By : Mr.
Bayu Agustian
In music theory, a major chord is a chord that has a root, major
third, and perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone,
it is called a major triad.
So the Formula of Major Chord are :
• Root
• Major Third
• Perfect Fifth
Chord Root Major third Perfect fifth
C C E G
C♯ C♯ E♯ (F) G♯
D♭ D♭ F A♭
D D F♯ A
D♯ D♯ F (G) A♯
E♭ E♭ G B♭
E E G♯ B
F F A C
F♯ F♯ A♯ C♯
G♭ G♭ B♭ D♭
G G B D
G♯ G♯ B♯ (C) D♯
A♭ A♭ C E♭
A A C♯ E
A♯ A♯ C (D) E♯ (F)
B♭ B♭ D F
B B D♯ F♯
Most chords are made up of three notes: the root, major third,
and perfect fifth.
To build any chord you need to know your scales. A scale tells you
what notes are to be played for a certain key. This might not
make any sense so check out the scales section for more help.
Once you know all about scales you can easily build any chord. To
build the chord you simple find the scale for the chord you want to
build.
For example let’s find a G chord.
• To find that chord lets find the G Major Scale. Like you learned
in the Major scales section you count up by Whole Steps and
Half Steps W-W-H-W-W-W-H.
Look at the image to see the G Major Scale
• Now to find the G chord. These chords consists of the First Third
and Fifth of the scale. The first is always the root note, or the
starting note, which in this example is G.
• Now count up to the third note. G is 1, A is 2, and B is 3. Now
you have the first two notes of the chord G and B.
• To find the last note you do the same thing and count up to the
fifth note of the scale. In this example it would be D.
• So we found that a G chord is made up of the notes G (the
root), B (third), and D (fifth).
The example we used was to find a G major. That was easy right?
But what about all the other chords?
It’s the same thing for all the other chords. You find the root then
count up the scale to the third and the fifth in that scale.
Lets do one more example to make sure you really know how to
build a major chord. Lets find a D Major.
Find the D Major Scale by using W-W-H-W–W–W-H.
Then use the first, third, and fifth in the scale. This tells us the D
chord is made up of a D, F#, and A.
Now that you know how to find a Major Chord make sure you
take the time to learn all of your chords in all keys.
