Chord Context | The Secret that Makes Music Simple

Learning to play the piano has always been about playing notes. I'm speaking in the traditional sense of piano lessons of course. It made sense for a very long time because before the technology to record audio, written music was the only way to record any piece of music.

And then there's the evolution of popular music (which really describes just about anything other than classical repertoire). We can thank the guitar playing world for that. Because guitar playing has always focused on chords rather than notes. This really put notes in the context of chords and that's what I want to share with you in this article.

You may think that discussing keys of music is in order. But I'm not going to, at least not in the traditional sense. I refer to this concept as chord context. I'll also state that this really helped clarify my understanding of music. Let me also add that it's very simple to understand.

If there's anything that's apparent about music, is that it's transitory. In other words, melodies and harmonies progress through them. Chord context is a concept of those transitioning harmonies.

So let's start by looking at a song as it would exist on a lead sheet.

We have a somewhat simple chord progression. We'll say that the key it's in is arbitrary because we want to focus on chord context as we progress, instead of what key this piece of music is in.

As you can see from our first chord symbol, we have a C Major chord. The melody has us playing C, E, G and B.

This first bar of music is essentially everything in the context of the key of C Major. Every key has a tonic chord in which the whole key of music is based upon. It's very simple because its name is based upon the key. So the C Major chord is the tonic chord of the key of C Major.Even though it's a simple C Major chord in this case, it could encompass any notes that are in the key of C Major.   Think of every note in the key of C in 3rd intervals.

Bar number two has a D dominant 7th chord. The song has progressed into another chord and essentially in the context of another key of music. I want to emphasize that the song has not changed keys. But the chord context has moved to D Major.The melody has us playing B and E.

Unlike the first bar, this chord is an extended chord. By definition a D7 is D, F sharp, A and C. All of these tones are found in the key of D Major with the exception of C natural (I'm illustrating C natural because it is in the D7 chord).

Could this D7 chord encompass any other tones in the key of D Major? Absolutely.  Think of every note in the key of D in 3rd intervals.  Note: The key of D Major does not include C natural which is illustrated here.  It was changed here because of the context of the D7 chord.

Bar three has an A minor chord. So now we're virtually in the key of A minor.The melody has us playing G, E and A. All these tones are found in the key of A minor.

Just as in our last two chords, any tone from the key of A minor could extend this chord out further.

Think of every note in the key of A Major in 3rd intervals.

The chord context in the last chord of our musical example has the same principals. So based on the previous, look at the chord symbol and ask yourself: what chord context does the music transition to?

If you're answer is the key of E minor, you're correct. You may have noticed that the E minor chord is in the same bar as the last chord. It doesn't change the chord context moving to a new virtual key.The melody has us playing D. This tone is found in the key of E minor.

The next question is: Are you familiar with the key of E minor enough to know what tones could be added to extend this chord?

If you answered any other tones in E minor you would be correct.  Think of every note in the key of e minor in 3rd intervals.