Sometimes you hear different names for the same chord and when people are being very helpful in the forums some people refer to chords in Roman numerals or numbers and others refer to chords in letters! When learning it's difficult to understand when two or three people are talking about the same chord but referring to it differently gets kinda confusing!
My question is is there a chart or something that's shows which cord names mean the same thing?

Views: 1331

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Don't over think it..my advice is play the open strings and hit the the 3rd fret a lot..there's good reason why it's known  as "The Bluesman's Friend"...listen to some Mississppi hill country music, a lot of it is all one chord open tuning..it's all about the feel and the groove. Listen to Robert Belfour and Junior Kimbrough and stop worrying about chords and scales.

The "D business" is helping by showing a simple cord progression that could be played up the neck. Taking two cord forms that can be easily learned. Then showing what the numerical numbers would represent All this within the context of playing within cords that would sound right in a standard 1, 4, 5 progression.

I then posted a song Scruggy could listen to that had the very cord progression. I did this so even if Scruggy didn’t have a fretted CGB he could still hear it. I then assured Scruggy this will all come together for him.

My intent is to help Scruggy.

We ALL want to help Scruggy. ;-) And each other. Every time we have discussions like this, I learn, or relearn, something.

Scruggy, I did not do a great job, but I did just post a video in the video section on how to use the Roman Numeral System.  I hope it helps.

Thanks Uncle John, I'm more of a visual learner so your vid is a godsend it really helped me understand everything a lot better! Thanks a million for taking the time to made the vid it's greatly appreciated!
Here comes another stupid question? I still get confused as to how major and minor are written, when the whole word is wrote it's obvious but when it's just m how do you tel if its major or minor?
And are there other ways it's wrote that I should be aware of?

Major cords are left as single letters. Minor cords are have a lower case 'm' after the letter.

C would then equal C Major
Cm would equal C minor

There's more to it. But for playing in a simplified blues 1, 4, 5 it's a good start.

So does that mean power bar chords are always major?
I though there were 3 seperate chords C power chord (barre chord) is one, C major chord is another and C minor chord another

Power chords are neither major nor minor as there is no third.

The third is what determines if a chord is major or minor.

Major = 1 3 5 of the scale

Minor = 1 3b 5 of the scale (third tone is flatted, dropped 1/2 step)

Power or 5th = 1 5 8 of the scale (the 8 is the root one octave higher)

Let's look at the scale of A:

 A B C# D E F# G#  a b c#  d   e  f#  g# ... continues to repeat

 1 2  3   4  5  6   7    8 9 10 11 12 13  14 ...

If you take the 1 3 and 5 tones you get:

A C# E which is Amajor (A)

If you flat the 3 you get:

A C E which is Aminor (Am)

If you take the 1 5 8 you get:

A E a which is the A power chord (A5)

7th chords obviously add the 7 tone of the scale to the formula.

There are several flavors of the 7th chord but the one you are most likely to deal with is the most common one, the Dominant 7th.

The Dom7 is the major triad of the scale with a the minor 7 tone added as follows 1 3 5 7b.

In the A scale example this would be:

A C# E G

The confusion with naming starts right about here.

An example is the minor 7th chord, it is also an added 6 chord in another key.

This is similar to the way a note can be flat or sharp as in A#  Bb, different name same tone.

Don't let it bother you just learn it as you go.

Notice the A scale contains three sharps, C#, F#, and G# so when you see a piece of music that starts as the image below chances are it's in the Key of A but it could be in F# minor as this is the relative minor to A major. Don't panic the first measure usually contains the root chord.

I understand all that now, it's great detail and spells it in plain English but the main thing I was referring to is how ithe chords are wrote going by your example all power chords have a 5 as in A5,C5,D5 etc, all majors are simply A,C,D etc and all minors are Am,Cm,Dm etc! Only used those 3 chords as examples! So am I righ? If so it clears thing up a lot!

Looks like you are getting the gist of it.

Some people have been known to use a capital M to designate a major chord but it's not common practice. i.e. AM, CM, DM etc.

Don't forget the 7th chords maj7, dom7, and m7.

Dom7 is usually written as the chord+7 as in the A7.

Almost.

Difficulties in naming can arise from the differences between classical and contemporary theory.

The 7th chord contains the major (135) triad plus the flat7. In classical theory the flat7 interval is called the minor 7.

This interval however can be found in both the 7th chord (with the major triad) and the minor 7th chord (built on the minor triad and becomes 1b35b7)

For this reason we tend to call it the flat7.

In classical theory 7th chord, the V is, called the Dominant chord because of the way it resolves to the 1.

It was generally the only 7th chord used, now that other chords add this flat 7 note we shouldn't really call them all dominant 7th chords. This is sometimes done to distinguish them from major 7th chords although more correctly they are simply called 7th chords (even though they actually contain the flat7)

It all seems very silly at first I know but if you can appreciate these two ways of doing things it can start to make sense.

RSS

The Essential Pages

New to Cigar Box Nation? How to Play Cigar Box GuitarsFree Plans & How to Build Cigar Box GuitarsCigar Box Guitar Building Basics

Site Sponsor

Recommended Links & Resources


Forum

crossover guitar.

Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 21. 11 Replies

Tune up songs

Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies

Duel output jacks

Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies

How to Get Your Own Music on Spotify

Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies

CB Bass Guitar

Started by Mi Rankin in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Justin Stanchfield Jan 27. 5 Replies

Latest Activity

A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
Thumbnail

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

"Thank you Poorness ! for loving it ! appreciated!"
12 hours ago
Southern Ray replied to Timothy Hunter's discussion just came accross this pickup idea on youtube.
" Very interesting. Thank you Timothy!"
12 hours ago
Kent Thurston updated their profile
13 hours ago
Southern Ray posted a photo

Punch Project!

She now sports gold metal CBGitty knobs, speaker and an Artec 2.5 watt speaker. Finished this in…
14 hours ago
Southern Ray posted a photo

Project Punch!

Gonna finally get back on this long-delayed project that is more than half complete. (The matching…
14 hours ago
Poorness Studios liked A.D.EKER's video
16 hours ago
BrianQ. left a comment for Rob (Uker) Porras
"Hope this helps?"
16 hours ago
Doug Thorsvik commented on Doug Thorsvik's photo
Thumbnail

Dueling Flatheads

"I appreciate the kind words Papa D! I have always loved the look of these cigar boxes. Glad to have…"
18 hours ago
A.D.EKER commented on A.D.EKER's video
22 hours ago
A.D.EKER posted a video

Im Troubled (Tribute) Mc K Morganfield by BCB - A.D .Eker 2024.

The recorded History By Alan Lomax for the library of Congres of the Blues, from Mc Kinley Morganfield (Aka Muddy Waters) the in this take recorded Tribute ...
22 hours ago
Papa D commented on Doug Thorsvik's photo
Thumbnail

Dueling Flatheads

"Beautiful..Nice work Doug.."
yesterday
Papa D commented on Papa D's photo
Thumbnail

american1 Sun Glo

"Thanx AGP & Doug..  4 more coming soon"
yesterday

Music

© 2024   Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

\uastyle>\ud/** Scrollup **/\ud.scrollup {\ud background: url("https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/963882636?profile=original") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;\ud bottom: 25px;\ud display: inline !important;\ud height: 40px;\ud opacity: 0.3 !important;\ud position: fixed;\ud right: 30px;\ud text-indent: -9999px;\ud width: 40px;\ud z-index: 999;\ud}\ud.scrollup:hover {\ud opacity:0.99!important;\ud}\ud \uascript type="text/javascript">\ud x$(document).ready(function(){\ud x$(window).scroll(function(){\ud if (x$(this).scrollTop() > 100) {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeIn();\ud } else {\ud x$('.scrollup').fadeOut();\ud }\ud });\ud x$('.scrollup').click(function(){\ud x$("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, 600);\ud return false;\ud });\ud });\ud \ua!-- End Scroll Up -->