Neat Chord overview

[OldGit]

This is good: It's for gu1t@rists, really , but relevant for us too. I especially liked the clear explaination of triads
From iSound
[url="http://www.isound.com/artist_blog/some_suggestions_for_chord_playing"]http://www.isound.com/artist_blog/some_sug...r_chord_playing[/url]


[b]Some suggestions for chord playing[/b]

Very often the key to getting tracks to sit well in the mix or be heard without over powering the other parts lies in the playing and not the tone, effects, gain, etc...

Color your roots.

It isnt always necessary to play full chords. Very often you muddy the mix by doubling the bass part. When working with a bass player try playing chord forms that dont have the root note as the bass or leaving out the root note all together. To do this you will have to change the way that you look at chords. Instead of thinking of them as finger shapes learn to see them as harmony to the melody and the bass line.

A brief lesson in harmonic structure

In every key there are 3 major, 3 minor and 1 minor flat 5 a.k.a. half diminish chords that naturally occur. In the key of C the major chords or triads for C are C F & G. The minor triads are D minor E minor & A minor, and the half diminish is B diminish (B minor flat5). The triads are formed by harmonizing or playing 3 notes together. T

he formula for a triad is simply every other note of the scale up to 3 notes. Think of tri meaning three, and ad as in to ad together; equals adding three notes together, and youve got the idea.

For example the C scale is C D E F G A B C. You create the first triad (chord) by harmonizing the notes C E & G (the C major chord). The second triad would be D F A (the D minor chord), and so on. The first note of the triad names the chord. For example the triad E G B is called the E minor chord.

FYI

You can play any triad three different ways, The first is Root Position meaning the root note (the note that names the triad) is the lowest note. For example the notes low to high for the C major triad would be C E G. The second is First Inversion meaning the second note of the triad is the lowest note ex. E G C. The third is called Second Inversion with the third note of the triad being the lowest note ex. G C E.

[OldGit]

[quote name='dlloyd' post='167478' date='Apr 1 2008, 09:28 AM']It's nice and clear, but there's an error.

Triads cannot be 'half-diminished'. A triad based on a root, minor third and diminished fifth (r, b3, b5) is simply a 'diminished triad'. It only becomes half-diminished as a tetrad, when you add a minor seventh (r, b3, b5, b7). A diminished tetrad has a diminished seventh on top (r, b3, b5, bb7).[/quote]

Thanks I didn't write it, just "reprinted with(out) permission"
That site has loads of good resources ..