2026-10-18
Every Sunday I write about things I learned the previous week. I try to do at least one deep dive on something I'm trying to learn and write it in my own words. Then I usually share some other random tidbits I picked up last this week.
Last week I talked about how minor keys follow a different pattern than major keys:
Major: W-W-H-W-W-W-H
Minor: W-H-W-W-H-W-W
So if we look at the notes of G major: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#
and now G minor: G-A-A#-C-D-D#-F
These are called parallel chords and you can borrow from them to add some color. Because both keys are rooted in G, chords borrowed from the parallel key still sound like they belong even if they are not expected.
If you’re looking at any given scale, a chord can be made by using each note in the scale as the root. These are usually notated with roman numerals like this:
I, II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII
For a given scale you would use uppercase and lowercase to indicate whether it’s a major or minor chord.
This happens because you build each chord by taking the root + 3rd + 5th. Depending on where those notes land it could be a major or a minor chord. This is due to the fact that the fretboard on a guitar is not uniform as we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
As an example let’s stay in the G Major Key. That scale is: G-A-B-C-D-E-F#
So, the chord for A is: A(root), C(3rd), E(5th)
Now, if we look at what we learned last week:
if we start at A on the fretboard and move to the next note in the chord (C) that is only 3 frets away so it’s a MINOR 3rd instead of a major so the chord is minor which is why for G Major Key the notation is:
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii°