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Diatonic Chords: Can They be Organized Into Scales of Chords?

Chapter 4 discussed the “organizing principle” that underlies the construction of brain-friendly, “musical”-sounding scales: use the simple ratios of frequencies of the harmonic series, such as 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3, to define the notes. When you do that, you get Pythagorean scales, scales of notes including the scales of the diatonic order.

Is there such a thing, then, as diatonic chords being organized, like musical scales, using an organizing principle that leads to scales of chords?

Yes there is.

But with chords, it’s a matter of “organizing,” so to speak, the scale degrees associated with the overtones of the harmonic series, instead of the overtones themselves.

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