Music Resources

Chords are built from scales so understanding them is very important when learning music.
The major scale is a good place to start as it can be used to construct all basic chords.

Tutorial can be found here

2011-06-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

New Software

MidiTabPlayer Use any song polyphonic file (.mid .midi) and this program will show you how to play it on the guitar fretboard

Can be found under Guitar Resources

2011-06-18T02:35:00.000-07:00

Music Theory added

Basic Music Theory A very detailed e-book for learning musical theory
Keyboard and music theory Teaches basic theory focusing on keyboard
Beginner Guitar Theory Teaches how to start playing guitar and basic theory
Guitar Chord Secrets Teaches chord construction and scales

Can be found under Music Theory

2011-06-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Utilities added

Free Metronome A handy utility to learn proper timing
Powertab editor Creates, reads and plays guitar and bass tablature

Can be found under Utilities

2011-06-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

New piano e-book

Learn to play piano For beginners to learn piano and read sheet music

Can be found under Piano Resources

2011-06-14T14:32:00.001-07:00

Guitar Resources added

Fretpro A utility that has beginner, advanced chords as well as scales
Ultimate Guitar Chords A comprehensive e-book with many guitar chords

Can be found under Guitar Resources

2011-06-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Piano Resources added

Piano Chords Software to aid learning piano with many chord variations
Chord Chart Basic piano chords listed

Can be found under Piano Resources

2011-06-14T14:31:00.001-07:00

Music Creation tools added

Audacity A multi-purpose program for recording and editing
Free Audio Editor A professional looking audio editor
Linux Multimedia Studio Software to produce music
Buzz A modular software music studio

Can be found under Music Creation

2011-06-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

Instruments & Effects added

Continuous Velocity Piano One of the best free piano virtual instruments
Freeamp 3.5 A free versatile virtual guitar amp with many effects

Can be found under Instruments & Effects

Chord Construction

2010-07-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Once you have a basic understanding of the major scale you will be able to construct chords from the scale notes. There are 7 notes in a scale each numbered 1 through to 7 called scale degrees.

For example the major scale of C looks like this

C	D	E	F	G	A	B
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

To construct chords we use different formulas using the numbering above.

We’ll see how these formulas work with some simple triads (3 note chords)

The major chord uses the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th

For C major (C) chord we would use C, E and G

The minor chord uses the 1^st, b3^rd(flat 3^rd) and 5^th

For C minor (Cm) we use C, D# and G

The suspended fourth chord uses the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th

For C suspended fourth (Csus4) we use C, F and G

The suspended second chord uses the 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th

For C suspended second (Csus2) we use C, D and G

There are more triads like augmented and diminished chords.

Their formulas will be listed at the end.

There are more complicated chords that use more than 3 notes, we’ll work with a few

The seventh chord uses the 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and b7^th(flat 7^th)

For the C seventh (C7) we use C, E, G and A#

The major seventh chord uses the 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and 7^th

For the C seventh major (Cmaj7) chord we use C, E, G and B

The minor seventh chord uses the 1^st, b3^rd(flat 3^rd), 5^th and b7^th

For the C minor seventh (Cm7) chord we use C, D#, G and A#

There are many more chords which will be listed below.

The above should give an idea of how the formulas for chord construction work.

The major scale for each key will be listed below followed by the formulas for chords.

Note that the columns below are equivalent,

Only sharp notes will be used on the chart that follows.

C#	D#	F#	G#	A#
Db	Eb	Gb	Ab	Bb

Major Scales List

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
A	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#
A#	A#	C	D	D#	F	G	A
B	B	C#	D#	E	F#	G#	A#
C	C	D	E	F	G	A	B
C#	C#	D#	F	F#	G#	A#	C
D	D	E	F#	G	A	B	C#
D#	D#	F	G	G#	A#	C	D
E	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D#
F	F	G	A	A#	C	D	E
F#	F#	G#	A#	B	C#	D#	F
G	G	A	B	C	D	E	F#
G#	G#	A#	C	C#	D#	F	G

b = flat (half step lower) # = sharp (half step higher)

Chord Formula

Major	1^st 3^rd 5^th
Major seventh (maj7)	1^st 3^rd 5^th 7^th
Major ninth (maj9)	1^st 3^rd 5^th 7^th 2^nd
Second / Add 9	1^st 3^rd 5^th 2^nd
Sixth	1^st 3^rd 5^th 6^th
Seventh	1^st 3^rd 5^th b7^th
Seventh suspended fourth (7sus4)	1^st 4^th 5^th b7^th
Ninth	1^st3^rd5^thb7^th2^nd
Ninth suspended fourth (9sus4)	1^st4^th5^th b7^th2^nd
Minor	1^st b3^rd 5^th
Minor sixth (m6)	1^st b3^rd 5^th 6^th
Minor seventh (m7)	1^st b3^rd 5^th b7^th
Suspended second (sus2)	1^st 2^nd 5^th
Suspended fourth (sus4)	1^st 4^th 5^th
Augmented (+ or aug)	1^st 3^rd #5^th
Diminished (^oor dim)	1^st b3^rd b5^th
Diminished seventh (^o7 or dim7)	1^st b3^rd b5^th6^th

Use the tool below to test your knowledge of chord construction or

understand what the chords you currently know are made up of.

The program below requires java. If you don't see anything below.

Download it here

The Major Scale

2010-07-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Chords are built from scales so understanding them is very important to learning music. The major scale is a good place to start as it can be used to construct all basic chords. Music is made up of 12 notes which repeat themselves continuously. Below we can see the notes from C onwards.

Note that the symbol # means sharp and the symbol b means flat.

Any note without a symbol (neither sharp nor flat) is called a natural note.

Before you learn the major scale there are a few things you should understand.

Every note is a half step away from each other.

C# is a half step away from C and D is a half step away from C#.

A whole step is two note interval.

D is a whole step away from E and G is a whole step away from F

The corresponding columns in the above table of notes are equivalent.

C# is the same as Db and D# is the same as Eb

The reason for this is that sharp is just a way of saying a half step higher and flat is just a way of saying a half step lower. So C# is just saying a half step higher than C, just as Db is saying a half step lower than D which you can see above are equivalent.

The major scale is made up of 7 repeating notes.

The starting note is called the root note.

The other notes in the scale are derived from this formula.

Root Note

Whole Step

Half Step

Whole Step

So if we wanted to work out the scale of C Major from the notes below

we would start out with our root note C.

Move a whole step which would be D.

Move another whole step to arrive at E.

Then move a half step to F.

A whole step to G.

Another whole step to A.

Yet another whole step to B.

We would have the seven notes of the C major scale ( C D E F G A B )

As mentioned before the notes of the scale repeat themselves. Each set of 7 notes is called an octave as shown below

Lower octave

Higher octave

All scales (even the sharps and flats) can be derived from the above rules.
It just takes a bit of practice to learn.

Once you understand the major scale you can use it in chord construction

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
A	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#
A#	A#	C	D	D#	F	G	A
B	B	C#	D#	E	F#	G#	A#
C	C	D	E	F	G	A	B
C#	C#	D#	F	F#	G#	A#	C
D	D	E	F#	G	A	B	C#
D#	D#	F	G	G#	A#	C	D
E	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D#
F	F	G	A	A#	C	D	E
F#	F#	G#	A#	B	C#	D#	F
G	G	A	B	C	D	E	F#
G#	G#	A#	C	C#	D#	F	G

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
A	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#
A#	A#	C	D	D#	F	G	A
B	B	C#	D#	E	F#	G#	A#
C	C	D	E	F	G	A	B
C#	C#	D#	F	F#	G#	A#	C
D	D	E	F#	G	A	B	C#
D#	D#	F	G	G#	A#	C	D
E	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D#
F	F	G	A	A#	C	D	E
F#	F#	G#	A#	B	C#	D#	F
G	G	A	B	C	D	E	F#
G#	G#	A#	C	C#	D#	F	G

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
A	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#
A#	A#	C	D	D#	F	G	A
B	B	C#	D#	E	F#	G#	A#
C	C	D	E	F	G	A	B
C#	C#	D#	F	F#	G#	A#	C
D	D	E	F#	G	A	B	C#
D#	D#	F	G	G#	A#	C	D
E	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D#
F	F	G	A	A#	C	D	E
F#	F#	G#	A#	B	C#	D#	F
G	G	A	B	C	D	E	F#
G#	G#	A#	C	C#	D#	F	G