How to work out what Chords to play over a Scale

[Mike239]

Hey guys and girls,

I'm exploring some scales and i want to know how do i work out the chords to play over a certain scale.
Example: Say if i'm playing a basic A major scale how do i work out what chords will fit with that scale?
Is there some formula or something like that.
Or do you just take single notes from the scale and turn them into chords.

Any help will be Appreciated thanks.

Mike

[johliatay]

I am definitely no theory master, but I have always broken down the scale by the notes and then chose the progression from there. For example a lot of Rock songs are I-IV-V progression so you would take the first, forth and fifth notes from the scale and have your chords.
The A Major scale is A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#
For the A Major scale that would give you an A-D-E since they are the first, forth and fifth notes of the scale.
I am not 100% sure that this is gospel, but it has always worked well for me??

[markg5150]

I am no theory master either but simply based on A major you can play any of the following chords and it will be diatonically correct

A major - I
B minor - II
c# minor - III
D major - IV
E major - V
F# minor - VI
G# dim - VII

You can then choose any progression you want. As suggested above I-IV-V is popular but anything goes.

The major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished pattern is correct for any key. You can then start adding 7th, 9th chords etc as you become more comfortable. Check out Doug Doppler's DVD www.guitar411.com it's really useful

[Martyr Machine]

Originally Posted by johliatay

I am definitely no theory master, but I have always broken down the scale by the notes and then chose the progression from there. For example a lot of Rock songs are I-IV-V progression so you would take the first, forth and fifth notes from the scale and have your chords.
The A Major scale is A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#
For the A Major scale that would give you an A-D-E since they are the first, forth and fifth notes of the scale.
I am not 100% sure that this is gospel, but it has always worked well for me??

I-IV-V refer to scale degrees. Let's used C major as an example:

C major contains the notes CDEFGAB. Basic triads are made by stacking thirds, so the chords in C major are...

C major
D minor
E minor
F major
G major
A minor
B diminished

A I-IV-V progression is therefore C major - F major - G major

[jemplayer55]

Check this site out.....

http://www.teoria.com/index.html

[courtney2018]

Originally Posted by johliatay

I am definitely no theory master, but I have always broken down the scale by the notes and then chose the progression from there. For example a lot of Rock songs are I-IV-V progression so you would take the first, forth and fifth notes from the scale and have your chords.
The A Major scale is A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#
For the A Major scale that would give you an A-D-E since they are the first, forth and fifth notes of the scale.
I am not 100% sure that this is gospel, but it has always worked well for me??

This is correct, diatonically speaking. Any of the above chords will work for the A-mojor scale.

I highly recommend Doug Doppler's DVD! Not that my endorsement means anything, but it's an excellent theory DVD. I'd even dare say the best instructional guitar DVD that there is.

[StevenMikel]

Check out GuitarKnowledgeNet,and/or get the Guitar Grimoire book on progressions.

[screamndemon69]

Originally Posted by markg5150

I am no theory master either but simply based on A major you can play any of the following chords and it will be diatonically correct

A major - I
B minor - II
c# minor - III
D major - IV
E major - V
F# minor - VI
G# dim - VII

You can then choose any progression you want. As suggested above I-IV-V is popular but anything goes.

The major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished pattern is correct for any key. You can then start adding 7th, 9th chords etc as you become more comfortable. Check out Doug Doppler's DVD www.guitar411.com it's really useful

This is pretty close. I would change it to look like this though with the capital roman numerals as Major and the lower case as minor:

I (maj)
ii (min)
iii (min)
IV (maj)
V (maj/dominant)
vi (minor)
vii (minor/half diminshed - has a flat 3rd and flat 5)

Just follow the major scale formula of W W 1/2 W W W 1/2 between each chord and you'll outline a major scales and its chords. I recommend writing/drawing out the neck and how the chords fit together and you'll see how they are one and the same

[StevenMikel]

I went to college and studied music and,actually everyone thats commented on this is right about breaking down the notes of the scale into chords,and how they're broke down.I have a few jam track cds and,most of the tracks use the i,iv,v progression and don't use any thirds in the chords so,you could use major or minor scales.One good simple progression you could use is,I,V,in A major that would be A,E.In the Guitar Grimoire book on progressions I,IV is the first progression they show.GuitarKnowlegeNet has a really cool progression builder on it,the whole site has alot of good info for guitarists.I hope I've helped some,good luck.

[Mike239]

Thanks for the help so far guys, my teacher started explaining it to me today, so i'm getting it now.

[crevis]

Buy 'the jazz theory book' by Mark Levine,

Chordal notes are the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th from the scale, in jazz you would mainly play all these notes in a chord but in rock you would usually omit the 7th because of the dissonance between the 1 and 7.

So in a C Ionian scale

C - 1st - Chordal
W
D - 2nd / 9th - tension
W
E - 3rd - Chordal
H
F - 4th / 11th - tension
W
G - 5th - Chordal
W
A - 6th / 13th - tension
W
B - 7th - Chordal
H
C - 1st

Hope that helps

[mi2tom]

By hearing?

[JasonMalmsteen]

in an A major diatonic scale, there is :
I (maj)
ii (min)
iii (min)
IV (maj)
V (maj/dominant)
vi (minor)
vii (minor/half diminshed - has a flat 3rd and flat 5)

like what what screaminndeam posted above..

Each one of these 7 chords has a corresponding mode to it-
In order...
Ionian (major scale) , Dorian, Phygrian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian (Natural Minor) and Locrian

Now these modes have their own sound qualities to them .. for example .. the Phygrian mode is a minor sounding mode.. it also tends to sound "spanish" or I've even heard some people say it sounds "sinister" and the Dorian mode is known as the "Jazz" mode and is the happiest of all the minor modes included in the 7 modes.. All these modes share the same notes as your A major -

A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#

they just have different root notes when played in a pattern form... A Ionian, B Dorian, C# Phygrian, D Lydian, E Mixolydian (dom), F# Aeolian, G# Locrian

So as I said before, they all have corresponding chords

Ionian - Maj7,Maj6,Maj11..etc
Dorian - Min7,Min6
Phygrian - Min7,Min7b9
Lydian- Maj7,Maj7#11
Mixolydian- 7, 9, 11 (dominant chords dont have a prefix)
Aeolian - Min7,Min9,Min11
Locrian- Dim7,Dim7b9...

So if your playing your song/phrase/whatever in the A major scale (ABC#DEF#G#).. you have to ask yourself what kind of sound your going for..
if you want it to have a daunting sound to it then choose the Locrian mode - the seventh mode so you would play the G#dim7 over your notes (ABC#DEF#G#)

P.S. you can see what chords can fit what modes by looking at the notes that bulid each mode - Ionian is just 1234567 so you can see there that a simple major chord will fit that 1-3-5 or even a Maj7 1-3-5-7... however you cannot use a Min7 (1-b3-5-b7) that would call for a mode with a b3 and a b7
... A mode like this would be Dorian (1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7-8 ).. but with this mode you cannot bulid a Dom7 because the 3rd is flat and the dom7 is (1-3-5-b7)
Mixolydian would fit right with that chord ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8 ) and in fact the only diatonic scale that would ahaha anyway....

To bulid your modes have your major scale ( A major for example ) and apply these formulas on them .. so if you flat the 3rd and 7th in your Major it would then be A Dorian..You can see below which chords fit with which mode
like a min7 can fit into Dorian because it has the b3 and b7.. etcetcetc


Ionian - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Dorian - 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 8
Phygrian - 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8
Lydian - 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 8
Mixolydian - 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8
Aeolian - 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8
Locrian - 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 8

Anyway, remember that these are just rules and guidelines.. dont let them restrict you from expressing yourselves however you want.. music is music

if you guys agree with me or think that what I have said in this whole post is correct but is confused feel free to ask any questions and ill reply asap

[Wild_Child]

^ That really is an excellent post.

The way I got used to this approach to modal playing is to work out the major scale (Ionian mode) into seven three note per string shapes, one starting on each degree of the major scale on the 6th string. After getting REALLY familliar with these seven shapes (jam with them, work on switching between them, play them in different keys) Try doing the same, but use the 2nd degree of this new pattern as your 'root note'. There you have the dorian mode. Do the same with the 3rd degree and so on.

It's a bit of a bluffer's way of modal playing since you're thinking in patterns rather than actual notes, but it's certainly a way of getting away with it.

[Mike239]

Thanks Jason, im slowly starting to get it but what you said makes sense so thanks for that.

And thanks everyone else for also explaining this stuff to me