If you wander up to a keyboard and hit a random bunch of notes you will have just played a chord. If you strum the open strings of a guitar you will have just played a chord. When you and a group of your friends sing your favourite football song together and all end on different notes you are singing...a chord. (this is one situation where you might find those microtones I was talking about). A chord is still a chord even if it sounds weird and even if your friend the formally trained musician can't give the particular bunch of notes in question a name.

Remember our aim is to understand the way chords relate to each other. Tackling all those thousands of chords at once isn't going to get us anywhere fast. We need to start somewhere so let's start with some chords where the relationship is simple. To get to these we need to meet another concept:

Key

A key is specific group of notes excluding all others. There are a few more features which define a group of notes as a key but we'll deal with that later. (I don't know why a specific bunch of notes is called a key and I am not convinced that there is any lock it can undo.) Chords constructed from the notes of a key tend to have a simple relationship with each other, so that's going to help us. There are all sorts of keys but we'll start with just one kind:

The Major Key

The other reason for getting to know keys, and particularly the major key, is that the names of chords relate to the position of each chord note in the major key.

If you've been paying attention you'll realise that the major key must be made up of a specific group of notes and that there must be some way to work out what those notes are. There is. A major key must have eight notes and each must be a specific pitch distance from the note preceding it.

To build a major key:

1. Start on any note.
2. The second note is two semitones higher. (See part 1 if you have forgotten what a semitone is. A new piece of information for you is that two semitones is also called a TONE. This makes sense if you remember that semi means half, like a semicircle is half a circle, a semi trailer is... OK, forget the truck and remember the circle!)
3. The third note is one tone above the second note (remember a tone is two semitones)
4. The fourth note is a semitone above the third note
5. The fifth note is a tone above the fourth note
6. The sixth note is a tone above the fifth note
7. The seventh note is a tone above the sixth note
8. The eighth note is a semitone above the seventh note. (This note will have the same name as the first note but be higher if your calculations have been correct, if not go back and check again. This note is called an OCTAVE of the first note, or a note an octave above the first note. The concept of an octave is pretty weird. You have two notes a fair distance apart and they have the same name. They sound sort of the same but they have different pitch... this is getting too hard, just go to any musical instrument and play two notes an octave apart, you'll hear how they are sort of the same but different. In harmony two notes an octave apart, or several octaves apart for that matter, function nearly identically.)

WOW! This sounds like a huge pile of information just to build major key but before you decide to go and build a three-storey house because it will be easier, wait!!

All we really need to remember is the pitch difference between each of the notes. This can be done simply by repeating:

"Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone"

to yourself. Repeat it a few times and it will adopt a jaunty little rhythm, repeat it a few more times and you wont be able to get it out of your head, keep repeating it and it will start to drive you mad...

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Excuse me, I've taken a few deep breaths and am now ready to proceed.
Here's how the notes in the major key might be represented for the more visually minded:


Now let's apply our recently memorised information. Let's take our starting note as G.
The next note must be a tone above the first, so:

G to G# (also known as Ab) is a semitone
G# to A is a semitone

Therefore G to A is two semitones, therefore G to A is a tone ( I told you to forget the truck)

Take a deep breath, you've just found the first two notes, here they are, read them and gloat!!
G A
OK, how does our little poem go? "Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone" yes that's right, so the third note is a tone above the second note, a semitone above A is A# (aka Bb), a semitone above A# is B, so a tone above A is B. Now we have three notes:
G A B
See, I told you this was easier than building a three storey house! Let me see, "Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone" the next note must be a semitone up. A semitone above B is B#......

WAIT!!!!!

You haven't forgotten "Every Fat Bus Conductor" have you? Remember there are no notes between E and F or B and C so... a semitone above B is C!!! We now have the first four notes of our major scale (that's halfway there!):

G A B C

Take a walk, make a coffee, clear your head... ready to go on? OK!

The fifth note is up a tone so its D (I'll go a bit more quickly now since you should have the idea, if you're lost after your walk just re-read the stuff above, it's all there).

The sixth note is up another tone so it's E. Now let's see what we've got:

G A B C D E

Be careful with the seventh note, it's up another tone but remember "Every Fat Bus Conductor". Since there's no note between E and F then a semitone above E is F! Another semitone up will take you to F#, this gives us a tone above E and the seventh note. let's see what we've got:

G A B C D E F#

You can get to the eighth (and last) note by going up a semitone OR you can remember that it has the same name as the first note (though its one of those weird octave thingies). So...

G A B C D E F# G

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! you have just worked out the notes in the key of G Major. When we list all the notes in order it's called a SCALE so that list above is the scale of G Major.

Notice that there is only one "#" note and no "b" notes in the scale, all keys have a certain number of #'s or b's. The number of #'s or b's in a key gives us what we call the key signature. Knowing the key signature enables us to construct a scale much more easily than the process we just went through but the lengthy process is a good way to get familiar with the system.

Homework

Now that you have successfully constructed a major scale go and play it on your instrument of choice (drummers: use an instrument not of your choice), you'll find it familiar, particularly if you've seen "The Sound of Music" (an old film musical with Julie Andrews, look for the song called "Doh a Deer". This will also explain a gag that occurred in "The Simpsons" if you didn't get it the first time).

Now go and construct some more major scales, there are twelve of them, one starting on each note. Have look at the number of #'s or b's in each, do you see a pattern? (HINT: always use all #'s or all b's in a particular key, these guys don't mix.)

Next time I'll reveal the secret pattern of key signatures, see if you can beat me to it!

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