Hello from the Czech Republic!

[praus6qwet]

Hey guys,

my name is Tony and I’ve been playing ukulele for some 5 years, completely ignoring music theory until now. I’m at chord theory, and there’s already something I can’t figure out unfortunately.

Triad Formulas:

Major: 1 3 5
Minor: 1 b3 5

I get why C, F and G are formed the way they are, but what boggles me are A, D and E.

According to the triad formula, A = 1(A) 3(C) 5(E), but this actually forms Am and when I look at the actual A chord, the 3 is flat, the same goes for D and E. Could you maybe point me to an article where you wrote about it, it got me really puzzled 😀

Thank you very much!

[Andrew]

Hi Tony! You have have to compare it against it’s parent scale, which would be A Major. A Major contains 3 #’s:

A (1) B (2) C# (3) D (4) E (5) F# (6) G# (7)

Now apply the minor formula to above to get A minor:

A (1) C (b3) E (5)

This is why C# becomes natural.

This is covered in a few spots, including the pdf eBook from the songwriting course. And a more step-by-step (better for beginner) explanation in module one of the theory course.

[praus6qwet]

Thank you very much Andrew, makes sense now!

[Author]

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