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The notes that make up a chord can be related to the major scale of that chord’s root note eg. for a D chord – the D major scale. The basic major ‘triad’ chords (eg. A, Bb, B, C etc.) are made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes from their respective major scales. In other types of chords notes are either adjusted slightly, as in minor (m) chords where the ‘3rd’ is flattened by a half-step (commonly referred to as a b3,) or extra notes are added as in major 7 (maj7) chords where the 7th note of the major scale is added to the basic triad. Sometimes both these things happen at the same time, for instance in a 7 chord the 7th is added to the chord but flattened at the same time, so it is called a b7 within the chord.

In the first table below you can see chord formulas relating to the major scale for various types of chords. The examples use C as the root note but you can use the second table, showing all the major scales, to work out the notes used in chords of other keys.

This is a relatively basic way of thinking about how chords are constructed. It doesn’t explain everything but hopefully it will help you on your way to a better understanding of how scales and chords relate to each other.