YouTube2Text

How Basic Chords Work - Music Theory Lesson 1 — Transcript

by Michael New · 5,924 words · 825 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Full transcript

  1. 0:00okay um i wanted to do a little music
  2. 0:04theory lesson on chords
  3. 0:06and uh just sort of how they work
  4. 0:08specifically chord names and how to know
  5. 0:11uh what you're looking at whenever you
  6. 0:12see a different chord written out um how
  7. 0:14to know exactly what that means and how
  8. 0:16to sort of put those notes together and
  9. 0:18how to play it
  10. 0:19um the the approach that a lot of people
  11. 0:21take to learning chords is um they'll
  12. 0:23sort of see something um you know say
  13. 0:25like that
  14. 0:26and uh let's just kind of memorize that
  15. 0:28chord so we're just one at a time okay
  16. 0:30when i see that i need to play
  17. 0:32those three notes or um
  18. 0:34you know if you saw something like that
  19. 0:36you'll learn that okay that means that i
  20. 0:38play that right there
  21. 0:40and that's fine that works for a while
  22. 0:42but um it turns out to be pretty
  23. 0:44limiting especially when you get farther
  24. 0:46along musically when you start to learn
  25. 0:48a lot more chords and different keys or
  26. 0:51you start to get into more advanced
  27. 0:52chords it just turns into so many
  28. 0:54different things to try to remember
  29. 0:56and if you were to see a chord uh
  30. 0:59say
  31. 1:01say something like that
  32. 1:03odds are you're not going to know what
  33. 1:04that means there's just so many
  34. 1:06different
  35. 1:07advanced chords and things to try to
  36. 1:08memorize that it just gets to be
  37. 1:09overwhelming
  38. 1:11but if you know how this system works if
  39. 1:12you know what these names mean and how
  40. 1:14they work then um this is simple there's
  41. 1:16really nothing to that chord you'll know
  42. 1:18exactly what to do there really right
  43. 1:19away so that's what i want to kind of
  44. 1:21break down
  45. 1:23and um there's actually a bigger reason
  46. 1:25to learn how the chords work and that's
  47. 1:26just sort of understanding music in
  48. 1:28general if you want to learn music
  49. 1:31theory and just kind of how it all works
  50. 1:32this is a great way to get into it
  51. 1:34learning how these chords fit and how
  52. 1:36they interact that's going to let you
  53. 1:38just sort of improvise and compose and
  54. 1:40just sort of lets you understand how
  55. 1:42this music fits and it's just a really
  56. 1:44really wonderful thing to get a hold of
  57. 1:46so we'll get started and we'll start
  58. 1:47with a real simple one i think we'll
  59. 1:49just start with this one right here um
  60. 1:51and kind of uh kind of work our way up
  61. 1:53from there so let's take that cord and i
  62. 1:56want to show you how this is going to
  63. 1:57work
  64. 1:59anytime you see a core doesn't matter
  65. 2:02how advanced it is there's always just
  66. 2:04two parts to it there's a there's this
  67. 2:06first part right here and this is what's
  68. 2:08called uh the the root of the chord and
  69. 2:11the root is just one single note it's
  70. 2:13the note that everything kind of starts
  71. 2:14on and it's not you're going to kind of
  72. 2:16measure everything else against you're
  73. 2:18going to use that note to find the other
  74. 2:20stuff in the chord so to find the root
  75. 2:21of the chord you just kind of find the
  76. 2:23note and there you go there's really
  77. 2:24nothing to that
  78. 2:25um but it's this next part here this uh
  79. 2:28they call us the chord quality um this
  80. 2:30is where things get
  81. 2:32a little more involved this is what i
  82. 2:34want to kind of break down
  83. 2:36so what this does this tells you what
  84. 2:39the other notes on the chord are going
  85. 2:40to be
  86. 2:41but it doesn't actually tell you what
  87. 2:43they are directly
  88. 2:45it just tells you how far away they are
  89. 2:47from your root note so to find these
  90. 2:49notes you have to know how to measure
  91. 2:51distance in music and the way you
  92. 2:53measure distance is you use something
  93. 2:55called an interval
  94. 2:57um now intervals are just how far apart
  95. 3:00two notes are they've tried to be pretty
  96. 3:01simple so let me show you a few of those
  97. 3:03and we'll kind of get going that way
  98. 3:05so the first interval you want to know
  99. 3:08is a uh what's called a half step
  100. 3:10half step is just two notes that are
  101. 3:12right next to each other so for instance
  102. 3:15like c
  103. 3:16and c sharp those are right next to each
  104. 3:18other there's a half step um
  105. 3:20see f sharp to g that's a half step any
  106. 3:22one of those two notes that are right
  107. 3:24next to each other those are a half step
  108. 3:26apart now the the one spot where it's a
  109. 3:28little bit weird is right here e to f um
  110. 3:30these two notes are also a half step
  111. 3:32they are right next to each other there
  112. 3:34is nothing in between so they're a half
  113. 3:35step but if you're kind of just looking
  114. 3:37at the white notes that can look kind of
  115. 3:39strange you know these two are a half
  116. 3:40step apart but these two are not there's
  117. 3:42something in between those so just make
  118. 3:44sure that in that little area there you
  119. 3:46kind of know how that works
  120. 3:49but other than that half step real
  121. 3:50simple then you can find those anywhere
  122. 3:53so once you have that um that's kind of
  123. 3:54one of the basic building blocks there's
  124. 3:56another one you need and that's what's
  125. 3:57called a whole step
  126. 3:59um whole step is kind of just what you
  127. 4:01think it's just two half steps so if you
  128. 4:04start on a note and you want to go up a
  129. 4:05whole step you go up a half step you go
  130. 4:07up another half step and then you have
  131. 4:09your your whole step
  132. 4:10now when you're looking for these you
  133. 4:12don't really want to have to count up
  134. 4:14you don't want to be thinking you know
  135. 4:16half step half step every time you want
  136. 4:17to just see these right away so what
  137. 4:19you're kind of looking for here is you
  138. 4:21just look for this little shape where
  139. 4:22you have two notes with one note in
  140. 4:24between just kind of
  141. 4:25see that and then this gets to be really
  142. 4:27easy um you know so right here here's
  143. 4:29another whole step here's your your one
  144. 4:30note in between um there there
  145. 4:33one of those places you just have a
  146. 4:35whole step now the one weird spot is
  147. 4:37going to be like right in here or right
  148. 4:38in here where
  149. 4:40you get this now this is a whole step
  150. 4:42here's your one note in between but it
  151. 4:44looks a little strange at first so just
  152. 4:46make sure that you're comfortable with
  153. 4:47just kind of how a whole step works in
  154. 4:49that area
  155. 4:51um and and that's pretty much it those
  156. 4:53two are what we're going to use to kind
  157. 4:55of find any other intervals any of these
  158. 4:57bigger ones so as long as you're
  159. 4:58comfortable with that then figuring out
  160. 5:00this chord should be pretty simple
  161. 5:03so let's actually get into what this
  162. 5:05means
  163. 5:06this right here
  164. 5:07this is this name and this chord quality
  165. 5:10it's going to tell you what these other
  166. 5:11notes are now this is what's called a
  167. 5:12simple chord it's just a it's a triad it
  168. 5:14means it just has three notes in it
  169. 5:16and the first note we've already got is
  170. 5:18that f so this is just telling you where
  171. 5:20these other two notes are
  172. 5:23now the the first one we're going to
  173. 5:24start on our f we already have that one
  174. 5:26figured out um but the first nut we need
  175. 5:29is going to be
  176. 5:30up above f somewhere it's going to be a
  177. 5:33major third higher
  178. 5:35um and that's kind of what this name is
  179. 5:38coming from this major here is saying
  180. 5:39your next note up needs to be a major
  181. 5:41third higher now a major third is just
  182. 5:44an interval in the same way that uh that
  183. 5:46a whole step or a half step is an
  184. 5:47interval
  185. 5:48um now this interval is two whole steps
  186. 5:51that's what a major third is it's like
  187. 5:53the definition of a major third so if
  188. 5:55you want to go up a major third say
  189. 5:57we're starting on our f right um you're
  190. 6:00going to go over a whole step that'll
  191. 6:01put you right here here's that one note
  192. 6:02in between and you go up another whole
  193. 6:04step to put you right there
  194. 6:06there's that one note in between and
  195. 6:08there you go there's your major third
  196. 6:10and it doesn't matter it doesn't matter
  197. 6:11what instrument you're on or where you
  198. 6:13start whatever note it's always going to
  199. 6:14be the same thing a major third is two
  200. 6:17whole steps in the same sense that a
  201. 6:19foot is 12 inches so we could start
  202. 6:21anywhere else we could start on uh
  203. 6:23starting in an a and we go up a whole
  204. 6:24step another whole step and i'll put you
  205. 6:26right there and there's a major third
  206. 6:28you could start saying this a flat go up
  207. 6:30a whole step another one there's a major
  208. 6:32third
  209. 6:33really
  210. 6:34now
  211. 6:35same with the with the whole step you
  212. 6:38don't really want to have to count your
  213. 6:39way through this this is i'm showing you
  214. 6:41this to start with but you want to get
  215. 6:43good just kind of seeing those just kind
  216. 6:44of looking for that pattern kind of
  217. 6:46seeing those those two whole steps right
  218. 6:48away so it'd be great to just kind of
  219. 6:50spend a little while just sort of trying
  220. 6:52to find these real quickly just sort of
  221. 6:54starting on random notes and and spend a
  222. 6:56little while in these little areas this
  223. 6:59is where things tend to look a little
  224. 7:00bit strange just because of that little
  225. 7:03funny business around these notes so
  226. 7:05there's your major third there's a major
  227. 7:07third and sort of just kind of get used
  228. 7:10to that but after a little while
  229. 7:12it's pretty easy
  230. 7:13so
  231. 7:14there's our major third we started on f
  232. 7:17that was our root note and then this
  233. 7:18told us that we need to go up a major
  234. 7:19third to get to our next note and that's
  235. 7:21two out of three notes already
  236. 7:23now there's one more note on this chord
  237. 7:25um and that note is going to be
  238. 7:28um up a little higher it's going to be
  239. 7:30up here somewhere i don't know what it
  240. 7:31is yet so just leave it like that and uh
  241. 7:33it's going to be
  242. 7:35what's called a perfect fifth higher
  243. 7:37than f
  244. 7:38um now a perfect fifth is just another
  245. 7:40interval in the same sense that a major
  246. 7:42third is an interval it's a bigger one
  247. 7:44this one is going to be
  248. 7:46three whole steps and a half steps and
  249. 7:48i'll show you how to kind of find that
  250. 7:49in a second but first you may be
  251. 7:51thinking okay
  252. 7:52i understand how this would be telling
  253. 7:55you that you need to do a major third
  254. 7:57that sort of makes sense but there's
  255. 7:58nothing in this chord name that really
  256. 8:00says anything about a perfect fifth so
  257. 8:02you think okay how do i know that i'm
  258. 8:04supposed to do a perfect fifth and the
  259. 8:06way this works um just about every
  260. 8:09course you do is going to have a fifth
  261. 8:11in it
  262. 8:12they almost always have a perfect fifth
  263. 8:15um and so
  264. 8:16it would be kind of nice if this chord
  265. 8:18was called you know f major third
  266. 8:21perfect fifth that would be like okay
  267. 8:22that tells you exactly what you need to
  268. 8:24do over here but almost every chord has
  269. 8:26this and so you usually just leave this
  270. 8:28off most chords just kind of tell you
  271. 8:30this part and they don't really tell you
  272. 8:31anything about the fifth and whenever
  273. 8:32that happens you just assume that you
  274. 8:34need to have a perfect fifth of the
  275. 8:36chord
  276. 8:37now there are times when your fifth is
  277. 8:39going to be different you can do
  278. 8:41like an altered fit called like a
  279. 8:42diminished fifth or an augmented fifth
  280. 8:44or something like that but if that ever
  281. 8:46happens the chord is going to tell you
  282. 8:48that it will specifically say diminished
  283. 8:50or augmented or something like that to
  284. 8:52change this fifth if it doesn't say
  285. 8:53anything about it you just assume that
  286. 8:55you have a perfect fifth and you kind of
  287. 8:57get used to that pretty quickly
  288. 8:59so anyway we have our third we figured
  289. 9:01that out now we need to find this
  290. 9:02perfect fifth and like i said it's just
  291. 9:04three whole steps and a half step so if
  292. 9:06we start from start from this f again
  293. 9:10we start counting over um here's a whole
  294. 9:12step there's one go another whole step
  295. 9:14there's two another whole step it's
  296. 9:16three and this last little half step
  297. 9:18that takes us right there and that gives
  298. 9:19us our fifth
  299. 9:20now same as the third um you don't
  300. 9:22really want to have to count through
  301. 9:24this you will at first to kind of get
  302. 9:25used to where this is but you want to
  303. 9:27just be able to see this right away but
  304. 9:29this is kind of a bigger interval and it
  305. 9:31can be kind of hard to uh to count all
  306. 9:33the way up with something like this so
  307. 9:35there's a real simple pattern you can
  308. 9:36kind of look for on a piano that makes
  309. 9:38this really easy to find
  310. 9:40if you start on a white note and you
  311. 9:42sort of skip over three white notes and
  312. 9:44you wind up right here that should give
  313. 9:46you a perfect fifth right here go to
  314. 9:48right there i have those three white
  315. 9:49notes in between there is your perfect
  316. 9:51fifth same thing there
  317. 9:53so really anywhere you start you should
  318. 9:55just be having those three notes right
  319. 9:56in between that makes that really easy
  320. 9:58to find
  321. 9:59if you were to start on a black note
  322. 10:00like here
  323. 10:02you want to have exactly two black notes
  324. 10:04in between so you should be seeing that
  325. 10:06and that can be really easy to find too
  326. 10:08just look for this two in between and
  327. 10:10you've got your perfect fit so that
  328. 10:11works great the only time that doesn't
  329. 10:13actually work is when you start on the
  330. 10:15note b or b flat if you start on b and
  331. 10:19you try to do that little pattern you
  332. 10:20kind of skip over these three you wind
  333. 10:23up right here and if you look at it this
  334. 10:25actually isn't quite far enough
  335. 10:28if you start from here you go up a whole
  336. 10:29step go up another whole step and
  337. 10:31another whole step you wind up with
  338. 10:33three whole steps between here and here
  339. 10:35and that's not quite enough you actually
  340. 10:36need three whole steps and a half step
  341. 10:38to make a perfect fifth so you need to
  342. 10:40go all the way up to there and the
  343. 10:41reason for that is just because there's
  344. 10:44these two spots where there's no black
  345. 10:46note and that means that these notes are
  346. 10:47kind of squished closer together than
  347. 10:49they would be if you were say over here
  348. 10:51there's actually more notes in between
  349. 10:52these two so that's the the one spot
  350. 10:54where it's going to be weird you have to
  351. 10:55kind of just watch out for that so b
  352. 10:57go all the way up to here there's your
  353. 10:59perfect fifth and then for b flat if you
  354. 11:01tried to go to this black note to put
  355. 11:03these two in between um you have kind of
  356. 11:05the same problem this is actually going
  357. 11:06to be too wide um you've got all these
  358. 11:09extra notes kind of crammed in here so
  359. 11:10you need to do this and that will give
  360. 11:12you your perfect fit so most cases it's
  361. 11:15really easy to find but just watch out
  362. 11:17for b if you start on b you got to kind
  363. 11:19of remember that you need to be doing
  364. 11:21that or if you start on b flat you're
  365. 11:23going to go to right there
  366. 11:24so as long as you're used to that these
  367. 11:26these fists get real easy so anywhere
  368. 11:29you start from like say for our chord
  369. 11:31here you know first thing you find is
  370. 11:32your major third then for that fifth
  371. 11:34just here to there you should be able to
  372. 11:36see those three notes in between
  373. 11:38and then you pretty much got it so
  374. 11:41that's our
  375. 11:42major chord um and and this is going to
  376. 11:45work for any any root note and you can
  377. 11:47put any kind of note in here this is not
  378. 11:49going to change this is like the
  379. 11:51definition of what a major chord is so
  380. 11:53this is not able to change so it's let's
  381. 11:56say we started on c sharp um we would
  382. 11:58start right here here's our new root
  383. 11:59note but we're going to go up a major
  384. 12:01third so that'll take you from there to
  385. 12:03right there and then you're going to
  386. 12:04have your perfect fifth so from here to
  387. 12:06right there you can kind of see here's
  388. 12:08these two with those two black notes in
  389. 12:09between it gives you c sharp major right
  390. 12:12there we can start on uh i don't know g
  391. 12:15there's our major third and then our
  392. 12:16perfect fifth there you go
  393. 12:18anywhere you want to start from this is
  394. 12:20not going to change
  395. 12:22okay so there's a major chord and that's
  396. 12:24probably the most common chord you're
  397. 12:25going to see now quick little note a lot
  398. 12:29of times since this is such a common
  399. 12:31chord a lot of times you'll see it
  400. 12:33written
  401. 12:34just like that
  402. 12:36it's just a single note and what's
  403. 12:38happening here is just kind of the the
  404. 12:40chord quality is just being left off
  405. 12:41completely figure that a major chord is
  406. 12:44kind of your default chord if you just
  407. 12:46see a chord like f or d sharp assume
  408. 12:48that it's a major chord it's such a
  409. 12:50common thing that this sort of gets left
  410. 12:52off the next one we're going to do is a
  411. 12:54minor chord and if if a chord is going
  412. 12:56to be a minor chord it has to say minor
  413. 12:58you can't just put an f and
  414. 13:00imagine that it's a minor chord this
  415. 13:02would mean major chord that's kind of
  416. 13:04your default but let's go ahead and do
  417. 13:06the minor chord once we have the major
  418. 13:08chord the minor chord is really easy
  419. 13:11um so let's say
  420. 13:13we actually wanted to do
  421. 13:15this this time
  422. 13:16all right so for a minor chord
  423. 13:18for now we have the same root note so
  424. 13:20we're gonna start on f again but our
  425. 13:22quality is different um this is telling
  426. 13:24you that now you need a minor three
  427. 13:25that's why this says minor you're doing
  428. 13:27a minor third here now a minor third is
  429. 13:30just another interval um and there's
  430. 13:33actually a lot of intervals that sort of
  431. 13:35have these two versions you have sort of
  432. 13:37a major version and a minor version um
  433. 13:39for a third major third minor third
  434. 13:41there's also an interval of a second
  435. 13:42there's a major second and a minor
  436. 13:44second um there's also a sixth he'll
  437. 13:46have a major six and a minor six and a
  438. 13:48seventh of a major seventh and a minor
  439. 13:50seventh and and understanding a minor is
  440. 13:53real easy um it's always just a half
  441. 13:56step lower than the major interval so if
  442. 13:58our major third
  443. 14:00was uh two whole steps then our minor
  444. 14:02third is just going to be a whole step
  445. 14:03and a half just one half step back so if
  446. 14:06you're if you're pretty familiar with
  447. 14:07this major third by now then finding
  448. 14:09those minors should be really easy
  449. 14:11uh let me go ahead and change that
  450. 14:14and uh that gives us our minor three
  451. 14:16that's all you really need um now up
  452. 14:19here there there's nothing about the
  453. 14:21fifth here again and so you're just
  454. 14:23gonna assume that you still need a
  455. 14:24perfect fifth so this isn't gonna change
  456. 14:26if we start on f so now we have our
  457. 14:28minor third so that's a whole step and a
  458. 14:30half step remember just a half step
  459. 14:32lower than a major third that's going to
  460. 14:34put you right here
  461. 14:35and then the perfect fifth isn't going
  462. 14:37to change there to there is still a
  463. 14:38perfect fit so that's going to be the
  464. 14:40same thing so that right there is your f
  465. 14:42minor chord now same deal that's going
  466. 14:44to work on any root note you want to
  467. 14:46start from so let's say we were doing e
  468. 14:48flat
  469. 14:50start on e flat go up a minor third
  470. 14:52remember be careful in this little area
  471. 14:53things look strange but there's your
  472. 14:56whole step and a half step
  473. 14:57and then for your fifth same deal here
  474. 14:59to here here's those two black notes in
  475. 15:01between
  476. 15:02and there you have your
  477. 15:03e flat minor
  478. 15:05okay
  479. 15:06so those two chords the uh the major and
  480. 15:09the minor those are by far the most
  481. 15:11common you're going to see lots and lots
  482. 15:13of those
  483. 15:14and even the more advanced chords are
  484. 15:15usually built kind of on top of those
  485. 15:17will be sort of adding extra notes on
  486. 15:18top but you want to be very familiar
  487. 15:20with the majors and the minors just sort
  488. 15:21of spend a little while just kind of
  489. 15:23picking a random note to start on
  490. 15:25and just kind of finding the rest of the
  491. 15:26chord try to see it as quickly as you
  492. 15:28can just get used to how this whole
  493. 15:29shape works
  494. 15:30and if you're pretty good with your
  495. 15:32intervals you know being able to see a
  496. 15:33major third minor third then this should
  497. 15:35be pretty simple
  498. 15:36now there's two other uh three note
  499. 15:39chords that i want to show you
  500. 15:41um and these are
  501. 15:42these are a little less common but they
  502. 15:45do still happen and uh they're still
  503. 15:46good chords so i'm going to show you
  504. 15:47those um so i'm going to start with uh
  505. 15:51what's called a diminished chord
  506. 15:53and we'll pick a different root note
  507. 15:54this time
  508. 15:55let's say
  509. 15:57we'll start on a
  510. 15:58all right so we're going to do it's
  511. 16:00called an a diminished
  512. 16:02now
  513. 16:03sometimes you'll see diminished written
  514. 16:04like this
  515. 16:06sometimes you'll see this little circle
  516. 16:09thing that means the same thing that's
  517. 16:11an a diminished um for now i'm just
  518. 16:13going to leave it as a as this it's a
  519. 16:14little easier to remember
  520. 16:17but a diminished
  521. 16:18now
  522. 16:19same thing as before you have a root
  523. 16:20note and then you have a chord quality
  524. 16:22so to find the root note that's simple
  525. 16:23just look for an a and there's our a now
  526. 16:26this name here this chord quality this
  527. 16:28is actually referring to the fifth this
  528. 16:31time i told you the fifth wouldn't
  529. 16:32change much but it does for this chord
  530. 16:35um so over here we're still starting on
  531. 16:37a that's our root note and uh we're
  532. 16:39still going to have a third we're going
  533. 16:40to have you know some note here
  534. 16:43that we're going to go up to with a
  535. 16:44third but we don't actually know what
  536. 16:45kind of third that's going to be it
  537. 16:46might be a major third or minor third
  538. 16:48i'll show you that in a second
  539. 16:49but this interval
  540. 16:51um going all the way up to uh
  541. 16:53to this note up here this is what this
  542. 16:56needs to be what's called a diminished
  543. 16:57fifth
  544. 16:58right there now diminished fifth real
  545. 17:01simple this is just a it's just like a
  546. 17:03perfect fifth but it's a half step lower
  547. 17:06sort of the same way that like a minor
  548. 17:08third is a half step lower than a major
  549. 17:09third so we're starting on our note a
  550. 17:12right here um to get a perfect fifth we
  551. 17:15go from here
  552. 17:16right to there but that's not what we
  553. 17:18need this time we need our diminished
  554. 17:20fit so we're just going to lower it by a
  555. 17:21half step and put it right there
  556. 17:23now you might think okay
  557. 17:25why not just call it a major fifth and a
  558. 17:27minor fifth that seems like it's doing
  559. 17:28the same thing as the third and
  560. 17:30that
  561. 17:31kind of has to do with just how the
  562. 17:33music is set up and how these things
  563. 17:34work but um kind of think of it this way
  564. 17:37the the fifth is not gonna change very
  565. 17:39often this is a little bit of an unusual
  566. 17:41chord you're gonna see it but not that
  567. 17:42much
  568. 17:43um so that the fifth is almost always
  569. 17:45going to be this it's a it's what's
  570. 17:46called a perfect interval it's usually
  571. 17:49that right there um but the other ones
  572. 17:51like the the third you're going to have
  573. 17:52major thirds and minor thirds all the
  574. 17:54time those are constantly being kind of
  575. 17:56shifted around so think of that as
  576. 17:58something that's going to change a lot
  577. 17:59this doesn't change much so you just
  578. 18:01kind of think of it as it has this one
  579. 18:02version of this perfect fifth and uh
  580. 18:04every now and then you get these sort of
  581. 18:06altered fits but they're a little bit
  582. 18:07less usual
  583. 18:08so anyway this diminished thing that's
  584. 18:10referring to this your fifth becomes a
  585. 18:12little bit lower so so far we have that
  586. 18:15a here's our perfect fifth
  587. 18:17lower little bit and then you have your
  588. 18:18diminished fifth
  589. 18:20now
  590. 18:21this chord name this chord quality
  591. 18:23doesn't tell you anything about this
  592. 18:25third so you don't actually know what
  593. 18:26kind of third you need here so you could
  594. 18:28think okay this could be a major third
  595. 18:30or it could be a minor third but when
  596. 18:31you start looking at it
  597. 18:33it actually turns out that it can only
  598. 18:34be a minor third i'll show you why
  599. 18:38let's say that we tried to put in a
  600. 18:39major third thinking okay maybe this
  601. 18:41should be a major third we have our
  602. 18:42diminished fifth so you start on a you
  603. 18:44go up your major third there's a whole
  604. 18:46step whole step so put you right there
  605. 18:48and then we still have our diminished
  606. 18:49fifth which was right here
  607. 18:51now this doesn't actually work as a
  608. 18:54chord and there's there's this sort of
  609. 18:56rule about the way chords have to work
  610. 18:58um any two notes when you line a chord
  611. 19:00up like this um any two notes can at the
  612. 19:03most be a major third apart and at the
  613. 19:06least be a minor third apart so like
  614. 19:08from here to there that note to that
  615. 19:10note that's a major third and that works
  616. 19:12fine um it's no bigger or smaller than
  617. 19:14the major third of minor three so that
  618. 19:16that fits perfect but from here to there
  619. 19:19these two notes they're only a whole
  620. 19:21step apart that's even smaller than a
  621. 19:23minor third and that kind of breaks that
  622. 19:25rule that means that this can't really
  623. 19:27work as a chord
  624. 19:28um so when you see that you got to think
  625. 19:30okay this doesn't work it doesn't fit
  626. 19:32that rule so i can't be using a minor
  627. 19:35third here that would put these two
  628. 19:36notes too close together
  629. 19:38so the only kind of third you can use is
  630. 19:41that minor third and when you do that
  631. 19:43everything works fine you start on a and
  632. 19:45you go to here there's your minor third
  633. 19:47and then if you compare this note to
  634. 19:48that note that's also just a minor third
  635. 19:50and both of those work just fine
  636. 19:52so just remember that rule when you're
  637. 19:54kind of figuring out chords they have
  638. 19:56any two notes have to be either a major
  639. 19:58third apart or a minor thread they can't
  640. 19:59be anything else so when you see this
  641. 20:01you think okay that can't work it has to
  642. 20:03be this
  643. 20:04and that's why there's there's nothing
  644. 20:06about the third in this chord name is
  645. 20:08because it can only be one thing it can
  646. 20:10only be a minor third write that in just
  647. 20:12you can see it um and that's how
  648. 20:16that's how diminished chord works so and
  649. 20:18same thing as before you can start at
  650. 20:20any root note you want like let's say
  651. 20:21you start on an f
  652. 20:23up a major third and then your
  653. 20:25diminished fit over here is your perfect
  654. 20:27fifth and there's your diminished fifth
  655. 20:28right there
  656. 20:30now
  657. 20:31one thing that could maybe make these a
  658. 20:32little easier to find is um if you think
  659. 20:35about how this lines up there's a
  660. 20:37there's a minor third between here and
  661. 20:38there just measuring that distance
  662. 20:40that's a minor third but when you're
  663. 20:41doing this diminished chord you have
  664. 20:43your minor third and your diminished
  665. 20:44fifth there's also a minor third between
  666. 20:46here and there if you measure the
  667. 20:48distance between these two notes it's
  668. 20:50also a minor third so when you're
  669. 20:52putting together this chord instead of
  670. 20:53looking for your fifth making it a
  671. 20:55diminished fifth you can just kind of
  672. 20:57compare this note to that middle note
  673. 20:59and think okay this needs to be a minor
  674. 21:00third that's just how this is going to
  675. 21:01work out
  676. 21:03so that can sometimes be easier to see
  677. 21:04either way it's the same thing but it
  678. 21:06kind of helps to sort of be able to see
  679. 21:08that from both directions so like i said
  680. 21:10any room you want to start on say c
  681. 21:12g right there
  682. 21:14there's any flat diminished all they all
  683. 21:16work the same way same formula no matter
  684. 21:18what you're doing
  685. 21:19and and that's a diminished chord um
  686. 21:22pretty basic once you get sort of how
  687. 21:23this works there's there's one more i
  688. 21:25want to show you out of the um
  689. 21:27kind of these simple three note chords
  690. 21:29and this is what's called an augmented
  691. 21:31chord and this chord is pretty unusual
  692. 21:33you're really not going to see very many
  693. 21:34of these
  694. 21:35the major and minor are by far the most
  695. 21:37common you're going to see some
  696. 21:39diminished chords they they pop up from
  697. 21:41time to time but the augmented chord
  698. 21:43doesn't happen a whole lot so let's
  699. 21:45start on
  700. 21:46say a g this time
  701. 21:48um this a lot of times gets written like
  702. 21:50this like just a plus
  703. 21:52and other times you'll actually see
  704. 21:55the words kind of abbreviated a u g
  705. 21:58let's go and leave it at that for now
  706. 22:00um so when you do an augmented chord it
  707. 22:03works a little bit like the diminished
  708. 22:05um this this quality here is referring
  709. 22:08to that fifth again
  710. 22:10so here's our root note um starting on g
  711. 22:13we're going to have this third still not
  712. 22:15sure which kind it is yet but we know
  713. 22:17that our fifth
  714. 22:19going all the way up to whatever that
  715. 22:20note is needs to be what's called an
  716. 22:22augmented fifth
  717. 22:24now an augmented fifth is um it's just a
  718. 22:27perfect fifth that is raised by a half
  719. 22:29step this time so if you you start on g
  720. 22:32and you look for your perfect fifth
  721. 22:33which would put you right here you just
  722. 22:35have to raise that by a half step put
  723. 22:37you right there
  724. 22:38and there's your augmented fifth easy as
  725. 22:40that um
  726. 22:42if you if you get confused between these
  727. 22:44two just remember that the word
  728. 22:46diminished means like to make smaller
  729. 22:48kind of think of it as being squished so
  730. 22:50when you diminish a fifth you're sort of
  731. 22:51squeezing it together you're going to
  732. 22:53lower that when you augment something
  733. 22:55you make it bigger you're sort of
  734. 22:56expanding it so that's going to sort of
  735. 22:58push you outwards you're going to get to
  736. 22:59a bigger interval just try to keep those
  737. 23:01straight you should be fine
  738. 23:02now same as before this doesn't tell you
  739. 23:05anything about the third but if you look
  740. 23:06at the way this chord works it turns out
  741. 23:08there's only one kind of third you can
  742. 23:10use
  743. 23:11if you try to use a minor third so you
  744. 23:13want to try that first start on g you go
  745. 23:16up your minor third put you right here
  746. 23:18you have kind of the same problem if you
  747. 23:20look at these two notes they work fine
  748. 23:22but if you compare this note to that
  749. 23:24note they're too far apart this is this
  750. 23:26is bigger than a major third a major
  751. 23:28third from here would put you right here
  752. 23:30there's a whole step there's a whole
  753. 23:31step
  754. 23:32right there and this is too far away
  755. 23:34it's bigger than that so this can't
  756. 23:36really work as a chord
  757. 23:38so that means that putting a minor third
  758. 23:40into an augmented chord is not gonna
  759. 23:41work the only one that's going to work
  760. 23:43is that major third so you go from here
  761. 23:45go to right there there's your major
  762. 23:47third and then from here to there to our
  763. 23:50augmented fifth that's also a major
  764. 23:51third i think from there there's a whole
  765. 23:53step there there's a whole step and that
  766. 23:55works fine so same as before this chord
  767. 23:58doesn't tell you anything about the
  768. 23:59third because it can only be one thing
  769. 24:01it can only be that uh that major third
  770. 24:05and uh
  771. 24:06that's that's how that score is going to
  772. 24:08work um same thing as before same same
  773. 24:11formula here anywhere you start it's all
  774. 24:13going to wind up the same way start on a
  775. 24:14d
  776. 24:15major third and then you have your your
  777. 24:17augmented fifth
  778. 24:19and then same as the other chord too if
  779. 24:21you if you want kind of a different way
  780. 24:22to look at this um you know you find
  781. 24:25your major third if you're looking for
  782. 24:26this augmented fifth you know when you
  783. 24:29think augmented fifth you're measuring
  784. 24:30from this root note here all the way up
  785. 24:32to here but if you want to just measure
  786. 24:35it from the second note it should just
  787. 24:36be a major third you can think of it
  788. 24:38that way i think okay if i need to do an
  789. 24:40augmented chord i go up a major third
  790. 24:42and then from here i go up another major
  791. 24:44third or you can just think of it the
  792. 24:46other way and think okay major third
  793. 24:48from my root note and then an augmented
  794. 24:50fifth from the root note either way is
  795. 24:52going to take you to the same place
  796. 24:54so that's um that's pretty much it for
  797. 24:56these these three note chords um all the
  798. 24:58other more advanced chords are going to
  799. 25:00be built right on top of these and if
  800. 25:02you have a pretty solid understanding of
  801. 25:04how these work then those more advanced
  802. 25:06chords of four note chords or five note
  803. 25:07chords there's really not a lot extra to
  804. 25:09that it's all just sort of real simple
  805. 25:12intervals you're going to kind of put on
  806. 25:13top and sort of learn what these
  807. 25:14different names mean
  808. 25:16and i think i'm going to leave it at
  809. 25:17that for now it's already pretty long so
  810. 25:18i'm probably going to do some of these
  811. 25:20other chords in like a separate video
  812. 25:22um so
  813. 25:23yeah that's going to be it if this helps
  814. 25:25you um if this worked for you then let
  815. 25:27me know leave me like a comment or
  816. 25:29something like that and you could thumbs
  817. 25:30up the video or um or even subscribe um
  818. 25:34if this works for people and this is
  819. 25:35helpful then i'm probably gonna make a
  820. 25:36lot more um if not then i'm probably
  821. 25:39just gonna play more starcraft too so
  822. 25:40let me know and i'll kind of decide what
  823. 25:42i want to do but yeah that's it for now
  824. 25:44so i hope that helps you and
  825. 25:46i will see you next time thanks

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of How Basic Chords Work - Music Theory Lesson 1 by Michael New, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 5,924 words across 825 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.