Zolfege Interval Bass guitar Chord system 

In this system, instead of learning 100's of chords and scales, you learn a quick and highly memorable step pattern to build any sort of chord or scale. The system is portable. Once you know Zolfege, you can dissect new music you hear on the road and understand it's structure. 

Stay tuned for an interactive sound animated tutorial.

Just in: Dialogue with a new student on selecting a guitar and how to learn.

 Zolfege: 
Observe: the 'Zolfege' system is based on English number phonetics, eg. 'one-two-three' is 'zu-tU-frE'. Short vowels are in lower case. Long vowels are in upper case. Each vowel is distinct so you can remember chords simply by a vowel pattern. Eg. a major chord is 'uEI' (I-III-V). '&' represents 'au' like 'loud' or 'oww-ooh werewolves of london'. '%' represents 'ai' like 'bite' or 'pie', (when said in squishy dipthong fashion). this is a bit different than the long 'I' found in 'night' (unless said in 'Rocky Horror' fashion) or 'like'. The consonants are built on the corresponding 12 step pattern. 'VIbe' is seVen steps, or position fIve on the major interval scale. 12 step patterns are useful to know for finding notes and transposing scales and chords to other keys (same thing starting on other notes). Intervals are good to know because principles of what people like to hear are based on interval theory.

 Sound physics: 
In sound physics, these intervals form the simplest frequency ratios. A note to the same note an octave higher forms a 1:2 ratio. Unlike solfege and Zolfege, 'notes' are not relative. 'Middle C' is a sound frequency of 550 Hz (cycles per second). On a piano, it exists only once, near the middle of the keyboard. Guitars are redundant, however. You will find middle C at both A22 and G17 on a bass guitar. C's at other octaves are at halves or doubles of this frequency ie. 225Hz, 1100Hz, etc.

 [ Exercise 1a: Practice the 12-step number system by translating phone numbers & bar-codes into zolfege. Eg. 800/555-1212 becomes gh%-zu-zu  fa-fa-fa w&-tU-w&-tU. ] 

 [ Exercise 1b: Practice translating random numbers into zolfege major intervals. Eg. 800/555-1212 becomes zu-_-_ vi-vi-vi zu-tU-zu-Tu. (I just hum for the blanks) ] 

 Scales: 
The complete 12 semi-tone scale
 zu . w& tU . thrO frE . fa . sA vI . gh% ni . do le . zu  ~

~  u . & U . O E . a . A I . % i . o e . u 
(These are the notes available on many western instruments. On a piano these 12 steps include both the white and black keys (starting anywhere). Other cultures divide the octave into 14 or even 22 tones.)

On a bass guitar the pattern looks like this:

There are other ways to get this depending on what finger & fret you start on.

Observe that these patterns span five frets, but practical fingering patterns only cover four. Fortunately we will find in the next section that most music doesn't require use of the entire scale. For the rest of this course, these fingering tables will be labeled 1 through 5.

The major scale
 zu tU frE fa vI ni le zu  ~ ~  u U E a I i e u  = 0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12
Remember singing  the do-re-mi song? That was solfege and it was a major scale. The major chord is built from the major scale. You can sing or play it starting on any note (in any key). On a piano, if you start with 'C' (any white key before before any black pair) and play just the white keys in sequence, you get a major scale. Throw in the 7th or 9th note of the major scale, and you have a major 7th or 9th chord.
The major scale is upbeat and is used in simple happy religious  music.
Compare that to the minor scale which has a sad quality, the augmented scale which is grand-happy, used in parade music, and the diminished scale which is so minor and sad that it is used for vampire themes. 

On a bass guitar the major scale pattern looks like this:

There are other ways to get this depending on what finger & fret you start on:

(Fingering #2 is popular because it can be done over 4 frets. The fingers used are 2.4 - 1.2.4 - 1.3.4 + 1.3.4)

The major intervals
 [ Exercise 2: sing and/or play the solfege and zolfege major scale until you have it memorised by sound. Begin on any note you please.] 

 [ Exercise 3: Become roughly familiar with the where the traditional notes are on your E string. Use the 'key of E' column in the table above. ] 

 [ Exercise 4a: Starting somewhere on the middle of the E string, find all similar notes including those an octave higher. ]  Eg.:

 [ Exercise 4b: By combining exercises 3 and 4a, be able to find or identify any note on guitar. This will be useful later for communicating  with other musicians]  

 [ Exercise 4b: sing and play each jump from zu eg. i-III, zufrE or I-VI zuni and get a feel for both their relative positions and combined sound. These are the building blocks of chords and chord progressions. ] 

Here is the minor 7th, zu-do jump. It is how the original star-trek theme song began.

The minor scale
If we start the same scale at ni ('A' if the scale was c major) (rotate it) 0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12  jumps of 0,2,2,1,2,2,2,1 becomes 9,11,0,2,4,5,7,9 or jumps of 0,2,1,2,2,1,2,2 - C Major becomes A minor 
 zu  tU frE fa vI ni le zu tU frE fa vI  . This jump pattern starting with zu goes like this:

 zu tU thrO fa vI gh% do zu  ~ ~  u U O a I % o u 

 [ Exercise 5: Listen to popular songs or even bird calls. What intervals do they use? Do their melodies fall into either major or minor scale? ]  My cat just meowed a zu-thrO or minor 3rd. A happier cat might have mewed a zu-frE or major third. There are birds out there singing complex classical classical compositions if you are patient enough to listen to the entire score.

 ~ ~  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
 Chords progressions:  (I-IV-V is the basis of much conventional music, including rock. Other types of music, for instance jazz, use other intervals like II,VI,V,I)
  [Exercise 6: play some chords, esp the major chord pattern (u E I), repeated at   zu fa vI  intervals. ] 
 ~ ~  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Chords:  (These chords read left to right, EADG strings, low note to high, fat string to thin.)
e12/a7 - For E chords, thezu of these chords can start at E, the left-most string at the zut, at the 12th fret (an octave higher), or on the 7th fret of the A string as space allows. The same pattern can start with any other note too. G major could be  u E I starting at the 3rd fret of the E string.

Major - A major chord has a tonic, a mediant, and a dominant, I-III-V.
 -zu frE vI -  ~ ~ - u E I -  (hyphens because this can be played on strings 123 or 234)

~ ~ + E E  (your tonic + a major 3rd, and another 3rd from there)

It can look like this on the fretboard:

or

variants:
e12 zu vI - frE   ~ ~ u I - E  ~ ~ + I . i 

Major 7th - ▲7
e12  zu frE vI le  ~ ~  u E I e (tIhat 

(that 5th fingering table allows the complete chord in proper sequence, if you can get your fingers to travel five frets)

variants: 
 zu vI le frE 

 zu vI le - 

 zu frE le - 

 zu - le vI 

 -zu frE le 

 -zu vI le 

 u I e E   u I e -   u E e -   u - e I   -u E e   -u I e 

 [ Exercise 7: Determine which major 7th melody patterns are possible over 4 frets. 7b: Which of those can be played at once as a chord?] 

Here are the variants as finger patterns:

Major 9th - ▲9
 zu vI le tU 

 u I e U 

 zu frE le tU 

 u E e U 

Major 7th#11 - ▲7#11
 zu - ne vI  

 u - e I  

6th/9th - 6/9
 zu frE ni tU   ~ ~  u E i U  

6th - 6
 zu vI ni frE   ~ ~  u I i E  

7th - 7
 zu - do frE  ~ ~  u - o E  

variants: 
 -zu frE do - 

 -u E o - 

7sus4
variants:
 u - o a  ~ ~  u - o a 

9
variants:
 zu vI do tU 

 u I o U 

 zu frE do tU 

 u E o U 

11
variants:
 zu do tU fa 

 u o U a 

13
 zu do frE ni  ~ ~  u o E i 

7!9
 zu frE do w&  

 u E o &  

7#9
 zu frE do thrO 

 u E o O 

7!5 (7th with a flat five aka minor 5th (like the 5ths in diminished chords))
 zu sA do frE 

 u A o E 

7#5
 zu gh% do frE 

 u % o E 

Minor chords - "uh Oh, I.."
m
variants: 
 zu vI - thrO 

 u I - O 

 zu thrO vI - 

 u O I - 

 - zu thrO vI 

 - u O I 

m6th
 zu vI ni thrO 

 u I i O 
I-V-VI-iii (the 3rd note here makes it a 6th, the 4th note is the minor 3rd which makes this a minor chord)
variants: 
 -zu thrO ni - 

 - u O i - 

m!6
 zu vI gh% thrO 

 u I % O 
(Seems to me either of these should do the job too:  zu thrO gh% zu  or  zu thrO gh% thrO  )  u O % u  or  u O % O 

m7
 zu - do thrO  thrO is the minor third, do is the minor 7th.

 u - o O 

variants: 
 -zu thrO do - 

 - u O o - 

m9
 zu thrO do tU  ( I - iii (minor chord) -that minor VII thing - IX (aka II))

 u O o U 

variants: 
 zu thrO vI tU  (a complete  minor chord + a 9th)

 u O I U 

m7!5
 zu sA do thrO  ( almost a pure bar across)

 u A o O 

variants: 
 -zu sA do - 

 - u A o - 

º (diminished)
 zu sA ni thrO  (don't ask me why there's a 6th in the mix. The thrO makes the 3rd minor Diminished chords have minored the 5th too, as our sA here.)

 u A i O 

variants: 
 zu thrO ni zu 

 u O i u 

 -zu thrO ni - 

 - u O i - 

 -zu sA ni - 

 - u A i - 

variants: 

(I thought it was more like  zu thrO sA  but not by the chord book I'm looking at)

 u O A 

 Keys: 
Play a major scale starting on F#. If you improvise a song on this scale, you will find that the final note which resolves the melody tends to be an F# too. Any major chord that fits into the song will be built upon the 1st, 3rd, & 5th notes of the F# major scale. If you jam with other musicians, as long as every one agrees on the same scale, ie minor, and the same key, ie 'G', everything folks improvise will fit into some sort of harmony which can arguably be called music. 

 Fretboard: 

Fingering table:

External links:
some Music evolution theory
autoharp tuning alternatives
Irish chord forum
Solfege in other scales and modes
Solfege guitar theory
Pythagorean music