What are chord families?

Chords are an essential element in playing any style of contemporary music. Therefore, a firm grasp and grasp of modern harmony is very important in order to play a jazz or pop piece convincingly.

However, there seem to be so many chords and chord types that it starts to get very confusing, if not difficult to remember and play instantly. This is where the study of chord families comes in. We use chord families to categorize chords by their quality and how they work. Essentially, there are three major chord qualities, i.e. major, minor, and dominant, which are grouped into nine different families.

Major chord families contain all the major types that function as an I chord in a major key. This also includes their surrogates i.e. IIImi and VImi. For example, in the key of C, these chords are C, Emi, and Ami. And of course the chord types can be anything from the C major triad, Cma7, Cma9, all the way to Cma7 (#11).

The first family of minor chords consists of minor types that function as a II chord in a major key. This includes its substitute, ie IV. For example, in the key of C, the two chords are Dmi and F. Again, all types are included here, eg Dmi7, Dmi11, etc.

The first family of dominant chords comprises the primary dominant of the major key and its substitute VII. So in the key of C, this will be the G7 and Bdim. Chord types can range from G7, to G7sus4, to G13.

The second family of minor chords consists of the I chord in a minor key area and its substitutes, that is, the III and VI chord (quality of the chord according to the minor scale). Therefore, in the key of C natural minor, these chords are Cmi7, Ebmaj7, and Abmaj7. Chord types include anything from Cmi(add9) to Cmi13.

The third family of minor chords consists of the minor chord that works like IImi7b5 in a minor key. This also includes your substitute IV. So, in the key of C harmonic minor, the chords are Dmi7b5 and Fmi7. Again, all chord types are available.

The second dominant chord family is in the minor key area and includes the dominant seventh with a raised eleventh. So, in the key of melodic C minor, this will be the chord F7#11, or F9#11, or F13#11, or even F7b5.

The dominant third chord family covers the dominant seventh with an altered ninth, ie V7b9 or V7#9, in a minor key. In the key of C harmonic minor, this will be the chord G7b9 or G7#9 and its other larger types.

The final family of dominant chords comprises the dominant 7th with all stress notes altered, including the flat 13th. In the key of C minor, it can be G7b13 or G7(#11,b13) or G7(b9,b13), etc. As long as the dominant seventh chord contains an altered 13th note, it belongs to this family.

And finally, the diminished chord family contains the diminished seventh chords. This is closely related to the third family of dominant chords as its upper structure. For example, the top structure starting on note 3 of G7b9 forms Bdim7. However, this particular chord always functions as a passing chord, so it doesn’t have the prominence of the G7b9 family.

You will find that the nine chord families above will cover all the chords available in the music. This makes the study of chords much easier to understand and relate to. Don’t worry about the hundreds of chord types and qualities. So as long as you can split a chord down to its basic function, it will definitely fall into one of the chord family categories mentioned above.