C C#
D D# E F F#
G G# A A# B
Db
Eb Gb Ab
Bb
Obviously
this is a continuous thing - if you want to count up 4 semitones
from A,
you count one (A#), two (B), go *back* to the beginning for three (C)
then
four (C#) - so C# is the note 4 semitones above A.
********************
*** Appendix B
***
********************
The
major triads The minor triads
------------------------------------------
C E G C Eb G
Db F Ab Db Fb Ab
D F# A D F A
Eb G Bb Eb Gb Bb
E G# B E G B
F A C
F Ab C
F# A# C# F# A C#
G B D G Bb D
Ab C Eb Ab Cb Eb
A C# E A C E
Bb D F Bb Db F
B D# F# B D F#
**********************
*** Appendix C ***
**********************
Circle of 5ths and Key Signatures
-----------------------------------
You've
probably heard the phrase 'circle of 5ths' before.
It
relates to the way key signatures are written, which
tells
us how many sharps or flats to play.
C major
has no sharps or flats
G major
has one sharp (F#)
D major
has 2 sharps (F# and C#)
if we
carry on finding the keys with 3, 4, 5 sharps
we find
that the next key in the series is a 5th
higher
than the previous one.
So when
we start with C major, go up a 5th to G major,
then up
a 5th to D, then A and so on.
It also
works for the flat key signatures if we go down
in
5ths. So a 5th down from C is F (one flat), then another
5th
down is Bb (2 flats), then Eb and so on.
Here is
my attempt at drawing it as the famous 'circle' of
5ths
(more like an ellipse in my case)
Everytime
you move round one positition, you go up or
down by
a 5th. The + signs are for the sharps, the - for
the
flats. Note that this is for the major keys only.
0
-1 +1
C
F G
-2 +2
Bb D
-3
Eb
A +3
-4
Ab E +4
Db B
-5 +5
Gb F#
-6 +6
Cb C#
+7
-7
The
only other thing you need to know here is which are
the
flat and sharp notes.
Here
again there is another 5ths relationship.
If we list
the sharp notes we need to add as we move
clockwise
round from C major we get :
F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#
so
starting from the F#, the series goes up a 5th every time.
So how
does it all work ?
For G
major, from the circle we see it has 1 sharp.
Take
the 1st sharp from the series above : F#
So we
need F# for a G major scale/key signature
For D
major, we need 2 sharps, so we take F# and C#
For A
major, we take F#, C# and G#
.. and
so on for all the other sharp keys.
For the
flat notes, the series is :
Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb
(yet
another 5ths relationship ...)
So if
we pick a flat key, say Eb major, from the circle
we see
it has 3 flats, so we need Bb, Eb and Ab.
Because
all the things you need to know here are connected
with
relationships of a 5th, it's fairly easy to learn the
circle
of 5ths. This makes it very easy to work out notes of
a
scale.
Note
that this is all for the *major* scale.
For
minor scales you need to find the realtive major key.
The
relative major key is always 3 semitones higher than
the
minor key (e.g Cmajor / Aminor - C is
3 semitones
above
A)
So, say
you want to know the scale of Ab minor.
The
relative major key is Cb major.
So you
need all 7 flats !
The
scale is : Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, Fb, Gb,
Ab
When
you see things like Fb, it sounds a bit strange,
but it
makes things a lot easier if you stick to these
conventions
instead of saying 'E is the same as Fb'.
The
idea is that for EVERY scale, the letter names appear
once
only. So every scale will have an F of some sort, but
in some
it will be F natural, some it will be F# and some it
will be
Fb.