It’s fun to add chords to a song. Because each one helps “fatten out” the melody and propel the music forward. But at some point, you may be wondering how we decide on which chords to use. In other words, do we just randomly throw chords into a song … or is there some logic to things?
For example, in the song “London Bridge,” why do we play those particular chords—C major, D minor, and G major? As all the cool kids say, what is up with that? Well, the answer is simple. Because just like the melody of this song, its chord progression is also based on the C major scale.
To see what I mean, check it out: Our song “London Bridge” was written in the key of C. So each note in this melody comes from the C major scale. The pattern of notes has simply been chopped up and rearranged into something that sounds nice. And if you look closely, each chord is also built from that same basic pattern of notes.
That’s right, the root notes of the C major chord, D minor chord, and G major chord all come from the same C major scale. In that order, these triads are built from the tonic (1) note, major second (2) note, and dominant fifth (5) note.
We can also see that the notes in each of these chords come from the C major scale. For example, C major includes notes C–E–G … while D minor includes D–F–A. And of course, our friend G major has notes G–B–D. By combining these three triads in the key of C, we come up with a pleasant chord progression that makes the song “London Bridge” sound really nice.
In fact, if we go one step further, we can build a chord on every note of the C major scale … and come up with a cool pattern of both major and minor triads:
As we move through each of these chords—one after another—the result sounds a lot like the old, familiar C major scale … but on steroids. Just like the separate notes that make up the major scale pattern of 1 2 34 5 6 78, this pattern of chords sounds awesome. Each chord naturally leads to the next, like a path of stepping-stones that gives life and movement to this progression.
So in some strange twist of fate, we find that chord patterns are actually the same as note patterns. Like a one-trick pony, Mother Nature simply recycles the same, old scales we’ve already learned into the chord progressions musicians use to create songs. It’s amazing!
In a way, this might seem a bit disappointing … since it’s all the same stuff that we’ve seen before. But it’s also very exciting—because it means that we don’t have to learn a whole new bag of tricks. All we need to do is build on what we already know. And with Color Music, it’s a total cakewalk.
