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Learn how to understand confusing chord names.
David
Hamburger is a guitarist, teacher, and writer who lives
in Austin, Texas. He has toured with Joan Baez, Salamander
Crossing, and Five Chinese Brothers, and has appeared on recordings
by Chuck Brodsky and the Kennedys. A regular instructor at
the National Guitar Summer Workshop, Hamburger has written
a number of instruction books, including The
Acoustic Guitar Method.
In this lesson, Hamburger explains how chords get their names.
To hear the examples, you need the RealPlayer
plug-in.
Enjoy your lesson, and check out Acoustic Guitar's
August 2003 issue.
Subscribe
to Acoustic Guitar magazine.
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Tune up
Intro
How many times
have you flipped open a songbook and been baffled by something
peculiar like A7b13#9 or even something just out of the ordinary
like Dm6? It may seem like these names were designed to deliberately
confuse you, but in fact they’re trying to tell you very
specific things about what to play. In this lesson we’ll
look at how chords get their names and break down what some
of those more obscure-sounding names really mean.
Major and
Minor Triads
The most basic
kind of chord is called a triad, because it boils down to
just three notes. For example, an A-major chord consists of
A, C#, and E–notes that are referred to as the root,
major third, and fifth of the chord. You can also have a minor
triad; an A-minor triad, for example, consists of A, C, and
E, which are the root, minor third, and fifth of the chord.
The only difference between a major triad and a minor triad
is the third. You can see and hear this by playing an A-major
chord and then switching to an A-minor chord:
A-major chord
A-minor chord
Every major third
in every major chord is two whole steps (four frets) above
the root of the chord. Every minor third in every minor chord
is a step and a half (three frets) above the root of the chord.
Augmented
and Diminished Triads
What happens to
a triad if the fifth changes? The fifth found in both the
major and minor triad is called a perfect fifth. There are
three-and-a-half steps (seven frets) between the root and
a perfect fifth. If you take an A-major triad and raise the
fifth a half step to E#, you have the interval (A to E#) of
an augmented fifth, and the resulting chord–A, C#, E#–is
called A augmented. Raise the high string one fret in a three-note
A chord to hear what it sounds like.
A-augmented chord
Going in the opposite
direction, if you take an A-minor triad and lower the fifth
by a half step, you’ve got the interval (A to Eb) of
a diminished fifth, and the resulting chord–A, C, Eb–is
called an A diminished. It takes a little tricky fingering
up the neck to hear what a three-note A diminished chord sounds
like:
A-diminished chord
So we’ve
got four kinds of triads: major, minor, augmented, and diminished.
Here they are in terms of their roots, thirds, and fifths.
| R |
R |
R |
R |
| 3 |
b3 |
3 |
b3 |
| 5 |
5 |
+5 |
b5 |
| major |
minor |
augmented
|
diminished |
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