Harmonizing the Major Scale on Guitar

Video Transcript

MICHAEL PLUNKETT: Hello. This is Michael Plunkett on behalf of Expert Village. What we're now going to take a look at is how we can build chords from each one of the scale degrees in our scale. We've been looking at how we build chords from the first one. But we can actually have--we can make a chord off of anyone of these. Now we know that in a major scale, if we build a chord off of the first scale degree, it's going to give us a major chord; that's without changing any notes. I'm actually going to use Roman numerals to describe or to show what type of chord it would be a major. I'm going to use a large sized Roman numeral. So, any time I'm playing in the key, a major key, if I build off this first scale degree, I'm going to have a major chord. That's also going to be true if I build a chord off of the 4th scale degree. I have a large upper case four there in the Roman numerals. And also of the 5th. So, anytime I'd be playing the chord C, F or G in the key of C, they're going to be major chords. But for the 2nd scale degree, if I'm going to be playing a D, I'm using a lower case Roman numeral there, that's the lower case 2. The E into lower case three there from the 3rd scale degree. The A which will be my 6th scale degree, those are all going to be minor chords. So, again, being in a key of C major, if I come upon an E, a D or an A chord, they're going to be minor chords. And that's without altering anything. Now, looking at this last one, we come upon the diminished chord which we've looked at earlier. So, I have the lower case Roman numeral 7 and then I put that small diminished symbol. So, this tells us what types of chords we're going to have in a major key. And again, I could be starting on any note here. If I were in the key of E, F, G, anyone of them, I know that the 1 chord is going to be major so are the 4 and 5, and the 2, 3 and 6, minor and the 7th is diminished chord. That's how we harmonize the major scale.

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