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Senior Member
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How to read chords
Dear MasterPaul,
I don't know your level but I think it's better you look it up on the net.
I will try to give you a brief info.
Let me tell you a story and I'm sure there are many versions of it.
One day someone noticed that two frequencies, one is twice of the other,
produced the same sound, one at a higher pitch (treble). That frequency
was somehow 440Hz, and the higher being 880 Hz. Then he said let me call
this A1 and the second A2 and name it as a note. (Numbers may be different).
He found out that two notes weren't enough, so he tried and tried and
came out with 8 notes, namely A1,B1,C1,D1,E1,F1,G1,A2, excluding A2 there are
8 intervals. Including A2, there are 8 notes, and he said that A1 and A2 is
one octave apart.
Then one day somebody else who is sick of trying to find the notes on his
fretless guitar decided to put frets on his guitar but found out that
to his surprise the frets were not evenly distributed. "Ofcourse" said the
wiseman " The distance between E1 and F1 is half tone, and so is the interval
between B1 and C1. He asked his close friend the physician(doctor, those days
doctors did many things) to find the formula and he computed that between
each half note there was a relation of the 12th root of 2. The guitar player
did not understand anything so the phsycian helped to put the frets in their
right places. There was a problem. How would they call new notes: one said
"higher A1", the other said "lower B1" Wiseman said "let's use both but in a
shorter way so "higher A1" became A#1 (A sharp) and "lower B1" became
Bb1 (B bemol) and they agreed that A# == Bb and Fb was in fact E and wasn't used.
Well, the guitar players found the notes easily on his guitar
but there was a problem; he was using half tones so much that was becoming
something other than being musical.
So, the wiseman said you will be playing in the C major scale until other
scales are invented:
C major scale - C1,D1,E1,F1,G1,A1,H1,C2
---------- C1,one,D1,one,E1,half,F1,one,G1,one,A1,one,H1,half ,C2
Instead of B1, he used H1 but some continued to use B1 still.
He said this scale takes its name from the starting note and if you want another
major scale start from another note,keep the relations the same and give that
major scale the name of the starting note.
The guitar player started to play in C scale, but he was not very happy because
others played better. Then he said to the physician "I will find polyphony" and
came out that in C scale notes (1) and (5) produced harmony and polyphony that
was to say {(C1,G1),(D1,A2),(E1,B2),(F1,C1),(G1,D2),(A1,E2),( B1,F2)}. The wiseman
said "Ok, may you be a rock player and you don't have problem with the major or
minor chords". The physician asked "what's a minor/major chord?" Wiseman said
"you'll find that out later". Physician came out with a solution. He said that
in C scale notes (1) and (3) produced harmony and polyphony too that's to say
{(C1,E1),(D1,F1),(E1,G1),(F1,A1),(G1,B1),(A1,C2),( B1,D2)}
Wiseman said let's do it (1),(3),(5) and call it chords, and name it with
the starting note and made a list:
Natural chord of C major scale 1-3-5
C.......C1-E1-G1 2/1.5 Major
Dm....D1-F1-A1 1.5/2 Minor
Em....E1-G1-B1 1.5/2 Minor
F.......F1-A1-C2 2/1.5 Major
G......G1-B1-R2 2/1.5 Major
Am....A1-C2-E2 1.5/2 Minor
B-.....B1-D2-F2 1.5/1.5 Diminished (I guess)
And he said if you use 1-3-5-7 you will get to chords of 7th
And the story suddenly ends here. The characters and the events in the
above story is fictional.
Now let us have an application for your case. Let me list the chords first:
Major is default, Minor is indicated by a small m.
D,A,Bm,F#m,G,Em, in ascending order D,Em,F#m,G,A,Bm
Let's find the notes of chords by the formulas (Major: 2/1.5, Minor: 1.5/2)
D .... D1 -F#1 -A1 2/1.5 Major (D1-one-E1-one-F#1 , F#1-half-G1-one-A1)
..............................................*( (see Dm) only the note in the middle changes)
Em....E1 -G1 -B1 1.5/2 Minor
F#m..F#1-A1 -C#2 1.5/2 Minor
G......G1 -B1 -R2 2/1.5 Major
A......A1 -C#2 -E2 2/1.5 Major
................................................*( (see Am) only the note in the middle changes)
Bm....B1 -D2 -F#2 1.5/2 Minor
Now let's put notes of chords in ascending order
D1-one-E1-one-F#1-half-G1-one-A1-one-B1-one-C#2-half-D2
Since formula for a major scale is "one,one,half,one,one,one,half" this is a major scale.
Since it starts with D it is D major scale and the notes of the melody must be in this scale
(There are exceptions of course) And the chords used are natural chords of D major scale.
So from the chords of the song you can find the in which scale it is written, and/or from the
scales you find which chords to use.
Now how to play on guitar: It would be better if you found anouther source because text format
isn't good for it. But I'll do my best
Let's represent the notes on the string as
0....1......2......3....4.....5.....6.....7.....8 Fret no, (0 is empty string, 1 is 1st fret ..)
E3|F3...|F#3 |G3|G#3|A3..|Bb3|B3...|C4 |... ---Thinnest string ------
B2|C3...|C#3|D3 |D#3|E3..|F3..|F#3|G3 |.... ---------------------------
G2|G#2|A2...|Bb2|B2 |C3..|C#3|D3..|D#3|.... ------------------------
D2|D#2|E2...|F2 |F#2|G2..|G#2|A2..|A#2|.... ------------------------
A1|Ab1.|B1...|C2 |C#2|D2.|D#2|E2..|F2 |.... ---------------------------
E1|F1...|F#1|G1..|G#1|A1.|Bb1|B1..|C2 |... ---Thickest string ------
You may use it as tuning map. For example 5th fret on B2 string must match E3 empty string.
Fingering is very important but unfortunately I don't remember the names.
Some used PIMAE but I will use numbering and give hints to understand the no.s
I hope you're right handed. You will use your left hand so
L1 thumb
L5 little finger
L3 middle one
L4 ring finger
L2 pointing finger
The chords will be represented by fret no.
----------------------------------------------------------
D chord D1-F#1 -A1 2/1.5 Major
-----------------------------------------------------------
E3|--2-------- 2nd fret (F#3) L3
B2|--3-------- 3rd fret (D3 ) L4
G2|--2-------- 2nd fret (A2 ) L2
D2|--0-------- empty (D2 )
A1|-(0)------- may use or not (A1 )
E1|--x-------- don't use
* used much in Folks music and it's very brilliant
----------------------------------------------------------
Em chord E1 -G1 -B1 1.5/2 Minor
----------------------------------------------------------
E3|--0-------- empty (E3 )
B2|--0-------- empty (B2 )
G2|--0--------empty (G2 )
D2|--2-------- 2nd fret (E2 ) L4
A1|--2------- 2nd fret (B1 ) L3
E1|--0-------- empty (E1 )
* Easiest start with this one
----------------------------------------------------------
F#m chord F#1-A1 -C#2 1.5/2 Minor
----------------------------------------------------------
E3|--2-------- 2nd fret (F#3) L2
B2|--2-------- 2nd fret (C#3 ) L2
G2|--2-------- 2nd fret (A2 ) L2
D2|--4-------- 4th fret (F#2) L5
A1|--4------- 4th fret (C#2) L4
E1|--2-------- 2nd fret (F#1) L2
* You don't have to use all of them
* This is the hardest. As you can see L2 is on many strings
* You have to cover the 2nd fret with one finger and this
* is call barré (if you don't use (F#1) it's a small barré
----------------------------------------------------------
G chord G1 -B1 -R2 2/1.5 Major
----------------------------------------------------------
E3|--3-------- 3rd fret (G3) L5
B2|--0-------- empty (B2 )
G2|--0--------empty (G2 )
D2|--0-------- empty (D2 )
A1|--2------- 2nd fret (B1 ) L3
E1|--3-------- 3rd fret (G1 ) L4
*This is the folk style G chord.
*There is another type but I'll leave it aside
----------------------------------------------------------
A chord A1 -C#2 -E2 2/1.5 Major
----------------------------------------------------------
E3|--0-------- empty (E3 )
B2|--2-------- 2nd fret (C#3 ) L5
G2|--2-------- 2nd fret (A2 ) L4
D2|--2-------- 2nd fret (E2 ) L3
A1|--0-------- empty (A1 )
E1|--0-------- empty (E1 )
* 2nd Easiest start with this one after Em
----------------------------------------------------------
Bm B1 -D2 -F#2 1.5/2 Minor
----------------------------------------------------------
(1)
E3|--2-------- 2nd fret (F#3) L2
B2|--3-------- 3rd fret (R3 ) L3
G2|--4--------4th fret (B2 ) L5
D2|--4-------- 4th fret (F#2) L4
A1|--x-------- don't use
E1|--x-------- don't use
* This is the easiest way. If you use L2 as barré
* you get the full chord
I think that's enough. I hope you enjoy it.
selim
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