Chords and Scales Are Connected • Here’s Why

[00:00:00]How do chords and scales connect? Well, I'm going to show you right now. Also, be sure to get my free guitar guide in the link below. It's got all the diagrams that will help with this video, and it's totally free. Okay. Chords and scales. How about this? Uh, the scales.

[00:00:18]The scale is the notes that make up the chords of that same key. or the chords are made up of the notes of the scale of the same key. I'll use the key of C major right now as the example in the open position.

[00:00:38]In the olden days at the music store, it was usually the first uh scale that they used to teach. Um I like it for understanding music the best, but the pentatonic is the quickest way to start improvising guitar solos, which is more fun. So, they're both good to learn. But here's the C major scale in the open position.

[00:01:02]So notice I didn't play the low E or the high E. I just went from C to C. C D E F G A B C. Now the C major scale is the only scale that doesn't have sharps or flats. Not as important on the guitar because we're just looking at it all looks the same. But on a piano you have the black keys and the white keys. Um the black keys are the sharps and flats.

[00:01:29]The white keys are white keys across clearly. Okay. So this is good to know.

[00:01:36]The C major scale. Third fret A string is the C.

[00:01:40]Open D. Second fret is E. Third fret is F. E to F is always a half step in music.

[00:01:49]Open G. Second fret is A.

[00:01:54]open B and then C again. So I have the low C, I have the high C. That's called an octave.

[00:02:02]1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Octave eight.

[00:02:09]So there's seven notes before I get to the eight, the octave. 1 2 3 four five six and seven. Now each of those we could call that number. So the one, the two, the three, the four, the five, the six, and the seven.

[00:02:34]And it really wants to hear the octave again to feel complete.

[00:02:39]Okay. So those notes when they are harmonized, stacked, combined, multiple notes from that little family of notes, that do reay me sound do.

[00:02:56]Well, when you combine them, you get the chords of that key. So if I'm playing the C major scale right now, then I am in the key of C.

[00:03:08]This is the key of C, the C major scale.

[00:03:12]If I played that same set of that same set of distances and relationships, but started on a D note, I just played the exact same relationship of notes to each other, but it's it was up starting on a D. If I did it starting on a B flat or a sharp, it's still the same distances and same relationship, but now it's since it's on the B flat.

[00:03:42]It's the B flat major scale. Okay, let's go back to C major.

[00:03:53]So if I take that first note, the one, and then I skip the two, which is that, and I play the three. So the one and the three.

[00:04:07]Then I skip the four, which is the F. So I skip that, and I play the five, which is a G. So I played the one, the three, and the five. So I skipped I played a note, skipped the next scale note, and then played the next note. Skipped a note, played the next note. So I have three notes.

[00:04:35]And a C and an E and a G make up a C major chord.

[00:04:43]I'm going to add that octave on top.

[00:04:49]And if I add the open high E, that's just a re repeat, an octave up of the third, an E note, which then begs the question, well, it's a low E there, and that is part of a C major chord. What if I play the low E with that?

[00:05:07]It's not wrong. You're just not playing the root in as the lowest note anymore.

[00:05:12]And that would be called an inversion.

[00:05:15]But that's happens in multiple songs, but the most famous one that comes to mind right off the bat or just top of my mind is you Somebody by Kings of Leon.

[00:05:28]So they add it as like a little building tone. But C, E, and G are the only notes of a C major chord. So I could, you know, add a G up here.

[00:05:40]Um, I can play different voicings all over the neck of C, E, and G's in different combinations. And no matter what I do, that's a C major chord, which is also known as the one chord of C major. If I went to that D major scale and I did that same formula, I played the note, skipped the two and played the third, skipped the next note and played up here, which is called the fifth and then the octave.

[00:06:11]That was a D, an F sharp, and an A.

[00:06:16]Those three notes are the only notes in a D major chord. So, in the key of D major, the one chord is D major. I'll test that out. I said D, F#, and A. If I just play the classic, you know, first D chord people learn, it should only have D's, Fsharps, and A's in it. Let's just test it. We got a open D. So far so good.

[00:06:43]Uh, an A, a D again, and an F sharp.

[00:06:50]There it is. Now, D major is not in the key of C. Actually, D minor is. And it's because of this scale. C major doesn't have an F sharp in it. It has an F natural. And when you play D, F natural, and A, that's the formula for a minor chord.

[00:07:15]Okay. So, let's start. Let's go back to C major. I have the C major scale and then the root again the octave.

[00:07:25]If I play that one that the root the the the tonic because it's the C major. C is the root tonal center tonic. Different terms for it. The one one skip the two play the three skip the four I mean tip the four play the five roo<unk> 3 5 octave of the root third again on top octave of the third it's a C major chord the one chord now let's now do that same formula from the scale but start on the second note and we will get the two chord harmonizing that same thing skipping every other note. So root. Okay. Now we're going to find the chord, the harmony based off that second note, D. So open D. So the next note up the scale would be second fret. We're going to skip that and play the next note in the scale, which is the third fret, D. So that's an F natural.

[00:08:26]D F natural. Skip the open G and play the next note is an A, the second fret.

[00:08:33]So D F A D F A D F A that formula makes a D minor chord. So C uh comes from the scale and then I do that same formula from the second note of the scale. Skip next.

[00:08:56]Skip next.

[00:09:00]You get a D minor. Now, the open D minor, where you can play all those notes and have it ring out together, would be the open D, second fret G, third fret B, first fret high E, which is that F.

[00:09:15]So once again, none of these notes are not part of, you know, it repeats, but I just started it cleanly to play root to root, but it keeps going infinitely until you run out of room going low or high.

[00:09:46]and then I'm out of room. So, it doesn't have to start and end on the root because of the scale of the guitar. All right. The um three is now the second fret. 1 2 3.

[00:10:00]It's E. Skip that note. Play the next one. It's a G. So, E G.

[00:10:06]Okay. Skip the second fret. G. And the next one is open B. So, so that's a minor. That's E minor. Now, the B is right here on the second fret A string as well.

[00:10:22]And so, so in E minor, the notes of E minor are E, G, and B. So, I could actually add that third fret high E, which is a G note, or that. And either way, I'm just playing different combinations of the same three notes, E, G, and B. So, same thing. You just keep doing that formula.

[00:10:44]You have the uh 1 2 3 4 and I skip, play, skip, play.

[00:10:52]You end up with the four chord, which is F major.

[00:10:58]And if I do that on the next one, G, it's G major. But if I add a fourth harmony to to that, which you can do with all of them, uh, so let's see. Uh, G B uh G B D skip the open high E and play the first fret.

[00:11:30]I added a fourth note to it and that is called that makes it a type of seven chord. The thing is with the five chord in a key, the five chord is a dominant seven. It's the only chord that has that that bluesy kind of sound.

[00:11:46]But that's getting into the weeds. I wanted to show you taking a note, skip a note, play the next one, skip a note, play the next one, skip the note, play the next one.

[00:11:58]And you get the chord from that key. So, uh, the chords of C major are C, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, but that five chord always likes to sound like a G7 as well if you want. So G7, six is A and it's A minor.

[00:12:31]And then the seventh chord which is based on a B.

[00:12:46]Now that's called if I started on this low B here.

[00:12:58]It's called a minor 7 flat 5. And when you're strumming classic chord progressions, you typically are not playing that seventh degree chord. It's called a B minor 7 flat 5.

[00:13:14]So watch what happens. I'll play them all. C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, or G7, A minor, B minor, 7 flat 5, back to C.

[00:13:37]So what I was just doing there was playing but with the the other notes from that scale harmonizing and that's how you get the chords from the scale.

[00:14:04]So, forget about that B minor 7 flat 5.

[00:14:07]You can play uh C, D minor, E minor, F, G, and A minor in any combination, even not starting on C. And you're now playing in the key of C major. And that's a great way to start writing uh songs. You know, let it be is from the key of C major.

[00:14:53]Now, when someone's playing that progression, you can use the notes and the melody of the song that uh Paul McCartney he would be singing are all notes from that.

[00:15:33]So hopefully that helped a little bit.

[00:15:35]Um there's a lot more to explore. You don't want to learn all of music theory in one 15inute video. Um but that I think is is a really good starting point to get you curious to learn more. So thanks for hanging out. Once again, check out that free chord and scale ultimate guitar guide in the link below.

[00:15:54]It's totally free. I appreciate your uh support supporting martymusic.com and I hope to see you again in another video real soon or an old video, whatever it is. We'll see you later.