Look Who it Was Random video

How To Work Out Chords Pt1

2,084 views · Published 9 November 2015 · 10:34 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher · 2015 · Music

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Here's the script for this video: 
The vast majority of chords we use are extensions of major and minor triads.

Today we'll begin a series of exercises designed to really get to the heart of how chords are constructed and, at the same time, how they are often put together in the sequences behind the songs we play.

Today's exercise is Major arpeggios round the Circle of Fourths.

Start here at fret 12 on the E string on your second finger and play a Major triad arpeggio - that's notes 1  3  and 5  from the E major scale. Now complete a one-octave arpeggio by adding the E at the 14th fret here by jumping your pinky across a string like this...and then come back down via the 5th and 3rd again like this . So the whole pattern is  1 3 5 8 5 3.

We then arrive back at the E note that we started on, but this time we are going to play an E Maj 7 arpeggio. This starts the same  1 3 5, but then, instead of adding the octave note, we add the seventh note of the Major scale - in this case D# -  coming back down via the 5th and 3rd exactly the same.   

So far we have E major ...1 3 5 8 5 3 - followed immediately by E Maj7 - 1 3 5 7 5 3 . We then carry straight on with E dominant 7th  which is 1 3 5 b7 5 3 and then we complete this step by playing E Maj 6th  1 3 5 6 5 3

So our set of Major arpeggios rooted on E goes: And the thing to notice is that they are all simply extensions of the E Major triad. It's only the top note that changes and it simply migrates a semitone down each time as we change through the sequence.

This may be a good time to pause the video and practice that a few times. Try to make sure you are aware of the names of    each arpeggio as you play them - I always find it helps to say them out loud. E major, E Major 7, E dominant 7, E Major 6th.

OK, on to the second step. Let's take a quick look at one of the commonest patterns used on the guitar for playing notes on the circle of fourths...
  
So, from the note E I want to go four steps up the Major scale E f g A - well I can easily find that just by moving straight across at the same fret to the next highest string.     

Now of course, to go up another fourth from here I could repeat the same trick...moving up to the next string at the same fret...but this approach isn't going to work for long  before I bump into the second string tuning anomaly that forces my pattern out .  And just when I have recovered from that, I fall off the edge of the fretboard!

So, to get a longer cycle going, instead of continually climbing, I drop back an octave, replacing the D note here at fret 12,  on the 4th string, with the D an octave lower here at fret 10 on the 6th string.
 
I can then carry on happily repeating the same idea...up one string , back to the 6th string down two frets   up one string , back to the 6th string down two frets...and so on...   

So that's a useful way of finding your way round a circle of 4ths  and when we arrive at the nut , we can simply replace the open E with the E at fret 12 again and continue on round the circle forever.

So now we simply put steps one and two of this lesson together and play the set of major arpeggios round the circle of fourths starting on E at fret 12...
Playing E major, EMaj7, E Dom 7, E Maj 6 then carrying on, without missing a beat, to play A major  AM7 A Dom 7 A Maj 6...then jumping down to D Major.... 

Practice that as much as you like ... anyone overhearing you will probably think you are playing something by Bach!

In the next Sound Bite we'll take this a step further, at which point the real purpose of this exercise will begin to emerge.

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