Life and music by Mike Crutcher

Music success. What exactly does that mean? Is it money, or is it happiness? What makes for a successful band? While there are almost as many opinions about this as there are people thinking about it, many of us can agree on portions of this elusive definition. 

Most people that I associate with make their main living on something other than music. It’s a tough living and it’s not for the faint of heart nor faint of ideals. The music business has changed dramatically with the internet and years of abuse of the system by the corporate record companies and distributors. Record deals are near non-existent today, entertainment gigs have certainly changed and sometimes seem to have dried up. They haven’t, but things do seem bleak in contrast to the “good old days”.  When I tell people that I make a living from music, every one of them counts me lucky and successful, if not just because they understand that I’m doing what I love to do, regardless of  money and lifestyle as a result. It seems as though success often is considered how much you enjoy what you do and not so much about money and fame. 

Success in a band situation would include a desired amount of gigs/performances as well as enjoyment of being in the band by the members. In short, if it’s not fun, why do it? I’ve been told in the past that we do it for the money. This doesn’t work for me. If I was looking for money, there are much easier ways  to make a buck. It’s got to be enjoyable. Nothing is cooler and more enjoyable than being part of a good groove in front of an appreciative audience. 

Of course, I always say that this would be such a great occupation, if it didn’t entail dealing with other musicians. Has it become apparent that musicians are emotional bunch? Committing to share one’s creativity with a number of other creative types is a challenge that must be considered carefully before taking it on. Having participated in a number of bands in the roll of leader and non-leader, I’m amazed at how many different viewpoint there are on what seem to be quite basic band participation skills. 

So, you’re in your first band, or maybe in the umpteenth band you’ve run in your lifetime. You want to get the most out of this band, and since you’ve committed to making it run smoothly and are putting your entire focus into it, all that is acceptable from other members is total commitment, right? Please. Here’s a hint for prospective bandleaders: you can’t force people’s priorities. If you want commitment to your band, you’ve got to make sure that the band is worth committing to. I have seen bands break up rather than take on a band member that participates in alternate bands. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some of the greatest musicians I have met and/or worked with are working musicians. This means that these musicians are committed to being the best at their craft and playing the most worthwhile gigs available. Those who refuse to use working musicians are doomed to lower-level players. Bandleaders with this type of criteria quite obviously lack confidence that their gig will be desirable enough to keep the good players. Musicians: if you’re being wooed by this type of  “professional” attitude, I’d suggest that such a bandleader needs to put up or shut up. When the gigs are there and confirmed, then I’ll confirm my commitment, not a minute before. Are you going to sign a contract with a company for a set amount of time if they can’t commit promise you  a paycheck for that amount of time? 

In a band situation, realistic expectations are necessary. Each band member needs to understand his/her responsibility and role in the band. No one can be the best at everything in an organization. The person who books the band may not be the best at handling the money. The person responsible for promotional merchandise  may not be have the training to be the best musical director for the band. Does someone in the band handle the fan mailing list? Who schedules rehearsals, etc.?

While we’re on this subject, let’s discuss realistic expectations in the scheduling area. Inexperienced bands rehearse 3-5 times per week. If there is new material, what amount of time is allowed for individuals to learn their parts independently? Does such a busy schedule prevent the band members from writing or listening to music for comparison/contrast? Maybe even keep the individuals from working on their own musical technique? Schedule band rehearsals to allow for the most productivity out of your band members. If you’re in an originals band, allow the members time and opportunity to write on their own. Even if the band is about collaborative writing, ideas need to come from somewhere, and if everyone in this brain trust independently works up his/her own ideas from experiences and creativity, the group as a whole will have far more to work with when collaborating. While you’re at it, consider learning to read and write music, and expect the same from the other band members. This is similar to trying to come up with an epic novel without writing any of it down. You can do it, but it’s certainly a lot more difficult, and how much can you hold onto in your memory, anyway? Come in with ideas written down and they can be edited to your hearts content after. 

Are the band members allowed enough time to learn new material? What about reviewing material from last practice? It’s important for a band to play together and learn each others’ phrasing and part of the band sound and groove, but it’s also important for them to do individual work away from the band, in order to shape their contribution. Don’t over-rehearse; creativity is as much an individual activity  as it is a group activity. 

Are there appropriate reasons for missed rehearsals?  Of course there are, but who is to make that judgment? Consider that everyone has their priorities. As in everyday life, it’s no one’s business what reasons a band members have for not being able to attend a rehearsal and even a gig. If I tell you why I feel that I can’t be there, are you going to assess whether or not the excuse is a necessary one? If you don’t have a wife or children at home, should it be your place to decide that my kids aren’t important enough to keep me from rehearsal? Personal information is no one’s business but the individual at hand. If the band member’s frequent absences are a problem for the band as a whole, then these absences should be discussed and considered by both the individual and the organization. If a band member’s absences are affecting the band, then the answer may be 1)the band should reconsider scheduling that may fit the individual’s available schedule, 2)the individual should reconsider a better way to make him/herself more available, 3)the band should consider whether or not other activities can be expedited during the absence of the individual, 4)the individual should consider whether or not the band is enough of a priority to warrant keeping them waiting he/she irons out an appropriate schedule, or 5)the band needs to consider whether or not the individual player is worth the wait and if he/she should be replace in the event of non-compliance to request to change his/her schedule. Often bands can change focus by working on background vocals, rhythm section work, writing/arrangement discussion and collaboration, etc., during the absence of a band member. Use your time wisely. Making blanket regulations that all members be in attendance at all times is limiting and unrealistic. 

It’s all about being happy in your musical situation, and a big part of that is making sure that all band members are satisfied with the amount of sacrifice they may have to make for the situation. If the scales are tipping, you’re going to have people who aren’t happy, which will caus them to quit, to not play well, to fight with the other members, and possibly to bad mouth the band. This isn’t good for anyone, so run the band like the social group that it is, but with the business sense that is necessary. 

Our whole western system of music is based around the Dominant 7^th chord. Early baroque composers (from the 16^th through the 18^th century) first start using the V7 chord as functional harmony. In other words, the chord built on the 5^th note of the major scale would be a major triad, which is a strong sound, but if we continue to build the chord another 3^rd interval higher, we get a minor 7^th interval above the root. This creates a dissonant interval between the 3^rd of the chord and the 7^th of the chord that is commonly know as the tritone interval, as it equals 3 whole steps from the 3^rd to the minor 7^th.

When you put this strong-sounding triad with this dissonant-sounding interval, you’ve got the V7 dominant chord. This is the only place that this chord shows up naturally, without alteration. Our Western system of  music is based on this tritone relationship that the ear hears as wanting to resolve back to the I chord (C, in this example).

This chord is particularly important in music history because it has also become an important force in jazz, blues, and rock music. Blues, which incorporates many melodic traits from it’s African music roots, utilizes the dominant 7^th chord in a number of unusual ways, departing from the more rigid definition set by traditional European music theory. Blues, and later jazz and rock music, incorporates the dominant 7^th chord in virtually any functional position in the musical piece.

Now that we have found use for dominant 7^th chords in non-standard ways, we then find that we can use them in other ways from outside of the standard “Major key” functions, too. Let’s start looking at these non-standard dominant chords in the context of what’s called the turnaround.

In a blues, the piece tends to want to repeat back to the beginning, as do most songs. This can more smoothly be accomplished by using a harmonic device called the turnaround. The simplest way to do this would be to use the V7 chord, which tends to pull the ear back to the I chord at the beginning of the piece. In the above example, the G7 chord make the ear want to hear the repeat back to the beginning C chord. Now, to use some more modern non-standard dominant 7^th chords, how about if we find something that wants to lead us into the G7 chord? Pretty much any chord that functions in a chord progression can be preceded by a dominant chord a 5^th higher than the target chord. In this case, we’ll use the D7 chord, which is borrowed from the key of G. In other words, the V7 chord that wants to lead to G Major. Deceptively, the G chord is not G Major, but is G7. For the last 4 measures of our blues, it will now look like this:

If any chord can be preceded by it’s V7 chord, then we could precede the D7 with it’s V7, which would be A7:

I would be willing to bet that you’ve heard this turnaround more than once before.

Now, to further complicate matters, we’re going to find a substitute for the non-standard V7 chords cited thus far. More non-standard resolutions. The music theory part may be a bit confusing, but the use of them is far simpler than the theory behind it, so bear with me.

When we utilize the V7–>I relationship, we have two things that make for a strong-sounding resolution: the V–>I root motion, which is particularly strong as the scientific/mathematic characteristics of both pitches are similar. This is a bit beyond the scope of this blog. Just listen to how a G note sounds natural resolving to C. The other thing that makes the V7 chord resolve to the I chord is the tritone resolution, as cited earlier. In the G7 chord, B and F form the dissonant tritone interval, which sounds particularly good resolving to C and E, respectively. Therefore, G7 (G, B, D, F) functionally resolves to C (C, E, G).

There is another chord that resolves quite like the V7 chord, as there is another strong root-note resolution. This would be to resolve down to the tonic note (C, in this case) by one half-step above (one fret, for guitarists). This would be the Db chord down to the C chord, in our example. Notice that if we were to spell a Db7 chord, we would have the notes Db, F, Ab, and Cb(enharmonically the same as the B note). Notice anything familiar? The F and B notes create the tritone interval that exists in the G7 chord! This tritone still wants to resolve to E and C, respectively, and the Db–>C root motion gives us another non-standard way to resolve a dominant 7^th chord. This is called a Tritone Substitute. The tritone is the same in both the G7 chord and the Db7 chord, and the chord roots are a tritone away from each other. Therefore, as they have the same resolution target, they can substitute for one another. The Db7 sounds a bit more dissonant, with the Ab note that wants to resolve to G, but it works fine in a progression.

So, now we know that we could change the turnaround to 7 alterations from the original:

The interesting thing with these turnarounds is that you can solo over them in the same way you would over the simple C7–>G7 turnaround or you can alter one or two notes in the initial scale to address each chord change. Either of these techniques will work over all of the turnarounds listed here, with varying degrees of dissonance.

For the A7/Eb7 chord, you could take the initial C Mixolydian scale (C, D, E, F, G, Bb) and change the D to C#/Db. This will give you some interesting tension notes over the A7 and Eb7 chords. Same with D7/Ab7 chord: C Mixolydian scale with change from the G to Gb within the scale. With the G7/Db7, feel free to use C Major. The dominant 7^th chord is quite elastic and you can play just about anything over it without sounding “wrong”. The chord function as a dissonance; the more dissonance, the better.

Our western popular music is based on the music known as blues. Blues is a perfect example of the “melting pot” concept of the U.S., as it incorporates characteristics of music of a number of different cultures and ideologies. However, the main characteristics stemmed from the emancipation of the slaves in 1863, before and during which African-Americans were associating with the Christian religion. The mixture of African call-and-response traditions and musical scales with European harmonic structure of Christian religious music eventually transformed secular music as much as the religious music into what became known as the blues. From blues sprouted American forms jazz and rock, among others. 

Blues harmony, melody, and form are basic to learning popular music. Let’s learn the blues form and the scales that form blues melody and blues harmony. It will become apparent that the most well-known rock artists and most influential jazz artists were and in many cases continue to be deeply familiar with the blues. 

Blues Form

The main blues form is a 12-bar blues, sometimes shortened to an 8-bar blues, occasionally with a change of rhythmic pulse to double up the length of the form to 16 bars and/or 24 bars. The 12-bar blues progression is one of the most important forms to learn mainstream music. 

Blues and rock forms can use basic triads for harmonies, but more traditional blues that spring from Delta blues tend to use 4-note chords called seventh chords, which may be extended with upper tensions. In order to utilize the characteristics of the early 1900s blues that we still use in blues, rock, and jazz today, we’ll use all dominant 7th chords. Realize that our modern music theory dictates that a dominant 7th chord only shows up in one functional area, the chord built on the fifth note of the major scale. This chord is known as the V chord (Roman numerals are traditionally used for harmonic analysis). If we build chords over the notes of the major scale, due to the formula of the half steps and whole steps of the pitch collection, the chord built on the fifth note yields a major triad with a minor 7th. This would be the only chord in the key that is made up of this hierarchy of intervals. The way the intervals line up, this chord sets up a tension/resolution pattern that defines our western music theory principles. In other words, our whole music system is based around the V—>I cadence. 

That said, it becomes apparent that blues-based music tends to bend the rules a bit. The use all dominant 7th chords in blues-based music ignores the cadential tendencies of the dominant chord. This makes for some complex “rules” of melody over the blues progression, which can be at times be simplified, but to work utilize even slightly some of the unusual qualities of the progression can make for some infectious music. The form is brilliant in it’s simplicity, but ingenious in it’s potential. 

Enough with the complex stuff. Let’s learn and play some blues…

The Form

While we can add chords and scales, let’s stick with the basic form, which can yield very cool results. The basic blues uses the chords built on the first note, the fourth note, and the fifth note of the major scale. These are known as the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. As stated earlier, these will all be considered dominant 7th chords, although they will end up using a few notes from alternate keys/major scales. The form goes like this: the I7 chord for 4 measures, the IV7 chord for 2 measures, bringing back the I7 chord for 2 measures. The last 4 measures are comprised of the V7 chord for 2 measures, and then the I7 chord for the last 2 measures, after which we repeat back to the beginning of the form. 

I’m going to alter this form just slightly; the alteration of a turnaround chord at the end of the form is so widely used that it’s considered part of the basic 12-bar form. The turnaround chord would be a V7 chord in the last measure, which functions as a cadence to resolve back to the I chord at the beginning of the repeated form.

This is the form all musicians should memorize. It does show up in non-blues genres of music, sometimes without the dominant 7th chords, and sometimes without the varied scale choices. The 12-bar blues progression is, in my estimation, the single most used progression in music. 

In order to create melodies and/or improvise a solo over this progression, it’s helpful to figure out what basic scales these chords were born from. We’ll use a blues in C Major for our example. 

When we improvise over the initial I7 chord, or C7 in this case, the most obvious scale from which to choose notes would be the major scale of the key, with the appropriate alterations. As the C7 chord is a major triad with a lowered 7th note on top, we can consider using the C Major scale with the 7th note, “B”, altered to become Bb.

You may notice that this pitch collection can be considered the F Major scale. C7 is the V chord in the key of F. To make this fairly simple on the guitar, we’ll use the scale that starts on the root, which is at the 8th fret, 6th string, the C note.

Jazz guitarist/educator Jimmy Bruno labels this “Shape 5”, as this pitch collection begins on the 5th note of it’s related major scale. In this case, it’s an F Major scale, although we are cosidering it a C scale. It’s a mode of the F Major scale, sometimes called “C Mixolydian”, or maybe called the C7 scale/pitch collection. The strongest notes to use over this chord would be the notes of the chord (C, E, G, Bb), but the remaining notes in the scale pattern will sound good to our ears, with varying amounts of consonance. Some notes will sound better than others; the player will need to use his/her ear to decide. 

To play over the IV7 chord, we can consider a new scale, or we can make it easier by using the same scale and altering one note. We previously used the F Major scale, so if we keep using the same scale with a lowered 7th note, this works over the F7 chord. Again, in the long run, this would be a different scale, but I prefer to think of it as what I have already been playing with one altered note. Much easier. In academia, this would be considered the F Mixolydian scale, or the Bb pitch collection. On the guitar, to lower the one note, which is the Eb note, we only have to alter the fingering to make it Shape 2 at the 8th fret. There is a slight position change to make the scale work, position-wise.

If we switch just the one note when we change chords from I7 to IV7, it outlines the chord change nicely. This one change allows the listener to hear the chord change in your playing, even if there are no actual chords being played. 

The chord change to the V7 chord will be the same scale we used over the I chord, but with one note change; the Bb will be altered to become B Natural.

This is actually the C Major scale, notated in what Jimmy Bruno calls Shape 7. The lowest note we play in this position is the B note, which is the 7th note of the C Major scale. We’re playing this over the G7 chord, so the academic name for this scale would be the G Mixolydian mode of C Major. 

These are the very basic scales that can be used to compose notes for this blues form. There are other scales that can be use that won’t upset the chord functions, and then we also often use notes and scales that don’t necessarily sound as strong over the chord, but the phrasing that is used may make them work. Blues has a lot to do with superimposing minor scale notes over major scale harmony, etc. For example, when we alter the Eb for the IV chord, I find it easier to think of this as making the C7 scale into the corresponding C minor scale. What would happen if we continued this C minor usage over the C7 chord, as it returns in bar 7? You may find that it works fine, just sounds a bit more “bluesy”. I like to mix this sound with the “correct” major 3rd, the E natural, to give myself more options. I do this by ear, as opposed to the “correct” music theory way, which may cite strong beats/weak beats/strong notes/etc. Blues is a more improvisational type of music, so picking the “good” notes by ear is fairly important. 

Mixing and matching by ear these sounds of major/minor isn’t necessary in a blues-based music, but it can reveal to the listener that you have a good understanding of the chord changes that you’re playing over. 

So, for those interested in learning guitar, there’s a huge amount of material out there. Of course, much of it is for upper-level players who already know how to play and are looking for what to do to play better, faster, etc. The material out there for beginners can be confusing or may seem patronizing. As a teacher of all ages, I certainly understand the importance to go back to the basics with all students. Not everyone is cut out to be a pro player, but my attitude is that those students who don’t go on to professional playing do so because of priority, not for lack of knowledge.

In my experience, one has to not only like listening to music and wish that they can play it, but also one needs to want to play the instrument and want to spend time with it. I find when students “didn’t get a chance to practice this week” or especially “forgot to practice”, there’s a good chance that this isn’t for them. The student that becomes a musician is the one that wants to work toward making music, any music, come out of the instrument.

I’ve found in talking with other musicians that their experiences were similar to mine. In order to make this instrument happen for me, it was imperative that I put aside some of the activities that my friends were into and focus more on the guitar. For me, I had put aside television and some sports. I was still active and enjoyed hanging out with my friends, but whenever I was home, waiting for supper, etc., I picked up the guitar and tried to emulate songs that I like or that I had heard. Consider this like learning to speak. It’s something that needs to be heard, attempted, reiterated, repeated until it becomes second nature. When you learn to speak, you hear others talk, you try to repeat what they say, and engage others in conversation using these words. Musically, the aspiring guitarist needs to hear music, attempt to recreate it, and keep repeating this until he/she can do this by ear as well as by reading it.

That said, here are some pointers on how to make this work more efficiently. Students come to me expecting me to show them what to do to instantly play songs that they know and like. In reality, the student needs to bring something to the table, needs to have the focus and desire to understand the music, rather than to be shown how to play the notes and be able to do this instantaneously. However, as I show you, the student, how to build the most useful and productive vocabulary to work with, you can optimize your learning and enjoy the music that you can create.

Let’s talk about this vocabulary. Music is made from notes/pitches. When we organize these pitches into patterns, which we label with letters, the patterns are called scales. The main pattern of notes that we base all Western music on is a formula called the Major scale. While knowing the how and why of these formulas isn’t always necessary, knowing at least a little is always good, and necessary to get to the next level of musicality. Learn the little you need to get you started, and learn more as you go. You didn’t need to understand verbs and nouns in order to speak, but as you get into writing, the parts of speech become more important.

Here are the “parts of speech” you’ll need: scales and chords. When I started learning guitar, I learned only chords. Lots of chords. I learned to play rhythm guitar to a lot of tunes, but didn’t know much about why the chords went together well, nor did I really care.

Let’s talk about reading music. Similar to the comparison to reading language and parts of speech, it’s important to learn to read music. If you want to be a decent speaker, you’ll want to learn to read language. If you want to be a decent musician, you’ll want to learn to read music. On guitar we read using the Treble Clef, sometimes known as the G Clef. It’s function is to point out which note is the G note. Notice that the tail at the end of the clef sign surrounds the 2nd line from the bottom in the staff:

Disregard the 4/4 until another lesson. Notice that the notehead has the G line going right through it. Each line and each space is a different letter. The musical alphebet goes from A to G and then starts over again. Therefore, the next space above this note would be the A note, next line is B, space C, line D, etc.

There are 5 fingerings for the Major scale. Three of them have a slight position change, which means move the hand one fret over from where you started. Let’s start with the C Major scale, at the lowest position that we can reach all the notes of the scale, leaving out the open strings. This would be called Shape 5, because the fingering starts on the 5th note of the parent scale. We’re playing the C Major scale, so the 5th note is G. This is the lowest note in this fingering/position that we can play. If you don’t know the notes on the fingerboard, you can figure them out as you go. You want to be in 2nd position, which is to say that your 1st finger is at the 2nd fret, 2nd finger at the 3rd fret, etc. this means that the lowest note you can play in this shape at this position, which is G, should be played by the 2nd finger. Next note, A,  is played by the 4th finger, then go to the next string. 1st finger on the next string plays B, 2nd finger plays C, 4th finger plays D, etc. You’ll notice that you have to move your hand position up toward the body of the guitar by one fret at the 2nd string. This puts you in the 3rd position. Make sure to move back to 2nd position when descending back through the scale.

If you don’t know the notes, use the tablature underneath the notes. In tablature, the lines represent the strings and the numbers tell you what fret to press the string at. The bottom line represents the lowest pitched string. On the guitar this would be the 6th string, closest to your face.

You don’t necessarily have to know nor understand the construction of the Major scale at this point. You can start on the guitar by memorizing fairly simple fingerings of the Major scale. You’ll want to position your hand so that you use one finger for each fret on the neck. There shouldn’t be confusion about where each finger goes, just be aware of which finger should be used on what fret.

Here’s Shape 6, which again gives you the C Major scale. This is a new position to get the same notes, but starting from the A note, which is the 6th note of the scale, hence Shape 6. The notes of this scale are still all natural notes, C-D-E-F-G-A-B, but in this case, A-B-C-D-E-F-G. There’s a slight position change at the 3rd string, to the 4th position, and then back to 5th position at the 2nd string.

Next fingering is Shape 7. No position changes in this fingering. This shape is at the 7th position, starting with the B note, which is the 7th note of the scale, the Ti inDo, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do.

There is no Shape 8, which would be the same as Shape 1. We don’t have either of these because it wouldn’t fit into a 4-fret span. So, the next fingering that we have is Shape 2. This has a position change for the 4th and 3rd strings. The fingering starts in the 10th position, changes to the 9th position for the 4th and 3rd strings, and back to the 10th position for the 2nd and 1st strings.

Shape 3 is at the 12th position. This has no position change, starting on the 3rd note of the scale. As with all of these fingerings, it’s not a bad idea to recite the names of the notes as you play through the scale. As this one starts on the 3rd note, E, just go through the notes of the alphabet from A through G. So, the E, F, and G notes are on the 6th string, and then A, B, C on the 5th string, etc.

Chords

Chords are when you play 3 or more notes together. We build them by taking notes from the Major scale. The Major scale is the collection of pitches used in the “Do, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do”. When we take the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of this scale and play them together, we have a Major chord. The three main chords in a Major key are the chords built from root note (C), from the 4th note (F), and from the 5th note (C). When you build these chords, they form a chord shape that comes from the corresponding scale shape.

The first C chord fingering listed actually comes from Shape 3, and uses open strings. If you look at the above example of Shape 3 scale fingering, you might notice that the notes on the 12th fret are the same as the open strings at the headstock end of the neck. I’m using the open strings for this chord because the 12th fret is just too high up the neck to play a chord. There are slight differences in the 3 examples of this chord. The next fingering is based on the scale Shape 5. It also has a couple of versions to facilitate ease of playing. The 2nd example, with only the 4 middle strings is preferable, as it is a little easier to play. I bend my finger out of the way to mute the 1st string to play this chord. This one will take quite a bit of practice. The next fingering also includes a more difficult fingering, and offers a simpler version in the 2nd half of the measure, both built from the scale Shape 6. The fingering built from Shape 7 can be made smaller, but this one works fine with no stretches or overly difficult fingering. The last one is built on scale Shape 2, and is not widely used. With a difficult shape, it’s difficult to grab quickly, but learn it anyway, as we can use smaller versions of it, and it’s a good chord to alter later into minor chords, 7th chords, etc.

Fingering the F and G chords will be as simple as using the same fingerings as the C chord but moving them to different frets. Notice that in many cases, the C, F, and G chords are within 2 or 4 measures from each other. Practice getting these chords by themselves, but then make sure to practice them in time, switching from one to the other. Try different sequences of chords: C—>F—>G—>G, or G—>F—>C—>F, etc. Try different strum rhythms, but make sure to practice making the chord changes in time, whether at a slow tempo, or a faster one.

More vocabulary for the budding guitarist. In a recent post, we discussed scales and major chords that are built from the scale notes. When we build a chord by playing the root note, the 3rd note, and the 5th note all together, we have a major triad, or a major chord. There are 5 main forms of these triads, which we discussed previously. These can be referred to via the “CAGED” method. This means that all usable chords are related back to the C form, the A form, the G form, the E form, or the D form.

When we alter particular notes in these major triads, we can form other chord qualities, such as minor chords, diminished chords, augmented chords, 7th chords, etc. The most popular usable chords in songs are Major and Minor chords. In this lesson, we’ll discuss Minor chords.

Minor chords can be considered in a couple of ways. Parallel and and Relative. In this lesson, we’ll discuss Parallel. This means that we will take a C Major chord and alter it to become a C Minor chord. Relative would refer to Minor chords that are taken from other notes in the C Major key. More on that at another time.

First, let’s take a C Major triad and show how to make it Minor. In the example, I’ve shown the C Major triad, with root, 3rd, 5th, and root. If we lower the 3rd by a half step (one fret on guitar), we have root, minor 3rd, and 5th. This is considered a minor triad.

If we find the Major 3rd in each chord and lower it by a half-step (one fret), we get the parallel minor chord. In my first example, I show how to make the C Form into a minor chord. I want to work with movable chords without open strings, so I’ve moved the chord up two frets to become a D Major chord. From there, we can see ways to alter the 3rd to make D Minor chords. When we “minorize” this form, it doesn’t finger across all 6 strings that well, so, we end up with 3-string forms.

In the next example, I’ve shown the open A Major chord, and then moved it up the movable C Major chord. The 3rd of the chord would be the E note, which, if lowered to Eb, yields the C Minor chord.

Next is the G form. The open G form, and then moved up the neck to become C Major. The chord is difficult to play with all notes, so I’ve left out some of the doubled notes and made it easier to play. The C Major chord in this form is easier to play using fingers 1, 3, and 4. As in the first form, this one doesn’t “minorize” very easily in full, 6-string form, but we can form minor triads from it.

The E form works nicely as a 6-string form for both Major or Minor. The open E chord is re-fingered to move up the neck to C Major at the 8th fret. We then “minorize” it in a full “barre chord” form and as simple 3-string triads.

The last form is fairly difficult to play as a Major chord, but far easier to play as a Minor chord. First, I’ve shown the open D chord (make sure to not play the 6th string), and then re-fingered to move up the neck to C Major at the 10th fret. This is difficult to finger, but when we lower the E note to Eb, we end up with an easier fingering of C Minor and it’s easier 3-string triad forms.

With practice and patience, these chords can be mastered, and later altered to other chord qualities. With just these Major and Minor chords in our artillery, we can play most pop and rock songs. Many songs can be played with the open chords, but it is imperative that the advancing guitar student also be able to master these movable chord forms (called barre chords) in order to play songs in the many different tonal areas that they tend to be in. I’ll try to post some examples of using these chords in songs in upcoming posts.

Chords are the backbone of western music. Playing them in rhythm will be of utmost importance in order to make good music. Until next time, keep practicing…