What are chord families?
Chords are an essential element in playing any style of contemporary music. Therefore, a firm grasp and understanding of modern harmony are very important in order to be able to play a piece of jazz or pop convincingly.
However, there seem to be so many chords and chord types that it starts to get very confusing, if not hard 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 major types that function as a I chord in a major key. This also includes their substitutes 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 up 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 VII substitute. 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 is made up of the I chord in a minor key area and its substitutes, that is, the III and VI chord (chord quality 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 functions as IImi7b5 in a minor key. This also includes your IV surrogate. So, in the key of C harmonic minor, the chords are Dmi7b5 and Fmi7. Again, all chord types are available.
The second family of dominant chords is in the area of the minor key and includes the dominant seventh with a raised eleventh. So, in the key of C melodic minor, this will be the chord F7#11, or F9#11, or F13#11, and 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 major types.
The final family of dominant chords comprises the dominant 7th with all notes of tension altered, including the flatted 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 dominant third chord family as its top structure. For example, the upper structure beginning 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 music. This makes the study of chords much easier to understand and relate to. Don’t worry about hundreds of chord types and qualities. So as long as you can break a chord down to its basic function, it will definitely fall into one of the chord family categories mentioned above.
