Chapter 10: The Songwriter's Palette: Unlocking the 7 Diatonic Chords

Power chords are fantastic. They give us that raw, driving energy that is the heart of rock and roll. But what if you want to write a song that makes people feel something specific—like joy, sadness, or hope? For that, we need to add more colors to our musical palette.

This chapter is where we unlock that palette.

These are the seven foundational chords—your ultimate songwriting toolkit—that are the building blocks of countless hit songs. When you get comfortable with this system, you can start creating music that expresses any emotion you want.

The Core System: From 7 Notes to 7 Chords

Remember the C Major scale? It's made up of seven notes.

Well, here's the really cool secret: each one of those seven notes is the foundation—or "root"—for its very own chord. That's right: seven notes give us a family of seven chords. This family is what defines a musical "key," and it's the sandbox we get to play in to create our songs.

The Chord Blueprints: The 3 Simple Recipes for Emotion

Before we meet the whole family, let's learn the simple recipes that build all the chords. There are only three types of chords in this system, and each one has its own distinct emotional feel.

The Major Chord Blueprint (Sounds Happy/Triumphant):

• Recipe: Root + a Major Third (4 frets up) + a Fifth (7 frets up).

The Minor Chord Blueprint (Sounds Sad/Serious):

• Recipe: Root + a Minor Third (3 frets up) + a Fifth (7 frets up).

The Diminished Chord Blueprint (Sounds Tense/Unstable):

• Recipe: Root + a Minor Third (3 frets up) + a Diminished Fifth (6 frets up).

That’s it! Just three simple formulas build our entire emotional toolkit. To make it even easier, we'll color-code them: major chords will be red, minor chords will be blue, and our one diminished chord will be purple. This way, you'll instantly know the feeling of a chord just by looking at it!

Meet the Family: The 7 Chords of C Major

The 1st Chord – C Major (Our Home Base)

The 2nd Chord – D minor

The 3rd Chord – E minor

The 4th Chord – F Major

The 5th Chord – G Major

The 6th Chord – A minor

The 7th Chord – B diminished (The Spicy One!)

Your Musical Palette for the Key of C:

• The Major Chords (Red): C, F, G (Your happy, bright colors)
• The Minor Chords (Blue): Dm, Em, Am (Your thoughtful, serious colors)
• The Diminished Chord (Purple): Bdim (Your tense, dramatic color)

This set of seven chords is a special family called "diatonic chords." They are all related and are scientifically engineered to sound great together. This is your palette for painting with sound!

The 7 Diatonic Chords on the Circle of Fifths

The seven diatonic chords of the C major scale are labeled on the Circle of Fifths below. Notice how they form a friendly cluster? That's why they work so well together!

What is a "Key" in Music?

So what does it mean when a song is in the "key of C major"? It simply means that C major is the "home base" for the song, and the music is primarily built using this family of seven chords we just learned. It gives the song a sense of belonging and makes it sound coherent and beautiful, instead of like a collection of random sounds.

Every song has a key, and sometimes, amazing songwriters will change keys in the middle of a song to:

• Shift the mood in a big way.
• Create an exciting contrast that keeps you hooked.
• Tell a musical story, like moving from a place of sadness to one of hope.

We'll explore changing keys later on. For now, let's get really comfortable with our C major home base.

Conclusion

Knowing all about these chords is fantastic, but the real fun starts when we can play them easily and fluently on the guitar. That's the next big, exciting step, and I can't wait to show you how simple it can be!

Get ready, because next up, I'm going to show you how to play all seven of these chords anywhere on the neck using just three super-simple, movable shapes. Seriously, just three shapes!

This is one of my favorite "maximum results for minimum effort" systems. It's designed to get you writing and building songs right away without having to memorize a ton of stuff.

Let's get these shapes under our fingers and make some music!