the family D

It could be said that chord forms are related by the finger shapes they have in common. The D and A7 forms are related by the common position of your index and middle fingers. The D and G forms are related similarly, but with a different finger shape in common. The Am and E forms are identical, and therefore related in this way too. 


The sounds that chords make are related by the tone in which they are commonly rooted. We explored A seventh, A major and A minor and learned because of their common root tone, they are all members of the chord family A. So are E major, E minor and E seventh members of the chord family E.


For now let's agree that the major, minor and seventh chords of a given family are like immediate members. They are like brothers and sisters. Everyone else is a distant cousin. And like a distant cousin, they sometimes live in a different place. They look different and they sound different. You'll see these aliens appear from time to time in music books. And they sometimes have exotic names like Am6 or Fma7 or Gsus4 or Bbº7. They sometimes sound exotic too. 

For now it's only important that A minor 6th is related to the family A, and F major seventh is related to the family F, and G suspended 4th is related to the family G and B flat diminished 7th is in a strange way, related to the family B flat. And so on. More times than not, you can substitute a Am for Am6, F for F major seventh and G for G suspended 4th. For B flat diminished seventh, I don't know...just leave it alone for now. Like distant cousins, it's nice when they're around but you don't have to invite them over every weekend.


So chords are related by their root tones. And we can say chord forms are related by the similarity of their shape on the finger board. Though each of these is important to recognize, songs aren't very often built upon either of these sorts of relationships. Understanding how chords are related to song structure is the big issue for which we are preparing. We'll get to that soon enough but for now, let's study  a few more chord forms.

Let's become acquainted now with the immediate family of D. Here's how to make the D minor form from D major. Leave your ring finger on the second string, third fret. Move your middle finger from the first string, second fret to the third string, second fret. Add your index finger to the first string, first fret. D minor. Or Dm. As with all members of the family D, strum from the fourth string. 


And here's the D seventh form. From D major, we need to move the finger that's on the second string, third fret, and put it on the second string, first fret. Of course that's impossible, so we'll have to shift our entire fingering around. Middle finger to the third string, second fret, index finger to the second string, first fret, and ring finger the first string, second fret.