3.1. Ultimate Chords Guide – Part 1

😈 Attention: You must be familiar with all of the basics before reading this!

Someday I encountered the problem of hard and scary chord namings like Csus4add9 😳 or something like F#maj9(no7) 😳.

After this guide you will easily destruct those chords and they won’t ever be that scary🤘.
There is a bunch of essential rules of naming to learn before start:

1.As you remember chord is a container of notes that are built by intervals from root. Every number in chord namings is about intervals! You should consider 7 as Seventh, 4 as Fourth, 5 as Fifth, etc.

2.You already know what m, dim(or  °) and aug(or +) mean. They are basic qualities of the chord. When the quality is omitted you should think that it is Major one.

3.We can replace intervals to get another chord 😅. The chord with a changed Third interval is named with susX(suspended) and number. X stands for interval number! For example, sus2 means Third is suspended with Second 😎.

4.Also, we can remove intervals. The chord with a removed interval is named with noX. For example, no5 means Fifth is removed from chord.

5.Furthermore, we can add intervals. The chord with added interval is named with addX. For example, add11 means Eleventh is added to chord.

6.After all, you can raise or lower the interval with bX or #X. For example, b5 means Fifth is lowered by 1 semitone.

7.Finally, I hope you are still here 😜. These additions from rules 3-6 are always added to the existing basic chords. Let’s learn some 😅! Practice is better than anything else.

Let’s deconstruct the chord from the start of this guide – Csus4add9:
1.C is a basic chord.
C:

2.sus4 means Replace third with fourth. In this case Eb from C is third.
Csus4:

3.add9 means Add ninth to the chord. In this case D of the next octave is the Ninth of C.
Csus4add9:

Actually, Csus4add9 sounds pretty interesting 👍. Try it.

😈 If you were careful, you would ask me what quality of interval to use? For example Fifth can be Perfect Fifth, Diminished Fifth or Augmented Fifth 😱. What to do in such cases?

Ooh, before that you should remember a lot of basic well-known chords 😳.

In a nutshell, some namings gradually have become conventions. That’s why we should learn these ‘well-known’ chords. After that, we will be able to make more complicated chords using the rules I wrote down before!

C7
Spelling – Seventh
Formula = Major Triad + Minor Seventh:

Cmaj7
Spelling – Major Seventh
Formula = Major Triad + Major Seventh:

Cm7
Spelling – Minor Seventh
Formula = Minor Triad + Minor Seventh:

Cm(maj7)
Spelling – MinorMajor Seventh
Formula = Minor Triad + Major Seventh:

Cm7(b5)
Spelling – Minor Seventh Diminished Fifth (Half-Diminished)
Formula = Here we used already known Minor Seventh chord and lowered Fifth by b5:

Tip: Don’t forget that you can use any other key to build any of the chord listed here! We use C for the simplicity sake.

The next part of this guide is coming soon. Stay tuned, bro 👍!

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