FRIDAY, August 21, 2020 – 10:00 AM
Back to THEORY
Minor by color
These are the most important chords in music. They are everywhere. They are marked with letter names. I use X to show them. X stands for the name or root of any major chord, which is indicated with either a letter name (like C or Eb) or a Roman numeral (like I, IV or V).
Minor using scales and patterns for roots
Here are the 12 major chords using different scales or systems to to form their roots. In other words, we can use either any kind of scale or the individual notes of any chord to form roots for major scales chained together. For instance, this is a whole tone scale: C D E F# Ab Bb C. By forming a chain of major scales that use those names for the bottom notes or roots, we form really interesting patterns.
Morphing from X to Xm
This is how we morph. Only one note moves, the middle one. A morph is a 1/2 step movement. In traditional teaching morphing is called a “chromatic movement”. The idea here is to move from major to minor, but also from minor to major in what we call “root position”. Root position is where the name of the chord (X) is on the bottom or left.