Songwriter, composer, and music teacher Frank Horvat joined us to talk about scales, the different kinds and colours of chords, and using chords as a palette for your songwriting.

We covered:

• Intervals (2 notes) and triads (chords with 3 notes)
• Major and minor triads and their different tonal colours
• The hardly-ever-used diminished (or seven) chord
• The Nashville chord numbering system
• The tonic (I) and dominant (V) chord relationship
• A typical blues chord progression (I-IV-I-V-IV-I)
• Chord extensions (7th’s and 9th’s)
• Writing from the head vs. the heart

Listen to the full show:

Useful resources while you listen to the show:

Major scale in F# (raise one fret for G major scale)

Minor scale in F# (raise one fret for G minor scale)

Typical chords shapes

Common chord types on piano

The Circle of Fifths

The Guitarist’s Picture Chord Encyclopedia