Chords cheat sheet
Music theory knowledge is awesome when you have it, but for many of us, recalling scale patterns and chord shapes can be a creative drag.
To keep your sessions flowing, we’ve created the CM MIDI Construction Kit, a massive pack of MIDI chords, scales and templates. Let’s take a look at what’s inside this amazing musical toolkit, and how you can use it to make better music now. You’ll find it inside the Tutorial Files folder.
First, folders are arranged into the 12 musical keys (ie, root notes – we’ll talk more about keys on the next page), and inside each is three folders. The Chords folder contains useful chords based on the root note, each sustained for a bar – just drag them into your DAW. Our ‘cheat sheet’ below also gives you a handy overview of common chords.
The Chord Sets folder contains the triads, sevenths, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths derived from the standard major and minor (ie, natural minor) scales. Where relevant, we’ve included an alternative scale set using a flat key signature. These use the same MIDI notes, just with different filenames.
The Scales folder offers up four common scales: major, (natural) minor, melodic minor and harmonic minor. You also get all seven commonly used modes, and a range of other scales, from everyday to exotic. Every scale comes in two formats: a straightforward run up the scale so you can hear how it sounds, and our special ‘template’ format. These templates contain every note of the scale in every octave, sustained for one bar. They are for use as a guide only – avoid playing them as it won’t sound pleasant! How you use these will depend on your DAW, but you’ll find suggestions spread throughout our tutorials. There’s also a handy text file in the MIDI Construction Kit folder with more specifics, as well as a video overview.