Jazz & Popular Harmony
Chord-Scale Theory Explained: Which Scale Fits Which Chord
Chord-scale theory pairs each chord quality with a scale whose notes fit it. This article gives the pairings, the spellings in C, and the notes to avoid.
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Glossary
- ScaleAn ordered set of pitches within an octave, arranged by a pattern of steps that defines a key or a mode.
- Scale degreeThe position of a note within a scale, numbered from the tonic as 1 through 7, used in solfège and Roman…
- Chord-scale theoryA method that pairs each chord symbol with a scale whose notes fit that chord, for improvising over a set of…
- Chromatic scaleA scale of all twelve semitones in an octave, built from half steps alone, with each pitch spelled by a sharp…
- Major scaleA seven-note scale with the pattern whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, which is the basis of…
- Minor scaleA family of seven-note scales with a minor third above the tonic, existing in natural, harmonic and melodic…
- Octatonic scaleAn eight-note scale that alternates whole and half steps, also called the diminished scale, such as C D E♭ F…
- Pentatonic scaleA five-note scale per octave with no half steps, such as the major pentatonic C D E G A.
Articles
Fundamentals
The Major Scale Formula: Whole and Half Steps Explained
The major scale is seven notes spaced whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Here is the formula, four scales built from it, and the sharps and flats it forces.
Fundamentals
Scale Degrees Explained: Numbers, Names and Solfège
Scale degrees number each note of a scale from its tonic, and solfège names the same positions do, re, mi. Degree names, movable and fixed do, and why degrees travel between keys.
Fundamentals
Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales Compared
Three minor scales, three different jobs. What each form changes, why composers switch between them, and how to hear the difference.
Fundamentals
Pentatonic and Blues Scales: Patterns With a Purpose
Major and minor pentatonics plus the blues scale: the patterns, the blue notes, and why five notes carry so much melody.
Tuning & Temperament
Pythagorean Tuning: How Stacked Pure Fifths Build a Scale
Pythagorean tuning builds every interval from pure 3:2 fifths. Here is the seven-note scale it produces, its whole tones and semitones in cents, and the wolf fifth it leaves behind.
Harmony
Diatonic Chords in Major and Minor Keys Explained
Diatonic chords are the triads built on each scale degree from the key's own notes. Here are their qualities in major and minor, worked out in C and A.
Fundamentals
Church Modes From Dorian to Locrian: A Practical Guide
Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian explained by pattern and color, with hearing tips and modern uses.
Harmony
Roman Numeral Analysis: How to Label a Chord Progression
Roman numerals label each chord by the scale degree of its root and its quality. Here is a step-by-step method, with I vi IV V worked in C and G.
Ear Training & Practice
How to Transcribe Music by Ear: A Step-by-Step Procedure
Transcribe by ear in a fixed order: key and bass first, then chords by root and quality, then the melody by scale degree, and rhythm last.
Guitar & Fretboard
CAGED System Explained: Five Shapes That Cover the Neck
CAGED turns five open chords into movable shapes. This explains how the shapes connect, how to name a moved chord from its root string, and how to find one chord in several places.
Jazz & Popular Harmony
Chord Extensions Explained: Ninths, Elevenths and Thirteenths
Ninths, elevenths and thirteenths are chord tones stacked above the seventh. Which of them fit a chord depends on its quality, and some clash with the third.
Ear Training & Practice
Ear Training for Intervals: A Method You Can Practise Daily
Interval recognition comes faster with a method: three intervals tied to a tonic, sung before they are named, and a short daily routine you can keep.
Fundamentals
Relative and Parallel Keys Explained: Major and Minor Partners
A major key has two close minor partners. The relative minor shares its key signature, the parallel minor shares its tonic, and each pair connects keys in a different way.
Harmony
Cadences: How Phrases End in Tonal Music
Authentic, half, plagal and deceptive cadences, and the real reason a close sounds strong: what happens in the bass, the top voice and the metre.
Harmony
Functional Harmony: Tonic, Predominant, Dominant
Tonic, predominant and dominant describe what a chord does to a phrase rather than what it is. This is how the three harmonic jobs divide the work.
Fundamentals
Key Signatures and the Order of Sharps and Flats
Sharps arrive in the order F C G D A E B and flats in reverse. The order is the circle of fifths written out, one signature at a time.
Harmony
Seventh Chords and How They Resolve in Tonal Harmony
The chordal seventh falls, the leading tone rises, and the tritone at the centre of V7 resolves by step. What each diatonic seventh chord is for.
Rhythm & Meter
Time Signatures Explained: Simple, Compound and Beyond
A time signature gives beats per bar and the note value that counts as one beat. Simple meters split each beat in two, compound meters split it in three.
Music History
After Tonality: What Composers Replaced It With
When chromatic harmony outgrew the tonal hierarchy, composers tried serial rules, rhythm, folk modes, and sound mass. What each method actually solved.
Orchestration
Transposing Instruments Explained: Written and Sounding Pitch
A transposing instrument sounds a different pitch from the one on the page. The intervals for common instruments, and how to transpose a part.
Form
The Twelve-Bar Blues: Form, Chord Plan and Variations
Twelve bars of 4/4 in three four-bar phrases, moving through I, IV and V. The standard plan in C and F, the quick change, the turnaround and the minor blues.
Fundamentals
Tempo Markings Explained: Largo to Presto in Beats per Minute
Italian tempo words run from slow to fast. Approximate beats-per-minute bands for each, the modifiers and transitions that change them, and why a metronome number needs a time signature.
Harmony
The Neapolitan Sixth Chord: Sound, Spelling, Resolution
The flat-II chord that darkens minor keys: how the Neapolitan sixth is built, voiced, resolved, and used from Bach to Schubert.
Fundamentals
Reading Intervals at Sight: Generic and Specific
Naming an interval at sight takes two passes: count the staff positions first, then judge what the accidental does to the size.
Fundamentals
How to Read Sheet Music: Staves, Clefs and Note Names
The staff, the treble and bass clefs, line and space names, ledger lines, and where the key and time signatures sit, with a table to learn from.
Acoustics & Sound
The Harmonic Series: Why Octaves, Fifths and Thirds Come First
A vibrating string or air column sounds a fundamental and a set of partials at whole-number multiples of it. Here are the first sixteen, their cents, and where they differ from equal temperament.
Tuning & Temperament
What Are Cents? The Unit That Measures Small Pitch Differences
A cent is one hundredth of an equal-tempered semitone. Here is the formula, what the common intervals measure in cents, and what a tuner is showing you.
Orchestration
String Bowing and Articulation: A Practical Arranger Guide
Legato, detache, spiccato, staccato, martelé: what each bowing sounds like, how to mark it, and writing playable string parts.
Harmony
Tritone Substitution: The subV7 Chord That Still Resolves
Replace any dominant with the dominant a tritone away: why subV7 works, how it smooths bass lines, and where jazz standards hide it.
Tools
Pages
Scales
- Altered scaleThe altered scale: the seventh mode of melodic minor, with the second through seventh lowered, used over dominant sevenths in jazz.
- Bebop dominant scaleBebop dominant: Mixolydian with an added major seventh passing tone, so chord tones fall on strong beats in eighth-note lines.
- Blues scaleThe blues scale: the minor pentatonic with a flat fifth added, six notes whose blue note adds the tension of blues and rock melody.
- Diminished (half–whole) scaleHalf-whole diminished: eight notes alternating half and whole steps, built from two diminished sevenths and used over dominant sevenths.
- Diminished (whole–half) scaleWhole-half diminished: eight notes alternating whole and half steps, built from two diminished seventh chords, used over dominant sevenths.
- Dorian scaleDorian: a minor scale with a raised sixth, the second mode of the major pattern, minor in color yet lighter than natural minor.
- Double harmonic major scaleDouble harmonic major: seven notes with a flat second and flat sixth, built from two identical tetrachords, with a strongly exotic sound.
- Harmonic minor scaleHarmonic minor: natural minor with a raised seventh, giving a leading tone, a major dominant, and the augmented second that sets its sound apart.
Key guides
- A major keyThree sharps · relative F♯ minor
- A minor keyNo sharps or flats · relative C major
- A♭ major keyFour flats · relative F minor
- B major keyFive sharps · relative G♯ minor
- B minor keyTwo sharps · relative D major
- B♭ major keyTwo flats · relative G minor
- B♭ minor keyFive flats · relative D♭ major
- C major keyNo sharps or flats · relative A minor