Chord Qualities on the spot

[Jose Garcia]

HI all

I'm having trouble knowing which chords should be major, minor, or diminished when I'm improvising on the guitar.

 

While I can take a piece of paper and write down the whole scale and figure out the chord qualities / use a guitar music theory poster / or products like BrizBuddy

Is there a rule of thumb to do this in real-time?

[Dad3353]

6 minutes ago, Jose Garcia said:

... when I'm improvising on the guitar...

 

Improvising over what..? A known song, a jazz 'standard', your own composition, a free-for-all jam session..? 

[repoman]

On 29/07/2024 at 20:42, Jose Garcia said:

HI all

I'm having trouble knowing which chords should be major, minor, or diminished when I'm improvising on the guitar.

 

While I can take a piece of paper and write down the whole scale and figure out the chord qualities / use a guitar music theory poster / or products like BrizBuddy

Is there a rule of thumb to do this in real-time?

 

Yes there is.

 

Play this little line.

 

C (8th fret, low E)

F (8th fret, A)

G (10th fret, A)

A (5th fret, low E)

D (5th fret, A)

E (7th fret, A)

B (7th fret, low E)

 

Get used to it.

 

Right, now the first three notes are MAJOR.  In the key of C the C, F and G chords are Major.

 

The next three are MINOR.  In the key of C the A, D and E are Minor.

 

The last note, B.  That's DIMINISHED.

 

 

[MartinB]

The major and minor chords follow a consistent pattern:
In a major key, the only major chords are 1, 4, and 5. The rest are minor.
In a minor key, the only minor chords are 1, 4, and 5. The rest are major.

The only exception you have to remember is the location of the odd-one-out diminshed chord. In a major key it's the 7 chord; in a minor key it's the 2.