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Basic Practical Theory 6

6.  UNDERSTANDING FORMULAS

    CHORDS HAVE FORMULAS ALSO

Chords have Formulas

All Major Chords have the formula - 1 - 3 - 5

This means that any Major Chord is made up of the

1st  - 3rd  and 5th notes of it’s Major Scale

Example 1.  Let us look at a C Major Chord


                                   I     II   III   IV   V  VI VII   I

The C Major Scale is   C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C

The C Major Chord is  C         E        G

So you see the notes and formula of the

C Major Chord are

Formula   1     3     5

Notes       C    E    G

I ALWAYS RELATE ALL FORMULAS TO THE MAJOR SCALE

NOTE

Example 2.  Let us look at a G Major Chord


                                   I     II   III   IV   V   VI  VII   I

The G Major Scale is   G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G

The G Major Chord is  G         B        D

So you see the notes and formula of the

G Major Chord are

Formula   1     3     5

Notes       G    B     D

All Major Chords have the Formula   1     3     5

NOTE: All Major Scales are written using Roman Numerals

I     II   III   IV   V   VI  VII   I

and Chords written with ordinary Numbers such as

1   2   3   4   5   6   7 etc..

This helps to differentiate between

Scale Formulas and Chord Formulas

The C Major Chord shown on Guitar uses combinations of the  1st - 3rd - and 5th   notes of the            

C Major Scale

The G Major Chord shown on Guitar uses combinations of the  1st - 3rd - and 5th   notes of the            

G Major Scale

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