What are hip hop chords?
Hip hop chord progressions often borrow from jazz and R&B progressions that use major, minor, and seventh chords to create different moods and tones. These progressions provide a harmonic backdrop that underscores the rhythmic and melodic elements of a track. While hip hop chords can range from simple triads to complex sevenths and ninths, understanding the basics is a fundamental step in writing your own hip hop chord progressions.
You should have a bit of music theory knowledge on scales and chords to get the full picture here. If you’re not totally comfortable with that, take some time to familiarize yourself with the basics of music theory and come back later.
Chords are, simply put, two or more notes playing at the same time. The simplest chords are called triads, and they are built by stacking up three notes we find in major and minor scales (you can also build chords from modes, but we won’t focus on that here).
If we take a C major scale and use alternating notes from it, we can create a basic series of triads.