All About Chords

A quick primer on chord basics at Mountjoy Music Studio.

There are several types of chords covered by our music lessons.

Common Chord Types

• Major Chords: Built by stacking a root note, a major third, and a perfect fifth. They have a bright and happy sound.
  
  
• Minor Chords: Built by stacking a root note, a minor third, and a perfect fifth. They have a darker and more somber sound compared to major chords.
  
  
• Diminished Chords: Built by stacking a root note, a minor third, and a diminished fifth. They have a tense and dissonant sound.
  
  
• Augmented Chords: Built by stacking a root note, a major third, and an augmented fifth. They have a bright and dissonant sound.
  
  
• Seventh Chords: Built by adding a seventh interval to a major or minor chord. The most common seventh chords are the major seventh, minor seventh, dominant seventh, and diminished seventh.
  
  
• Extended Chords: Built by stacking additional intervals on top of seventh chords. The most common extended chords are the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords.
  
  
• Suspended Chords: Built by replacing the third of a major or minor chord with a perfect fourth or a major second. The most common suspended chords are the suspended second and suspended fourth chords.
  
  
• Power "Chords": Built by stacking a root note, a perfect fifth, and an octave(therefor not a true chord which requires at least 3 notes). They are commonly used in rock and heavy metal music.
  
  
• Inversions: These chords are created by rearranging the order of the notes in a chord. The most common inversions are the first inversion (3rd in the bass), second inversion (5th in the bass), and third inversion (7th in the bass).
  
  

This is just the beginning! Did you know you can make up your own chords and once you start playing with your own custom tuning the sky is the limit!

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