This is my entry for Educator Showdown | Round #1 which I would also like to use it to share some musical knowledge.
So we're going to talk about chords. We often hear people saying things such as "strum me a chord", "love the chords you played". So what are they? Chord is basically a combination of 2 or more notes played together. Why do we need chords in music? It's to complement and serve as a foundation to back up the melody.
First of all, in music we use letters as well, but only up till G. After that, it starts all over from A again.
If you've attempted to play musical instruments that can produce multiple notes simultaneously, you'll bound to come across chords such as C major or A minor. We'll eventually get there but let me introduce the term triads. It is a combination of 3 notes stacked upon each only. The formula is simple. You start with a note, and then it's every other note. Let's say we start with C, then the other 2 notes that make up the triad would be E and G. If it was E, then the remaining would be G and B (a reminder that it's not I as we start all over again from A)
Simply put, you can play any triad on the piano or guitar. Just use the formula above and locate the notes!
If you have an instrument with you (piano app counts as well!) you can try any combination of triad (3 notes according to the formula) and let your ears be the judge. I've always believed that our ears determine whether the music sounds good or not, not theory or rules. In fact, theory came after music was created.
Let me give you a few suggestions to try out:
D - F# - A
G - Bb - D
F# - A# - C# (yes that's a legit chord)
And those who are adventurous with their sounds:
B - D - F
G - B - D#
Have fun! I hope to share more about chords in my next #educatorshowdown entry. 😁 Big shoutout to @novili for hosting this and @smacommunity for sponsoring!
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