Chords in the scale have of course notes of the scales as roots, and this allows us to find the right chords faster, rather than trying any possible chord. If one or more notes are not in the scale, then the chord does not belong to the scale. If all these 3 notes are inside the scale, then the chord belongs to the scale. This chord exists and it’s called a diminished triad. On the other hand, if we could have a chord made of the notes B, D, F, this would fit the scale. Both have notes that are out of the C major scale. The B note seems to be a bit of an anomaly: it appears that no chord built on B would fit into the C major scale. If you check the chords as I explained, you will find that the C major scale contains the chords: Cmaj, Dmin, Emin, Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin. This simple trick already rules out many chords. It makes no sense to check if C# minor is in the key of C, since the C# note is not in the scale already. How are we going to check systematically what chords are in the scale and what are not ? First of all, notice that we need to check only chords whose root is a note in the scale. All these notes are part of the C major scale, so the D minor chord IS part of the C major key. On the other hand, we can consider the D minor chord, that is made up by the notes D, F, A. Since there’s no F# in the C major scale, the D major chord is not part of the C major key. To make an example of a chord NOT in the scale, let’s consider the D major chord: its notes are D, F#, A. For instance the C major chord is C, E, G, and all these notes are in the C major scale. Here’s the main concept: the chords associated with a scale are the ones whose notes are all contained into the scale. How Scales and Chords Work with Each Other In the following we will work in C major the notes in the C major scale are C D E F G A B. Using the formula we can find the notes in the major scale in any key. If you have never seen this formula before (and have no idea of what to do with it) please check out my lesson on the Major Scale that shows everything in detail. The major scale is defined by the formula W-W-H-W-W-W-H, where “W” stands for “whole tone” (equal to 2 frets on the guitar) and “H” for “half tone” (equal to 1 fret on the guitar).
If you need more information on how triads are built, check out my previous lesson on triads. Eb is 3 frets above C, and G is 4 frets above Eb. A C minor triad is made by the notes C, Eb, and G. Minor chords have a root note, then a note 3 frets above the root, and then a note 4 frets above the last one (the inverse of the major triad). The note E is 4 frets above the note C, and the note G is 3 frets above the note E.Ī minor triad is built in a similar way, but with slightly different numbers. For instance, the C major triad is made by the notes C, E, and G. A major triad is made by 3 notes: a root note (that gives the name to the chord), a note 4 frets above the root, and another note 3 frets above the last one. Let’s have a brief reminder on how triads are built.
On the other hand, at the end of this lesson you will be able to find the chords associated to any scale you can think of.
We will do this using the major scale as an example, since it is the simplest and most important scale in all music theory. Today I want to show you how chords connect to scales.
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