Questions? Email me!
Creating New Chords
(C) 2005 by Charlie Read
Chords are fun to work with, especially if you’re a songwriter and like to experiment with different sounds. If you get tired of the same old standard chord forms, you can always get creative and invent your own. Of course, when you do – someone will have probably already beaten you to it.
There is actually a method to this process of building new chords. I want to look at two in this article and explain the principle behind the construction process.
A major chord is built using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a major scale. For example, a C major scale is composed of seven notes (the eighth is the octave): C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Therefore a
C Major chord (usually just called “C”) is composed of the 1st (C), the 3rd (E), and the 5th (G). You’re probably familiar with a
C chord, but when we add a “D” note we call it a Cadd9. This is because the ninth note in the scale is D. Try this chord; it’s extremely popular in rock, pop and country songs (see Figure
1 below).
This next example is based upon an A chord. We've taken away the 3rd (C#) and
used the open second string (B). B is the second note of the A Scale, so we now have an
Asus2 (“sus” stands for “suspended” – see Fig. 2).
Now, if your brain is really in gear you may be thinking “Aren’t the “2nd” and “9th” the same
note? Answer: yes . . . but the A example shown is called a suspended 2nd because the second (B) has replaced the third (C#). The
C chord example is called an “add 9” chord because the third (in this case, E) remains even though the D has been added.
Confused? Take it slowly and think about it a bit at a time. But don’t worry about it - just take some familiar chords and add or change notes around until you find something you like. It just might get the creative juices flowing (even if you don’t have a clue what your “new” chord is called)!
