Tag archives for Harmonic Scale

Chord Progression for Songwriters

December 11th, 2012 by

Chord Progression for SongwritersChord progressions are a vital part of song writing. Let’s learn how to construct a chord progression for songwriters.

Start with the musical scale

To start out here is a C major scale…

C major Scale

In the illustration each note of the scale is assigned a number form 1 to 7.  With the C note being “1”.  This is the starting place for creating chords.

Here is the list of names for the other degrees of the scale:

Note Position Technical name
1 TONIC
2 SUPERTONIC
3 MEDIANT
4 SUBDOMINANT
5 DOMINANT
6 SUBMEDIANT
7 LEADING TONE

To create a chord, use the basic scale using the numbers to build the chord.  The first chord is C.  To make a C chord all that is need is to use this simple formula 1-3-5.  With each number representing the number in the scale.  The C chord is C-E-G. That is the C = 1, E = 3, G = 5. Basically the chord is made up of three note at ever other note interval

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