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Understanding harmonized scales is essential for all musicians, it's where chord progressions come from, it's how songwriters know what chords to use, and when playing solos, what notes to play.
How to harmonize a scale with (basic) chords
To understand how to harmonize a scale with chords lets first look at a simple "C" scale:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B
If we want to play some chord progressions in the key of C we'll need to know how to harmonize the scale with chords, because that'll tell us what chords you can use for our chord progression!
We also must use roman numerals to talk about each scale degree so that we can easily transfer what we learn here to other scales.
Roman numerals are assigned to each scale degree like so:
I (C) II (D) III (E) IV (F) V (G) VI (A) VII (B)
The C scale is harmonized with chords like so:
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and B° (° = diminished)
Notice the following:
- The I, IV and V chords (C, F, and G) are major chords
- The II, III and VI chords (Dm, Em, and Am) are minor chords
- The VII choird (B dim) is a diminished chord
These "rules" can be followed to harmonize any scale with chords.
Furthermore: We can adjust the roman nurmerals to indicate what type of chord we have - this makes writing down chord progressions a breeze!
Take a look:
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii°
Notice the following:
- The major chords are capital roman numerals
- The minor chords are small roman numerals
- The diminished chord is indicated with the "°" symbol
This is how chord progressions are written with roman numerals in such a way that you can tell exactly what chord is to be played!
How to harmonize a scale with 7 chords
We'll use the "C" scale again for this example.
C, D, E, F, G, A, B
When we harmonize a scale with 7 chords we'll wind up wit 4 differnt chords!
It'll look like this:
Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7, Bm7b5
Notice the following:
- The I chord and the IV chord are major 7 chords
- The II, III, and the VI chord are minor 7 chords
- The V chord is a dominat 7 chord
- The VII chord is a Minor 7b5
All scales can be harmonized with 7 chords in this manner.
Roman numerals would be as follows:
Imaj7, ii7, iii7, IVmaj7, V7, vi7, vii7b5
The PDF download below will have chord charts for all of the chords I mentioned here and charts showing all major and minor scales harmonized with basic chords and 7 chords.
RELATED VIDEOS
In this video you learn how to harmonize a scale with chords - and we look at 'borrowed chords' as well
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