Arpeggios and Chord Families
So I guess it's time to get over my Trinity examination (if you don't know already, check my previous post) and talk about music again. Today I will be explaining to you how Arpeggios and Chord Families work.
Arpeggios
Let's start from scratch. What is Arpeggios? It did sound a bit weird to me when I heard it for the first time. So I'm not going to state any definition here. An easier way to explain what arpeggios is, I believe, to tell you how it is done.
Take your guitar in your hand and hold a chord. For now, let's try the A chord.
Now that you've done that, pluck any string, followed by another, followed by another, in any order and time, as long as it sounds good and covers a bar. While you're plucking your strings, (remember, one at a time) you will hold the A chord. You just played arpeggios.
Now that you got an idea of how it's done, let's move on to understand why it is played. Now again, remember that out here I will state my perspective which may not match with the actual reason given to do the same...
For me, arpeggios helps me keep the music alive and the strings vibrating when I want to cover up a certain time with one chord, and still avoid strumming the strings. Well, that's what arpeggios is all about to me.
Now that you know and understand what it means, you will notice that many songs that you listen to in your daily life, (it may even be your favourite song) the composer/artist has played arpeggios. Now you can play your own arpeggios in any scale, in any chord!
Chord Families
Ever heard of something like that? Well, I'm sure you have, because it's pretty common to use this term in music.
A chord family is a group of chords which sound good together. For example, if you take G, C add minor and D, they sound perfect. Now, leaving aside the example, let's study this in detail.
Think of the easiest scale, or one of the first scale you can think of. Right now, I just thought of the C major scale, or the C major chord.
*I advise you to stop reading hereon if you don't know your scales properly, because if you do read on then you may confuse yourself, and this may leave an impact on your music education*
The above picture clearly shows that the C scale consists of these 7 letters. They are like the family for the C scale. Without these notes, C is incomplete.
So you might also be aware that there is a particular pattern to identify the chords as a major or a minor. Usually, the pattern is major, then minor, minor, major, major, minor and diminished. Yes, this pattern does apply to all the chord families.
Let's put the above pattern to use. Now let's assume that all we know about the C scale is that it contains a C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
So what the pattern allows you to do is analyse whether any chord in a chord family is supposed to be a major or a minor.
Now if we apply this pattern to the C scale, the final result will be:
C D E F G A B
M m m M M m dim
where M= major.
m= minor.
dim= diminished.
Major Minor
It's important to understand what a major, minor and a diminished is. There are some advanced players who still have a problem in identifying whether the notes/chords are a major or a minor. Therefore, let's get on with it.
A major chord is a chord that has a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major triad. Major triads with additional notes, such as the major seventh chord, are also called major chords.
Don't worry, I don't expect you to understand the above definition. It's from Wikipedia. You don't need to remember all these technical terms. You can do without it too. Read on.
I can help you to differentiate between major and minor, and recognise each when your eyes are closed, in one sentence. So here goes:
A major chord sounds happy, whereas a minor chord sounds sad.
There you go. If you want, you can try it with your friend. Use a blindfold and tell him to play a minor or a major chord with his back facing you, without telling you which chord he is going to play. Once heard, try to identify it. You may not be able to identify correctly the first time, but you will eventually. Good luck with that!
Arpeggios
Let's start from scratch. What is Arpeggios? It did sound a bit weird to me when I heard it for the first time. So I'm not going to state any definition here. An easier way to explain what arpeggios is, I believe, to tell you how it is done.
Take your guitar in your hand and hold a chord. For now, let's try the A chord.
Now that you've done that, pluck any string, followed by another, followed by another, in any order and time, as long as it sounds good and covers a bar. While you're plucking your strings, (remember, one at a time) you will hold the A chord. You just played arpeggios.
Now that you got an idea of how it's done, let's move on to understand why it is played. Now again, remember that out here I will state my perspective which may not match with the actual reason given to do the same...
For me, arpeggios helps me keep the music alive and the strings vibrating when I want to cover up a certain time with one chord, and still avoid strumming the strings. Well, that's what arpeggios is all about to me.
Now that you know and understand what it means, you will notice that many songs that you listen to in your daily life, (it may even be your favourite song) the composer/artist has played arpeggios. Now you can play your own arpeggios in any scale, in any chord!
Chord Families
Ever heard of something like that? Well, I'm sure you have, because it's pretty common to use this term in music.
A chord family is a group of chords which sound good together. For example, if you take G, C add minor and D, they sound perfect. Now, leaving aside the example, let's study this in detail.
Think of the easiest scale, or one of the first scale you can think of. Right now, I just thought of the C major scale, or the C major chord.
*I advise you to stop reading hereon if you don't know your scales properly, because if you do read on then you may confuse yourself, and this may leave an impact on your music education*
So you might also be aware that there is a particular pattern to identify the chords as a major or a minor. Usually, the pattern is major, then minor, minor, major, major, minor and diminished. Yes, this pattern does apply to all the chord families.
Let's put the above pattern to use. Now let's assume that all we know about the C scale is that it contains a C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
So what the pattern allows you to do is analyse whether any chord in a chord family is supposed to be a major or a minor.
Now if we apply this pattern to the C scale, the final result will be:
C D E F G A B
M m m M M m dim
where M= major.
m= minor.
dim= diminished.
Major Minor
It's important to understand what a major, minor and a diminished is. There are some advanced players who still have a problem in identifying whether the notes/chords are a major or a minor. Therefore, let's get on with it.
A major chord is a chord that has a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major triad. Major triads with additional notes, such as the major seventh chord, are also called major chords.
Don't worry, I don't expect you to understand the above definition. It's from Wikipedia. You don't need to remember all these technical terms. You can do without it too. Read on.
I can help you to differentiate between major and minor, and recognise each when your eyes are closed, in one sentence. So here goes:
A major chord sounds happy, whereas a minor chord sounds sad.
There you go. If you want, you can try it with your friend. Use a blindfold and tell him to play a minor or a major chord with his back facing you, without telling you which chord he is going to play. Once heard, try to identify it. You may not be able to identify correctly the first time, but you will eventually. Good luck with that!
Comments
Post a Comment