Hi there,
This is my first post here, so please be gentle with me.
OK, so I have been playing on and off for decades (40 years), but I would say I am pretty much still a beginner, at best an intermediate player. I was originally self-taught and only got to sonngs involving strumming chords, although I longed to be able to improvise like some of my friends could.
So, in these early days (my teens), I knew chords such as A, C, D, E, F, G, Am, Bm, Dm, Em, A7, B7, D7, E7, G7. Whilst I understood the happy/sad difference between major and minor chords, I had no idea that there was a specific, consistent 'rule' (i.e. in this case 'flatten the third') connecting the major and minor chords. I didn't even realise that these chords were made up of 3 notes! It was a total parrot-fashion learning experience for me.
I knew then that the chord 'Cmaj' was often abbreviated to just C.
Now, zoom forward to today, and I know that major triad chords are actually created using notes 1-3-5 of the major scale and notes 1-3-5 of the minor scale are used for the minor scale (moreover, that this is equivalent of the 1-b3-5 notes of the major scale).
However, the terminology used in the naming of these chords now has me utterly confused. Where Cmaj is the same as C, Cmaj7 is not the same as C7. Instead, the seventh chord with no major or minor indicated (e,g, C7) is called the dominant 7th.
So, instead, there are these relationships:
Cmaj : 1 - 3 - 5 (also known simply as C)
Cm: 1 - b3 - 5
Cmaj7: 1 - 3 - 5 - 7
C7: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 (also known as C dominant 7th)
Cm7: 1 - b3 - 5 - b7
And this is just the first few chords!!! I suppose if we never refer to the chord C as just 'C', but always call it 'Cmaj', we could write these out as follows:
Cmaj : 1 - 3 - 5 (only ever referred to as Cmaj)
Cmaj7: 1 - 3 - 5 - 7
Cm: 1 - b3 - 5
Cm7: 1 - b3 - 5 - b7
C7: 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 (also known as C dominant 7th)
I'm not too sure I'm putting my point across too well here, but I am trying to find a 'system' of my own which gets me out of the confusion in the bold font above.
Now consider the tons of other terms, like diminished, augmented, suspended, never mind the other 'number terms', like 6th, 9th, add9, 11th, 13th, 7th flat 9, 7th sharp 9, etc and it all becomes a minefield!!!
I mean, are we supposed to know what a 'dominant 7th' sounds like and how it differs from a 'major 7th'?
That concludes my question about terminology.
What I meant by formulas is where can I find a complete list of formulas for all these different chord types? These could be expressed as 1-3-5 (note numbers), C-E-G (key of C. note names), and even as 2W-WH (intervals in terms of Whole and Half Steps).
What I meant by MORE formulas is where can I find a complete list of formulas for all the different scale types and modes? Again, the Major scale could be writted as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, for Cmajor scale CDEFGAB(C), and in intervals as W-W-H-W-W-W-H.
Indeed, are there only formulas for chords and scales? Are there other formula that are important to know? And no, I don't mean relatively complicated formulae that related string mass thickness and tension to frequency, but rather the stuff we need to know as aspiring guitar players.
I suspect that I am overthinking all this, but I feel that a solid understanding of the underlying theory of music, which I wish I had known years ago, helps with one's own playing.
Recently, I considered buying various wall-charts showing chord diagrams, scales, circle of 5ths, etc, but I was surprised to find comments by buyers claiming that these were erroneous!
So, my question on the formulas is can anyone here please recommend a good (highly regarded and accurate) book which would have all the formulas for chords and scales (and other?) collected in one place?
If you have read all this, thanks for your time. I appreciate any responses that I might receive.
Cheers,
Simon.
