Musical Chords, Part I

After a while of not posting anything...  guess I'll keep up with some music stuff.

A quick summary:
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• The major scale formula was:

Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone. Use it with any note and there you have that note's major scale.

• Also that we are going to name notes according to their distance with the tonic.  Meaning that in C major scale:

C is the tonic, D is C's second, E is C's third, F the fourth, G the fifth, A the sixth and B the seventh.

However, E is D's second. When calculating what one note means to another we evaluate within that note's major scale. When the note we have in one scale doesn't match exactly with what appears in the major scale we are measuring it against, we use the terms flat and sharp as well, or diminished and augmented depending the case.

In example,  in C major scale we have CDEFGAB.  Let's search for what type of third we can find for E within this scale: G is not E's third (third major) because in E's major scale we find that G# is E's major third.  This means that G is E's Minor Third, or ♭3.
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Now, a chord is more than one note played at the same time.  We have several types of chords depending on what type of notes we use (according to the tonic).  To understand how chords are made, we first had to understand what is a third, a fifth and an octave. That's the reason I included a summary regarding that.

So, to make a chord all you need is more that one note, meaning that with two we already have a chord. However we only use one type of interval when using only two notes, so many times instead of calling them chords we call them for what they are, be them fifths or seconds or thirds, whichever.  I'll start with one of these chords:

Power Chords
Silly name isn't it? Heh, well that's what many called them and are very used when playing rock, pop or whatever.  They have a simple sound but a powerful one. They wont evoke mysterious or complex sounds, but rather just a note with an enhanced power thanks to its fifth being added.

So a power chord is: Tonic + Fifth (of course, the tonic will always be present because it's the chord's name main note).
For example C, its fifth is G so the C Power Chord is: C + G (That's it!)
Another example; B: its fifth is..  F#. So B Power Chord is: B + F# (which means B doesn't have a power chord in C Major Scale because we don't have F# in that scale!!)

Major and Minor Chords
You probably have heard about some chords being major and other being minor.  In the power chords we added the fifth, which adds power to the sound but doesn't contributes with a real change in the chord's feel.  Now we are going to add the third.  That's the note that makes a chord either Major or Minor.

Let's add C it's 3rd. According to C's major scale E is C's 3rd.  We have now:
C + E + G       This is C Major chord, made by Tonic, 3rd and 5th.  We can also add another C one octave higher.

Moving along in the C major scale we have D.  Let's try to make a chord for D using a 3rd.  Within this scale we can find to use:
D + F + A   According to the D major scale, F is not D's 3rd, that would be F#. F is D's ♭3rd!! Which means this is a minor chord.

If we evaluate which chords are major and which are minor in C's major scale we have:

1. C has a major chord. (E is 3rd, G is 5th)
2. D has a minor chord. (F is ♭3rd, A is 5th)
3. E has a minor chord. (G is ♭3rd, B is 5th)
4. F has a major chord. (A is 3rd, C is 5th)
5. G has a major chord. (B is 3rd, D is 5th)
6. A has a minor chord. (C is ♭3rd, E is 5th)
7. B is a diminished chord. (D is ♭3rd, F is ♭5th)

Diminished chords are the ones which doesn't have a perfect 5th but have a minor third.  Such is the case of the seventh note in a major scale.

Since the major scale is a math formula, it doesn't matter which note's scale we use, the second note's chord will be minor, the third minor, fourth major and so on.  Let's try it the second easiest major scale, G's. We know (or at least should know) that G's major scale is GABCDEF#

1. G has a major chord. 
2. A has a minor chord. 
3. B has a minor chord. 
4. C has a major chord.
5. D has a major chord.
6. E has a minor chord. 
7. F# is a diminished chord. 

Tritone
There is one interesting thing about the diminished fifth that is worth mentioning, and that is that the ♭5th's ♭5th is the tonic.  Now that must be confusing to read, but let's try to clear it out.

With A this time (to change it a bit)
A's ♭5th is E♭.  AND E♭'s ♭5th is A.

What's so special about ♭5th anyway? Well, if you hear it you'll notice that this chord has an incredibly tense sound.  Later on we'll learn more about why this tension is so important in music and how to resolve it.  That's about it for now. Cheers!!

[Thanks to Pazl for bringing to my attention some misspells :-) ]