Hey Dan,

First of all, i'd say to your friend in college that he's full of it because we're all in state of constant learning and you can start jamming with friends RIGHT NOW and enjoy it quite a lot. Over time we just get better at communication and finding what musical things make us feel good. So get out there as much as you can/want to.

Secondly, you're right on it with the chords. The major chord is made up by taking the root of the chord, (In the case of C major the root is, shock! C). You then add the notes at intervals(distaces) of a major third and fifth (E and G). If it was Cminor then you would add minor third, so it would be (Eb and G).

So those are intervals with relation to the root note to build up a chord. THe whole "I - IV - V" thing is just a little different. Those are still intervals, first fourth and fifth (C, F, and G) but in this case they are talking about different chords relationships inside a KEY. (AKA A CHORD PROGRESSION) so instead of having a chord with a 1,4,and 5 in it(C,F,G) it's refering to a progression of chords Cmajor, Fmajor, and Gmajor.

SO, if you were just playing the roots, you could end up playing something like : CC, FF, GG GG. But you are implying three different chords.

If you "arpegiated" those chords by playing each respective 1,3,5 you could play something like: C E G, F A C, G B D G B D.

The Amin, G, F example is another CHORD PROGRESSION.

Three different chords each with their own 1,3,5's that their made of.

For Amin: A, C, E (note Amajor would be A, C#, E)

G is shorthand for G major: G, B, D
F = Fmaj: F, A, C


So, my example plays around with all these notes at the right times because they are all a part of the respective chords in the Chord progression.

Hope this helps clear up the difference between the notes of a chord and a chord progression.

If you have anymore questions feel free to ask,
And get out there and have some fun,


Jesse E.

i have a question for you - a guitarist i know has a song written in the key of d, he doesn't have it written out on staff paper for me. so i dunno the roots, thirds, fifths, etc. of what he's playing. can i play a d minor or major scale? or do i need to do something else?

Hmm, sounds like you need a bit more comunication with your guitarist.

It is common to say something is in the key of D when you mean it is in the key of D major, but this is not always the case.

What's important in this situation is to sit down with the guitarist and write out or talk about the chords he's playing. This CHORD PROGRESSION is really the clutch piece of information for knowing how to back him up.

If the chords look like they belong in this family:

Dmaj Emin F#min Gmaj Amaj Bmin C#dim Dmaj

Then it is probobably in the key of Dmajor.

Examples:
Dmaj Gmaj Amaj Gmaj

Dmaj Bmin Gmaj Amaj

Amaj Gmaj Dmaj Dmaj

etc. etc.


If the chords belong in this family:

Dmin Edim Fmaj Gmin Amin Bbmaj Cmaj Dmin

THen it is probobably Dminor.

Examples:

Dmin Cmaj Bbmaj Cmaj (All along the watchtower)

Dmin Gmin Amin Gmin

Dmin Fmaj Cmaj Bbmaj

etc. etc.


The the before mentioned progessions belong to a specific key (either Dmaj or Dmin) and would be called "Diatonic".


Some Rock progressions don't follow these rules and we call them "Non-Diatonic" progressions, because they don't to a specific major or minor key.

Example:

Dmaj Fmaj Gmaj


(Dmaj and Gmajor are in the key of Dmajor,
But Fmajor is in the key of Dminor)



So, The moral of the story is that you can determine what key you're in from looking at the CHORD PROGRESSION.

The real moral of the story, however, is that the chord progression can be much more important than even knowing the key. If you play along with your guitarist, playing the root notes of the chords he's playing, that is the most "IN" or "solid" sound you can achieve and is a great springboard for arpegiating the chords with the shapes in my lesson.

THEN, after you've had fun with all that, you can experiment with playing lines using the scale of the key that the chord progression belongs to.


Best of Luck and Keep up the Jammin,
Jesse




Oh... a lengthy P.S.

If you have some other chord progression and want to know what key it's in, they're are some rules to help you find this out called diatonic music theory.


Real Quick:

Bassically a major scale is made of a patern of intervals.

W= whole step = 2 frets
H= half step = 1 fret

W W H W W W H

In the case of C major:

C ^W
D ^W
E ^H
F ^W
G ^W
A ^W
B ^W
C

etc. etc.

Use this pattern and start on any note, Say D for instance and you can find the notes of the scale.

W W H W W W H

D ^W
E ^W
F# ^H
G ^W
A ^W
B ^W
C# ^H
D

You get a major scale built off of any note.

W W H W W W H

CMAJ: C D E F G A B C
GMAJ: G A B C D E F# G
DMAJ: D E F# G A B C# D


etc. etc.


If you built chords off of every note of a scale, you would be putting togther triads (THE 1, 3, and 5 off of each note).

IN Cmaj this would look like:
W W H W W W H
C D E F G A B C

C E G
D F A
E G B
F A C
G B D
A C E
B D F

(It turns out to just be skipping every other note)

If you look at the quality of each chord a pattern emerges:

C maj: C E G
D min: D F A
E min: E G B
F maj: F A C
G maj: G B D
A min: A C E
B dim: B D F
C maj: C E G

THe pattern that emerges is:

Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim


Say it with me:

Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim

One more time:

Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim


whew...

If you put these next to which note of the scale they start from it looks like this:

I ii iii IV V vi vii
Maj Min Min Maj Maj min Dim


AHA!

Look carefully at that, the only major chords are the I, IV, and the V.

THe only minor Chords are the ii, iii, and the vi.

Notice also that small roman numerals signal minor chords while large roman numerals are major.


WE NOW HAVE 2 Patterns:

Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step

aka

W W H W W W H

and
I ii iii IV V vi vii
Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim


With These two paterns you can write out the chords to any key!

or go backwards and find the key that any chords belong in (diatonically speaking remember)

Try it!

I dare you.


How about the Key of F?


F hmmm.....

well let's use W W H W W W H to find the notes in the key of F

W W H W W W H
F G A Bb C D E F


GREAT!, there's our F major Scale.

Now let's "harmonize it" with Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim...


W W H W W W H
I ii iii IV V vi vii I
Fmaj Gmin Amin Bbmaj Cmaj Dmin Edim Fmaj



Hoorah!



So I guess that's it for now,


Well ok, One more bit of info.

Minor keys actually use the same pattern as major keys except they start on the vi chord instead of the I chord.

Look:

F maj:

I ii iii IV V vi vii I
Fmaj Gmin Amin Bbmaj Cmaj Dmin Edim Fmaj


D min:

vi vii I ii iii IV V vi
Dmin Edim Fmaj Gmin Amin Bbmaj Cmaj Dmin


It's still

I ii iii IV V vi vii
Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim

but you're starting on the iv chord, so it's,

vi vii I ii iii IV V vi
Min Dim Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min


If you want some flashy terminology,
we call F Major the Relative Major of Dmin

And we call Dmin the Relative Minor of F Major.


There's a tounge twister for ya',


Sorry for the overload of the info, it's kinda hard to stop typing once you start,

Go through this SLOWLY and trying writing out different keys and their corresponding chords on your own.

It's a valuable skill and basically what you'll be doing 90% of the time when you use music theory in a rock or pop context.

It's lot of info, but that's pretty much it,

They'res some tricks like the circle of fifths and fourths to help you remember the notes of the scales, but i don't think i'll go into those now.
I'm sure you can find them elsewhere on the site.

Anyways, Good Luck, Have Fun,
and as always, i'm open for more questions if you got'em,

Keep Jammin',
Jesse E.