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Chords and Harmony
1.Basic Chords, The Triads
The most simple chord that can be formed is a triad which consists of 3 notes.
For example the A minor chord comprises of A C E played simultaneously or as an appeggio. An apreggio is the playing of the notes consecutively after each other.
Here are all the triad chords in the A minor scale
2.Using the Chords above in music If the bass line consists solely of the note A the simplest chord that can be used without inversion is the A minor chord, ACE. Here is an example.
Repetition of this chord becomes uninteresting very quickly particularly if the melody line is basic. For this reason there are broken chord variations where some notes are missing and the arpeggio note chord demonstrated in the following diagrams.
Broken A minor chords.
One possible arpeggio for the minor chord.
The broken chord and apreggio variations of the A minor chord can maintain interest longer for two reasons.
1.The same notes are repeated less regularly, so there is more variation.
2.Due to the fact that not all the notes of the A minor chord are played all the time, depending on the melody line the music will completely by accident ( or intentionally if the track has been designed to take advantage of this fact ) have harmonies from other chord harmonies including inversions ( please see 6 ) formed by the combining of the arpeggio/broken chords with the melody notes. In fact the most advanced stage of this concept most commonly seen in classical orchestral music is using overlapping melody lines to form the harmony.
3.Using More than one Chord from I II III IV V VI VII set for harmony
The most simple chord that can be formed is a triad which consists of 3 notes.
For example the A minor chord comprises of A C E played simultaneously or as an appeggio. An apreggio is the playing of the notes consecutively after each other.
Here are all the triad chords in the A minor scale
2.Using the Chords above in music If the bass line consists solely of the note A the simplest chord that can be used without inversion is the A minor chord, ACE. Here is an example.
Repetition of this chord becomes uninteresting very quickly particularly if the melody line is basic. For this reason there are broken chord variations where some notes are missing and the arpeggio note chord demonstrated in the following diagrams.
Broken A minor chords.
One possible arpeggio for the minor chord.
The broken chord and apreggio variations of the A minor chord can maintain interest longer for two reasons.
1.The same notes are repeated less regularly, so there is more variation.
2.Due to the fact that not all the notes of the A minor chord are played all the time, depending on the melody line the music will completely by accident ( or intentionally if the track has been designed to take advantage of this fact ) have harmonies from other chord harmonies including inversions ( please see 6 ) formed by the combining of the arpeggio/broken chords with the melody notes. In fact the most advanced stage of this concept most commonly seen in classical orchestral music is using overlapping melody lines to form the harmony.
3.Using More than one Chord from I II III IV V VI VII set for harmony