Music Theory: Lesson 3: Chords Built on Scale Degrees Video Lecture | Piano Tutorials Course: Beginners to Advance - Class 6

hi welcome back and now it's time for
another theory lesson it's actually been
a while today what we're going to be
talking about our different scale
degrees chords built on different notes
of the scale specifically we're going to
be looking at the C major scale
later on we'll look at different scales
and I'll basically show you where this
all this stuff kind of fits in so anyway
here comes the lesson time for another
theory lesson
so here were theory lesson 3 if you
remember with lessons 2 & 1
I talked about some very basic theory
concepts mostly scales and chords I
believe and this is kind of putting them
together kind of putting things in
perspective some of the stuff I may have
already mentioned in passing but this is
kind of just to to elaborate on what
we're talking about because this will
become very important later on when we
start composing or looking at music to
see what's going on as well as just
future theory lessons so you understand
what's what's happening so we have this
thing in front of us let's take a look
at this this should look somewhat
familiar in somewhat foreign at the same
time in terms of notes here we have C D
F G a bass you know that as the C major
scale of course this is going to be a
little different with every major well
every scale is going to be a little bit
different and I'll explain that but keep
in mind that we have the C major scale
that we have zero sharps and zero flats
so none of the we're not going to be
using any of the Black Keys at all so
here we have so just looking at the C
major scale I'm going to discuss scale
degrees which is what the title says so
very simple very very simple is that
when you have C or you have a scale
rather in your first note you have your
first note that is called the first
scale degree
the next one note is called the second
scale degree third scale degree fourth
scale degree fifth scale degree six
scale degree seventh scale degree and
then back to actually the first scale
degree we also call that an octave
playing between those two to note two of
the same note
so maybe asking yourself well what about
all these Roman numerals if you notice
that the Roman numerals kind of go along
with what I said which is one two three
four five six seven and then one again
so you may be asking yourself well why
are some of them lowercase and some of
them are uppercase well I will explain
that in a minute with the next screen we
have and that is chords built on scale
degrees so all these chords are just
white note chords because we don't have
any sharps or flats in the key of C
we'll talk about other key signatures
later on but right now let's just talk
about the key of C so we have this first
chord built on the first scale degree we
have the second chord built on the
second scale degree third built on the
third neck scale degree neck scale
degree xbl degree ex-gay legree the
seventh and now we're back to one so
very simple right just what practice
going through that like so so let's take
a look here we have our first chord
do you remember um well I guess I can't
ask you but hopefully remember the major
chord and what makes up a major chord
remember that almost every chord unless
it's a seventh chord but for right now
almost every chord has a first a third
which is that middle note and a fifth
which is the last note
and remember that a major chord has four
half steps between the first and the
third and seven half steps between the
first and the fifth if you use that
formula you can make a major chord on
any note you want like say you had a
flat I'm using that formula you can make
an A flat chord and once you get good at
it you can make them very quickly so
anyway that first chords major whenever
we have a major chord we're going to be
using an uppercase a Roman numeral
letter and and I don't know why they
decided to use Roman numerals as opposed
to numbers I guess because there's not a
lowercase you know number Roman numeral
number one or regular number number one
anyways so we have Capital One or Roman
numeral one for major chord the next two
chord let's count this one it should
sound kind of sad to you and remember
that majors kind of happy minors kind of
sad remember that with minor up there's
still seven half steps between the first
and the fifth but there are only three
half steps between the first and the
third so one two three so there we go
so we have a minor chord here whenever
we have a minor chord we're going to be
using a lowercase Roman numeral the next
the third scale degree we have here if
you notice it's a lowercase three Roman
numeral three rather so we know that
that's a minor chord right away we don't
even really have to count it out unless
you want to double check one two three
up the next one a scale degree four
that's a major chord we got an upper
case for there five uppercase v so
another major chord six is going to be
Myer you can count that out if you don't
trust me and or if you want more
practice and then we have the seventh
seventh looks weird it had its lowercase
but as this weird a little circle
next to it that is what's called the
diminished symbol so with diminished
chords we have the lowercase plus an
extra little like o or circle or 0 in
this case I think I wrote so let's count
this one out we have a diminished chord
remember that a diminished chord has
only three half steps between the first
and the third and only six half steps
between the first and the fifth so we
have the first 1 2 3 4 5 6 so there's
our fifth
like so so that's a diminished chord
remember that when we have a major chord
to get to diminish we have to lower the
third by one half step and the fifth by
one half step and that gives us that
Domitian chord and then we have the C
major chord again which is our 1 chord
again of course it's going to be a
capital one because that's a major chord
and now I want you to keep this in mind
that these this pattern of major minor
minor major major minor diminished major
holds true to every major scale you
played no matter what note you're
starting on the first scale degree will
always be major and then two and three
or Bolinger for a while we major 6 will
be minor 7 will be diminished and C will
be major just keep in mind that that
holds consistent no matter what scale
you're talking about so take a look at
these I'll post these up on the wiki to
practice become familiar with them
because it is really important later on
when we start really diving into chord
progressions and things like that anyway
that brings us to the end of the lesson
and I'm I think I'm losing my voice I
need a glass of water so anyway I'll see
you for the outro alright that ends
theory lesson 3 today we talked about
building different skin different chords
on different notes of the scale and I
showed you that there's kind of a
pattern to how that works so take a look
at that I will
those the things we worked on to the
wiki for more additional practice so if
you have any questions about what we've
done whether it's this lesson or another
lesson feel free to ask hopefully I can
get to you and anyway I'll see you next
time thank you so much for watching my
videos as always and so long