Harmony and Chords

Lesson 2/62 | Study Time: 5 Min

Course: Tin Whistle

Harmony and Chords

Harmony can be thought of as notes that support and add character to a melody. The basic building blocks of harmony are chords. A chord is a group of notes played simultaneously (e.g., strumming on a guitar). Like scales, there are many different types of chords, the most common being the major chord.

All major chords contain three notes, taken from the major scale of the same letter name. These three notes are the 1 (first), 3 (third) and 5 (fifth) notes of the major scale, so the chord formula for the major chord is: 1 3 5.

If these notes were taken from the G major scale the chord would be a G major chord, usually just called a G chord. As mentioned in Lesson 1 , chords are represented by symbols usually written above the melody on sheet music.

The symbol for a G chord is the letter G, as shown in the following section. The symbol for a D (major) chord is the letter D. The symbol for an F chord would be F, etc.

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1- Key Signatures 2- The Note C Natural 3- Playing Two Notes With One Fingering 4- Minor Keys and Scales 5- Syncopation 6- The Note C Sharp (C<span class="symbolA">#</span>) 7- The Eighth Note 8- The Sixteenth Note 9- Simple and Compound Time 10- Slurs 11- The Note F 12- The Note D 13- Transposing 14- 12 Bar Blues 15- INTRODUCTION 16- How to Hold The Tin Whistle 17- GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS 18- The Triplet 19- The Note A 20- Harmony and Chords 21- The Half Note 22- More about Major Scales 23- The G Major Chord 24- Sixteenth Note Figures 25- Riffs 26- The Note B<span class="symbolA">b</span> 27- Swing Rhythms 28- Relative Keys 29- Minor Keys and Scales 30- The G Major Scale 31- Approach to Practice 32- New High Notes 33- Choosing the Correct Tin Whistle 34- Where to Breathe 35- Duets 36- The Lead-in 37- Combining Different Articulations 38- The Octave 39- Breathing Technique 40- First and Second Endings 41- Playing Your First Note 42- The Blues Scale 43- How Chords Relate to Scales 44- Relative Keys 45- Chord Symbols 46- The Tie 47- Accidentals 48- The D Major Scale 49- Other Useful Exercises 50- The F Major Scale 51- Tonguing 52- Chord Progressions 53- The Key of D Major 54- Enharmonic Notes 55- Arpeggios 56- Mixing Different Scales 57- Keeping Time 58- Keys and Key Signatures 59- The Key of F Major 60- How to Read Music 61- Music Notes 62- Note and Rest Values

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Harmony and Chords