This lesson wasn’t as easy as I expected from the title of the lesson. This is a great lesson in terms of beginning to learn to solo using the major scale in any key, but I had hoped it would be a little more basic in the content at this level. I have decided to use the Easy Barre Chords lesson in module 22 for my module 20 focus. Then I will focus on this lesson when I am in module 22 just prior to starting Grade 4 when all of this will be studied in detail. A year ago I had requested a lesson on all the chords in the 5 main (open shape Major chords) keys of C, G, D, A and E. Justin gives the chords in the key of G in this lesson, but using movable chords. I decided to make a video for my own use showing finding the chords in the keys of C, G, D, A and E using the note circle. Here is a link to the video that I put in my learning log:
As I said, I am not a guitar teacher, just someone with a few years of experience as an advancing beginner spread thinly over a 40 year time frame, so I know that this is what I need at this point. I am only posting on Justin’s site so if Justin wanted to use this video as a suggestion, I know that he could make a video 10 times better than this one. This main purpose of my video lesson is to introduce the Bm, F#m, C#m, and G#m chords (2nd and 4th fret barre chords) used in these keys to provide practice with barre chords before starting Grade 4 and to provide a table of the chords for using to transpose songs between these keys.
Sorry guys, i don’t understand why justin pick these notes while he is improvising. He said a pattern at the beginning of the video, and then he pick other notes.
So I’ve decided to turn this lesson into a looper session, where I pick a key, work out those chords like the lesson teaches, create a chord sequence with them, then work on solo improv over those chords!
Not only do I think this will help me learn how to use chords properly, but also gets me doing solos outside of the key of G, learning to use the major scale positions all over the neck.
Justin showed a repeating pattern that uses only the E and A strings alongside the statement that this method requires you know the note names on those strings.
He started at fret 3 of the E string so his notes and (major, minor, minor, major, major, minor) chords were named after the notes found in that pattern - G, A, B, C, D, E.
If the pattern was moved to a different place, it would follow the exact same shape on those two strings but the notes and names would take different names based on those different notes.
When Justin improvised he used pattern 1 of the G major scale because the chord progression he played was in the key of G (a selection of chords built from some of the six in the pattern).
Just watched the video amd like others am slightly confused. He plays the chords G Am Bm C D and Em and them uses the G major scale that hasn’t been covered in any of the lessons up to this point. Are we supposed to know this scale?
I know that it has been said before but he also uses A shaped barre chords which I don’t think are covered until grade 4. Yes I know that open chords can be used but they are not really shown as part of the lesson.
Saying all that it was a good lesson and given me something to work on.
The C major scale has only natural notes (no sharps or flats). Based on that, try to work out the G major scale. Use the note circle if needed. Hint: there’s only 1 sharp in it.
Here you will find info about the diatonic chords in keys, i.e. which chords, containing only the notes of the given scale, are major or minor.
I also recommend the first 2 free grades of the practical music theory course if you haven’t subscribed to it yet.
Just like Barre Chords and Power Chords, Scales have root notes! The root note gives the scale its note name. In my diagrams, the root notes are a red dot or circled ®.
Only that the chord would be Bb. The C root is on the 8th fret E string and yes the E shape would work there. As would the same shape at the 10th for D but it starts to get a bit cramped up there !
Yes and it works for every key. If you want to figure out the minor equivalent you can do it two ways.
1 Use the Relative Major but start with the 6th interval or 2 Use the minor scale chord progression min dim Maj min min Maj Maj
For beginners it’s easier to use the Relative Major and start from the 6th interval. This way you don’t have to deal with the Diminished chord.
For example Am is the relative min of C using the Chords in the C major scale starting at the 6th interval you get Am C Dm Em F G.
Relative minor keys (and their relationship with the circle of fifths) were also mentioned in this live class (from 31:50 to 43:28):
Pages 31-33 of the PDF attachment show the diatonic chords of C major and A minor along with the corresponding scale degrees. The same pattern can be used to arrive at the diatonic chords of all major and relative minor keys.
There are major and minor keys. Each major key has a relative minor key which means that they share the same 7 scale tones and the same 7 diatonic chords. For example, the relative minor key of C major is A minor: both keys have only natural notes and their diatonic chords are the same, although the scale degrees are different.
C major
Notes: C D E F G A B
Diatonic chords: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim
One way to derive the relative minor key is to take the 6th degree of the major scale in question and use that note (in our example it’s A) as the tonic of the relative minor key.
A minor
Notes: A B C D E F G
Diatonic chords: Am, Bdim, C, Dm, Em, F, G
You will notice that e.g. G major is the “V” chord in C major (i.e. G is the 4th scale degree), but it’s the VII chord in A minor.
Note: there’s the concept of parallel keys where the tonic of the major scale and of its parallel minor are the same, e.g. C major and C minor. However, parallel keys do not share the same notes or diatonic chords as the parallel minor has the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees flattened. For example:
C major scale tones: C D E F G A B
C minor scale tones: C D Eb F G Ab Bb
Had to check what you mean by ‘diatonic chords’. According to Google it’s " A chord which is diatonic is simply a chord built from notes of the key . So in the key of C, the chord C major (C, E, G) would be diatonic to the key of C because its 3 notes are part of the C major scale."
I get that as that is the M-m-m-M-M-m pattern.
Thanks for your help with this but to be honest I find the whole keys, chords, scales thing confusing at best and can’t seem to make head nor tail of it. I have another Major Scales chart downloaded from the JG site that has T T S T T T S at the top which looks very similar to the Key Chord Chart. Where does this fit?
I know that the theory is that some notes sound better with certain scales but the other day I was playing a C major backing track (not realising that it was in C) and improvising using the A minor pentatonic scale. All sound OK to me!
Actually it wasn’t that long ago that I realised that the A minor pentatonic scale was not the Am pentatonic scale!!
And they should because the A minor pentatonic scale (i.e. a scale having 5 notes) is a subset of the A minor scale (the 2nd and 6th degrees, in this case the notes B and F are omitted) which has the same notes as the C major scale. That’s one important discovery you have made for yourself.
Now, try to improvise using for example the B major (Ab minor pentatonic) scale over that same backing track in C major. How does it sound? Try it with G major (Em pentatonic) then. Which sounds better? Which has more notes that sound good with the backing track in C major? Theory will provide you a systematic answer to those questions, even if it’s your ears that will give the final verdict.
