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| All Chords | C major | C minor | C# major | C# minor | D major | D minor | Eb major | D# minor | E major | E minor |
| F major | F minor | F# major | F# minor | G major | G minor | Ab major | Ab minor | A major | A minor |
| Bb major | Bb minor| B major | B minor |
The F major chord scale is a series of chords that can be found in the key of F major, and can be used to create chord progressions and melodies in F. It’s a great scale to use if you want a religious sentiment, furious and quick-tempered sounding melody or chord progression.
This post will go over the F major chord scale, what it is, how it differs from other scales and why it’s important to know that as a music producer, composer or pianist.
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Contents
What Chords Are in The F Major Scale?
Discover the Secrets to Crafting Stunning Chord Progressions
Say goodbye to boring chords and hello to professional-grade progressions with Building Blocks. Learn to craft smooth, engaging chord progressions with this award-winning course on voice leading and more. All in a familiar DAW environment.
To find out the chords in the F major scale, we first need to understand what notes are in the F major scale.
The F major scale consists of:
F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F
Once you have the notes of the F major scale, you can use these alongside a chord scale formula. Each of the notes above will have a chord to assigned to it. As we’re in the F major scale, we’ll need to use the major chord scale formula.
- Major: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminsihed
- Minor: minor, diminished, major, minor, minor, major, major
As you can see from the above, the formula you use is: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished. You can then use this chord formula above and plug them into the scale notes of the F major scale.
Therefore the F major chord scale consists of:
- F major
- G minor
- A minor
- Bb major
- C major
- D minor
- E diminished
Discover the Secrets to Crafting Stunning Chord Progressions
Say goodbye to boring chords and hello to professional-grade progressions with Building Blocks. Learn to craft smooth, engaging chord progressions with this award-winning course on voice leading and more. All in a familiar DAW environment.
If you can play triads, and know the shapes, then you’ll be able to play the F major chord scale easily now. If you don’t know how to play the chords, here you can use something called chord spellings, which are just numbers that help to build a chord.
They are formulas based on the major scale. So, every time you need to find a minor, or diminished chord, you’ll use the major scale of the current note you want to find it for. E.g. E minor, you’d use the E major scale, B diminished you use the B minor scale.
The most common chord spellings are:
- Major – 1, 3, 5
- Minor – 1, b3, 5
- Diminished – 1, b3, b5
- Augmented – 1, 3, #5
Let’s quickly run through the process of using a chord spelling. So let’s take the first chord of the F major scale, which is F major. You take the F major scale, and the major chord spelling. Count the 1st note of the scale: F, then the 3rd note: A, then the 5th note: C.
If you wanted to create the next chord in the scale (G minor), then you’d use the G major scales and the minor spelling (1, b3, 5). After this, you follow the same procedure above, but with the 3rd note, you put it down a semi-tone.
Chords in The Key of F Major
Here are the chords in the key of F major. Each of these chords can be played in whatever sequence you like and will sound good together. You can use the chord scale to create progressions that sound great together. Some combinations will sound better than others, but you’ll want to use trial and error to figure out the best combos.
The chord progressions you’ll make will be with triads. These are 3 note chords and can sound pretty basic after a while, so you’ll want to look into adding extensions, bass notes and inverting your chords.
The quickest process is to use your MIDI piano roll, and shift notes around until you get what you like.
What Are The Notes in The Chords of F major?
So, you know the chords of the F major scale, but what about the notes that make up each of these chords? If you’ve spelled them using the formulas we gave above, you’ll have them, but if not, we’ve listed them below.
- F major – F, A, C
- G minor – G, Bb, D
- A minor – A, C, E
- Bb major – Bb, D, E
- C major – C, E, G
- D minor – D, F, A
- E diminished – E, G, Bb
Common Chord Progressions in F Major
You may begin by using pre-existing chord progressions that appeal to you to jumpstart things. These are some typical chord progressions that will work. Simply replace the Roman numerals figures on the charts above with the corresponding numbers.
Discover the Secrets to Crafting Stunning Chord Progressions
Say goodbye to boring chords and hello to professional-grade progressions with Building Blocks. Learn to craft smooth, engaging chord progressions with this award-winning course on voice leading and more. All in a familiar DAW environment.
Uppercase letters = major chords, Lowercase letters = minor.
- I–V–vi–IV
- V–vi–IV–I
- vi–IV–I–V
- IV–I–V–vi