How Chords Are Formed

Chords are composed of two or more notes. A chord can be played by playing all notes (the two or more that make up the chord) at once, or it can be played one note at a time. The most common and basic chord is called a triad (containing three notes). More complex chords are built upon triads. For simplicity, I am just going to go over how to build a basic major triad chord. Later we will get into minor chords and more complex chords, but you have to start with the basic and build.

To build a chord you start with a root (or tonic) note which is usually the basis for naming the chord – i.e. C Major chord’s root is C. After you find the root, you continue building the chord by going up two intervals in the root note’s scale. So, in the case of C major, your root note would be C and your 3rd would be E and your 5th would be G. (The root, 3rd, and 5th of a scale is your triad chord.) Let’s look at the C Major scale to see more in depth on how this works.

Notice the I (or root) is C and the III is E and the V is G – and there you have it a C Major is C E G. Of course, this works the same for every major scale. Let’s try to figure out an E Major chord.

Okay, did you figure it out? If you think that the notes E G# B make up an E Major chord, you are right! Good Job. Let’s look at one more.

Above is a G Major scale. Note that G B D are the I III V notes of the scale therefore the notes that make up a G Major chord. Now, I will give you two more major scales (D and F) and you can figure out what the major chord is by applying the same techniques you have been shown throughout this post.

If you want a chord diagram of the basic open chords, check out this post on chords.