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I had to go back and reread what I last posted to know where to go from there, so I think I should give a little more information about chords, especially augmented and diminished chords and one more special case, the 7th chord.

There is not a whole lot more I can say about major and minor chords that I think you don't already know instinctively because we hear them so much. Obviously, a major chord is demonstrative, and often conveys happy sounds, while the minor chord carries an element of sadness, or sometimes foreboding or menace depending on how it is presented.

The Augmented Chord

What does the name imply? One definition for the word augment is:

to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense

So how is an augmented chord increased? The literal meaning is the fifth is increased by half a step. Remember an augmented chord is a major third interval with another major third interval on top. That means using a major chord as the base, the fifth (the top note of the triad), which is sometimes called a perfect fifth, is now modified or increased a half step.The fifth is no longer "perfect" and it is sometimes notated as a "+5".

The Diminished Chord

Likewise, the diminished chord implies that something is taken away or reduced. That is the fifth again. Starting with a minor chord this time, the perfect fifth is now reduced by half a step, and it might be found notated as a "-5".

How do you use augmented or diminished chords?

When you play an augmented or diminished chord it seems to have a slightly unsettling sound. In musical terms we say they sound "unresolved". That is, when you hear one of these chords there is a subconscious expectation that something else should follow. These chords are often referred to as passing chords, or chords used in transitional ways within a piece of music. The best way to see this is to start with a major chord, then play its augmented chord for a beat then step to the 4th chord (another major chord). Do you hear how it steps up from the 1st to the 4th?

You can now take a minor chord, then make it a diminished, before stepping to the relative major (of your minor chord). You will likely detect a sense of stepping down from your minor chord to the relative major. I sometimes use a diminished to go from a 1st chord major, to a diminished chord and back to the 1st chord major, and it has the effect of sort of taking a step back and then forward again.

Relative Major/Minor Chords

In case you are wondering about a relative major (or relative minor), let me tell you what that means. If you choose a key to play in, it could have some combination of sharps or flats, or in the case of C major, no sharps or flats. The relative minor would be the minor key that would have exactly the same combinations of sharps or flats. In C major where there are no sharps or flats, its relative minor is A minor which also has no sharps or flats.

The relative major/minor relationship means that the two chords share notes in their composition and because of that, they tend to complement each other when used in the same piece of music. How many songs can you think of that are in C and also have the A minor chord in it, or a song a G major, where an E minor (the relative minor to G major) fits prominently in the song?

The 7th Chord

I mentioned the 7th chord was a special case. So what did I mean by that? Remember when we created simple chords we used a triad made up of a third interval between the first two notes and another third interval on top of that from the middle note to the top note. A 7th chord is another third added to the top of the pile.

This chord gets a lot of different names and what we commonly call a 7th chord, say an E7th is in actuality very poorly named because it does not tell us what it really is. We have come to know the meaning only through common usage. The E7th chord, as we know it, is in fact an Emaj\min7 which is much too long winded, so we resort to short-hand. Sometimes you see it notated as an E min7. Do you see the confusion with this? Is it a major chord with a minor 7 or a minor chord with a 7? Well, as a rule we have come to call the minor 7th as simply the 7th, and only if there is a major 7th do we spell it out. The minor 7th chord is used much more frequently in music, so the short-hand comes in handy.


What do you think an Emaj\min7 is using the method of stacking thirds?

We have an Emaj, or simply an E which is made up of a major third interval on the bottom with a minor third interval on top. Then we add the minor 7th on top of that. That means we add another minor third interval on top (3 intervals between 4 notes). Many times on the guitar the 7th chord is built short-handed with a 1/5/7, but the full chord includes all four notes.

So that leaves another possibility that we haven't yet discussed. What happens if instead of adding a minor third over your triad, you added a major third? That would be a major 7th chord. They are not used nearly as often as the minor 7th, but they are still pretty common. They have a lighter, softer sound than the minor 7th. It might frequently be found in easy listening type music because of its soothing quality.

I am off to pick up my daughter. Later, all.