[PIANO PLAYING]
What I'd like to do now is I'd like to show you
how to create your very own basic chord chart.
Now, the first thing we need to do is we need to get some staff paper,
and if you see on the screen there, there is a staff.
The next thing we need to decide is, what form are we going to write?
What form will this tune be?
Let's do a blues tune.
So we're going to use a blues form, and we're
going to use a standard 12-bar blues form.
So let's put in the bar lines.
If there are 12 bars, I found it best to do four bars per stave.
So we draw those four bars in each stave.
Next thing you want to do is you want to decide what is your time signature.
Will it be 4/4?
Will it be 3/4?
Let's do 4/4.
So we put 4/4 time signature there.
So now we know we have a 12-bar blues and 4/4 time.
And since we have mainly talked about the key of C,
we're going to write this blues in the key of C.
Now, there are several other key signatures that we can use.
What is a key signature?
A key signature lets you know what key you are in.
If you are in a key of F, there would be one flat
there indicating the amount of flats that are in that scale or in that key.
If we were in the key of G, there would be one sharp.
Right there on the F line, it will be an F sharp.
That would mean we were in the key of G. So I
didn't want to talk too much about key signatures,
but if it were in another key, you would put a key signature right there
at the top of the chart.
The next thing we want to do is we want to put in our chord symbols.
Bar number 1, we know that's the 1 chord.
In the key of C, the 1 chord in the blues is going to be a C dominant 7.
So you put C dominant 7 there.
And then you put four slash marks right in the middle of the measure.
You'll see them right there they go right across.
The next bar you write C7 again, bar 2.
Bars 3 and 4, the same thing.
So that's C7 for four bars in a row.
And bar 5, we go to the 4 chord.
That would be F7.
So we'll put F7 there, and of course, you put your flashes in.
Those are called slashes, bar slashes, chords slashes.
In bar number 6, you have F7 again.
Bar number 7, you go back to C7, and of course,
don't forget your chord slashes.
Bar number 8, C7 again.
Then you go to bar number 9.
That's where the G7 is.
Put in your slashes.
Bar number 10, go to F7.
Bar number 11, back to C7.
Bar number 12, you can either play C7 again
or sometimes people will play a G7 because G7 is a nice chord used
to help you to lead back to 1.
Remember in lesson when we talked about that 5 chord being the dominant chord?
[PIANO PLAYING]
That 1 wants to go back to 1.
So very often you see the G7 in the last bar of the blues,
the 5/7 in the last bar of the blues.
So there we created our first basic chord chart, which is the blues.
C blues.
[PIANO PLAYING]
F. Back to C. Then G, F, C. Maybe G here.
Back to beginning.
[PIANO PLAYING]
F, C, G, F to C. Basic chord chart.