Example 7: Chords Chords are made up of 3 or more notes played simultaneously. Chords are an important part of playing most styles of music including the Blues and Rock and Roll. We are going to focus on the dominant 7th chord which is made up of the 1st, 3rd, 5th and dominant 7th (or b 7th) notes of the major scale - as shown below. G MAJOR SCALE maj? dom7 > = o = o —— = fe scale tones: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 b7 Since our 12 Bar Blues is in the key of G, we will start with the G dominant 7th chord (written G7). G7 CHORD (1) G B D F scaletones; 1 39 5 Tonic | | | Chords can be written on a music staff using music notation or they can be indicated in the form of a letter called a chord symbol which is located just above the staff. The exercises in this book use both. Play the G7 chords in the exercise below using your right hand thumb on the G, index finger on the B, 3rd finger on the D and your pinky on the F as shown in the fingering numbers next to the first G7 chord. G7Cee ed C7 CHORD ( IV} “2. Now let's move up to the IV chord in the key of G which is the C7 and play it for 2 bars followed by 2 bars of G7 as indicated below. Hn q SrUUrE nm C7 scale tones: 1 c7 GT if a chord repeats in the next bar you don’t usually repeat its name above the staff. D7 CHORD (V)} 2 Try the V chord in the key of G (D7). Play the exercise below using the D7, G7 and G7 chords. scale tones: 4 3°05 b7