Chord Symbol Nomenclature

Transcription

1 4 4 7 hord Symol Nomeclature learig the otatioal rules to uderstad the otes i each chord N Δ7 Maj 7 Ma 7 M 7 ad ad mi 7 _ 7 m 7 mi 7 ad y Russell Schmidt I oth sacred ad secular settigs, orkig musicias are likely to see compositios otated i a variety of ays: 1 Fully-otated music as ith most classical music, SATB hyms, etc., 2 Lead sheets as ith may jazz ad pop charts, shoig a melody ith chord symols over the form, 3 hord sheets shoig oly the harmoic progressio i chord symols over the form, 4 Lyric sheets shoig lyrics, ofte times ith asic chords or Roma umerals, ut o idicatio of phrase legths, umer of eats each harmoy should e played, etc.; these types of sheets assume the musicias already have at least some familiarity ith the piece to e performed. The prevalece of chord symols i much of today s music makes koig ho to read them a ecessity for performers. osider it from this parallel perspective: a chemist simply eeds to ko that Na o the periodic tale of elemets represets sodium. I order to do oe s jo effectively i that orld, there is a asic requiremet that importat symols ad areviatios e memorized. Similarly, a orkig musicia must ko that 7 represets the otes, E, G, ad B from ottom to top i order to succeed i a eviromet here they ill e readig chord symols. For those that do ot uderstad chord symol omeclature, the itet of this hadout is to explai the rules that gover ho chord symols are costructed ad iterpreted. It ill also sho, through various musical examples, hich otes are actually preset i the chord symols foud i lead sheets ad chord sheets. Let s start y lookig at three of the most commo types of jazz chord symols, sho o the staff immediately elo. Note that, for this iitial set of three chords, e ill examie them oth from the perspective of traditioal music theorists as ell as orkig musicias ad ho each group might refer to the chords. This chord is domiat seveth or, as a orkig musicia might more simply term it, " seve". It ill ofte e see fuctioig as a V7 chord i a "ii - V7 - I" progressio. I traditioal theory terms, this type of seveth chord ould e laeled "Mm" the 3rd, "E", eig a Major 3rd aove the root ad the 7th, "B", eig a mior 7th aove the root. This chord is Major seveth or, as a orkig musicia might term it, " Major seve". It is ofte see fuctioig as a I chord i a "ii - V7 - I" progressio. I traditioal theory terms, this type of seveth chord ill e laeled "MM" the 3rd, "E", eig a Major 3rd aove the root ad the 7th, "B", eig a Major 7th aove the root. ad This chord is mior seveth or, as a orkig musicia might term it, " mior seve". It ill ofte times fuctio as a ii chord i a "ii - V7 - I" progressio. I traditioal theory terms, this type of seveth chord is laeled "mm" the 3rd, "E", eig a mior 3rd aove the root ad the 7th, "B", eig a mior 7th aove the root. Havig looked at those three asic chord types, ad ith a uderstadig that sutle chages i otatio ca have a ig impact o the pitches preset i a chord, let's examie the various rules ad guidelies of chord symol omeclature that ill help musicias put the correct otes i each chord. I. Uderstadig the foudatioal triads upo hich more complex chords are uilt At the top of the ext page, you ill fid four commo triads: Major, mior, augmeted, ad dimiished. Additioally, a fifth example of a three-ote harmoy appears: the suspeded "sus" or "sus4" chord. Some music theorists disagree as to hether a sus4 chord is a triad or ot; a more rigid iterpretatio of the term "triad" ould defie it as a harmoy resultig oly from the stackig of 3rds. The sus4 chord is istead the result of stackig a P4th iterval etee the loest ad middle otes ad a Major 2d iterval etee the middle ad highest otes. Hoever, as it is still a very commo three-ote harmoy, I have chose to iclude the sus4 chord here ith the other four triads. Origial versio Russell Schmidt Revised, expaded editio Music Servig the Word Miistries.musicservigtheord.org

2 2 hord Symol Nomeclature mi _ ad ad m mi + N o dim sus sus 4 N Occasioally, the ord TRIAD ill appear ext to the asic symol as sho at right as a ay of more strogly idicatig that oly the soud of the triad is desired. This typically appears more i jazz charts tha pop charts, as it is commo for most jazz harmoies to e at least four-ote harmoies. By eig extra clear through the additio of TRIAD, ith or ithout paretheses, the composer or arrager is tryig to esure that o 7th is mistakely added to the chord. TRIAD mitriad sus TRIAD N Oe rief aside here, as ca e see aove particularly ith mior chords, there are multiple ays of portrayig certai commo chord symols. For example, a mior seveth chord might e displayed as m7, mi7, mi7, or 7. I fact, 7 is particularly commo, ut somehat cofusig due to the fact that the "mius" symol is also used to alter chord extesios discussed o the ext page. As aother example, a Major seveth chord may e sho as 7, M7, Ma7, or Maj7. Although a challege to have to memorize all the variatios, it is a ecessity due to the lack of stadardized chord symols etee differet pulishers. II. Ho the otatio of extesios ill impact the umer of otes i the chord Seveth chords are extremely commo i jazz ad popular music. I fact, the 7th is ot cosidered a chord extesio. True extesios the th, 11th, ad th hich appear to e part of the asic chord quality---meaig umers attached to the origial ote ame or root of the chord, ot umers foud i possile, susequet paretheses---iclude all loer odd umers root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, ad so forth uless otherise idicated. Some examples: mi 7 mi mi 11 mi 711 does ot iclude the th sus does ot iclude the 3rd mi Note that for each of these chords, the mai symol idicates a iclusive iterpretatio: For mi, you eed to iclude oth the 7th ad th i additio to the foudatioal triad of root, 3rd, ad 5th. For mi11, you eed to iclude the 7th, th, ad 11th agai, i additio to the foudatioal triad of root, 3rd, ad 5th. Ad for mi, you eed to iclude all seve otes from ottom to top: root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, th, 11th, ad th. But hat if e do't at all those otes? The e ca add paretheses to the chord symol, givig us "added toes". The added toes foud i the paretheses do ot have the same rule attached to them: they are ot iclusive all the ay ack do to the root. Oly the umer efore the first parethesis is iclusive. So y providig symols ith added toes as sho to the right, oe ca idicate precisely hat otes are iteded as part of a harmoy. I the first paragraph of this sectio, I implied the possiility of exceptios to these rules, that oe should..."iclude all loer odd umers root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, ad so forth uless otherise idicated." To examples of such exceptios--- differet from the previous to examples i their reasos for ot simply stackig 3rds---appear to the right. mi does ot iclude the 11th 6 does ot iclude the 7th I the first example, there is o 3rd. It has ee replaced y the "sus4". So from ottom to top the chord sus ill iclude the root, 4th, 5th, 7th, ad th ut o 3rd. For 6th chords---hich ill e explaied i more detail a little later---the 6th takes the place of a 7th. So 6 should iclude the root, 3rd, 5th, 6th, ad th ut o 7th.

3 hord Symol Nomeclature 3 III. Iterpretig accidetals i chord symols Before e ca determie ho to alter otes i a chord to correctly reflect the impact of accidetals, e had est make certai e ko hat the "right" otes should e i the asece of accidetals. Let's start y lookig at the extesios ad compare to musical examples sho elo: 1 Whe "" appears i a chord ithout alteratio, you should iclude a ote a Major th meaig a Major 2d plus oe octave aove the root. 2 Whe "11" appears i a chord ithout alteratio, you should iclude a ote a Perfect 11th meaig a Perfect 4th plus oe octave aove the root. 3 Whe "" appears i a chord ithout alteratio, you should iclude a ote a Major th meaig a Major 6th plus oe octave aove the root. [Ad it is orth metioig here that he "6" appears i a chord ithout alteratio, you should iclude a ote a Major 6th aove the root. If the 6th ad the 7th are oth preset i the same chord, it is usually est practice to lael the 6th as a th, istead. It is more commo to call that same ote a 6th oly if there is o 7th preset i the harmoy.] D Δ } the outer iterval spas a Major th mi B mi 711 } the outer iterval spas a Perfect 11th Δ mi } the outer iterval spas a Major th ø F 7 E 6 } the outer iterval spas a Major 6th It is critical to uderstad that the uderlyig chord quality Major seveth, mior seveth, etc. has o impact hatsoever o these extesios. For example, the ualtered th o all the folloig chords is the same pitch:, mi,, Ø, ad mi all have D-atural as their highest ote as sho elo. Oly alteratios--- such as ---ill chage these ths, ot differeces i the foudatioal chord quality. mi As to actual chord alteratios, a sharp ex., 11 or a plus sig ex., +11 idicates a toe that should e raised a half-step higher tha usual. I the case of a chord ith some type of "sharp 11", rememer that a ualtered 11th ould e F-atural, a Perfect 11th aove the -atural. But a 711 chord ould iclude F-sharp, as the 11th must e raised y oe half-step. Similarly, a flat ex., or a mius sig ex., - idicates a toe that should e loered y a half-step. I the case of a E chord ith some type of "flat ", rememer that a ualtered th ould e F-sharp, a Major th aove the -atural. But a E7 chord ould iclude F-atural, as the th must e loered y oe half-step. [Note that the th i this case is ot F-flat; the flat th of E7 is a F-atural hich has ideed ee loered oe half-step eeath hat the diatoic th should have ee atop ay E chord: a F-sharp.] Ad accidetals ca fuctio i differet ays, depedig o their exact locatio i a chord symol. For example, if a accidetal immediately follos the ote ame A, B,, D, E, F, G, hich is to say the root of the chord, the that accidetal impacts the item to its left, chagig that root. I the first example elo, the "sharp" i F7 is attached to the ote ame "F". This is some sort of F-sharp chord; the sharp has o earig o the 7th. Ay susequet accidetal, usually a accidetal iside paretheses, impacts the item to its right, meaig that it relates to the chord toe that follos most commoly a alteratio of the 5th, th, 11th, or th. I the fial example ottom right, the first flat sho impacts the root, makig it some sort of B-flat chord, as discussed i the previous paragraph. But the secod flat sho is attached to the th, makig the highest pitch a -flat, ot just a -atural. So i the same chord symol, B7, you have to accidetals. But oe flat impacts somethig to its left the root, hile the other accidetal impacts somethig to its right the th. B7

4 4 hord Symol Nomeclature The ext examples reaffirm a poit made earlier: that the presece of a flat or sharp, alterig the extesios of a chord symol, does ot alays result i the affected pitch actually eig displayed ith that same accidetal. Whe attached to a extesio i a chord symol, the accidetal merely idicates that the ote i questio must e loered or raised y oe half-step, relative to hat it ould have ee otherise. I the first example elo, to the right, the "flat " i F7 is a G-atural, ot a G-flat. The diatoic th aove the root F-sharp ould have ee G-sharp. But as this is a "flat " chord, the ote is pulled do a halfstep to G-atural. Of course, this exact same issue ca also e preset ith alteratios ivolvig sharps. I the secod example, the "sharp 11" i D711 is G-atural, ot a G-sharp. The diatoic 11th aove the root D-flat ould have ee G-flat. But as this is istead a "sharp 11" chord, that ote is raised oe half-step to G-atural. Each altered extesio oe a, the other a 11 is G-atural. IV. Fial otatioal guidelies to cosider 7 5 D N 7 B 7 N 11 D 6 N A mi 6 F 7 7 N sus4 G E add D 7 11 There are a fe other rules to cosider familiarizig yourself ith regardig chord symol omeclature. It is importat to uderstad these fial fe, particularly if oe has aspiratios as a composer/arrager, ecause he you egi to rite your o music ad otate your o chord symols, you'll at to follo the format that orkig musicias are most familiar ith. If you do't follo such covetios, players ill have a harder time readig your music. So hat you hear performed y others o't ecessarily e hat you iteded. Also, your fello musicias may sho less ethusiasm the ext time you ask them to play your e music, rememerig previous otatioal challeges. Do't reivet the heel! Follo these guidelies: 1 I geeral, if multiple otes are eig added or altered i a chord---meaig more tha oe ote is sho i paretheses after the asic part of the symol---the higher umered extesio/alteratio should e placed higher i those paretheses. A th should appear aove a 11th, a altered th ould appear aove a altered 5th, ad so forth. See the first three examples, elo. hords that reak this rule are the "six-ie chords". These place the loer umer i a higher locatio, perhaps to dra attetio to the fact that these chords do ot result strictly from the stackig of thirds. See the fourth ad fifth ars. 2 As a related poit, the oly eve umers that should appear i most commoly-used chord symols are the 6th metioed immediately aove ad the "sus4". See the sixth ar for a example of the latter. Oe helpful ay to thik aout these matters: 6 replaces 7 i 6th chords ad 4 replaces 3 i suspeded chords. 3 As sho i the seveth ar, harmoies may e displayed i iverted form ith some chord toe other tha the root soudig as the loest pitch y placig the symol over a differet ass pitch. [Note: The diagoal slash, as sho elo i the seveth ad eighth ars, is the est ay to idicate this. Hoever, most music otatio softare does ot reder that type of presetatio i a ay that is clear or visually covicig. Sometimes a horizotal lie separatig the chord from the desired ass pitch---stackig the to elemets---is the clearest ay to sho the harmoic itet. But oe should ko that, historically, the horizotal lie as used to separate to stacked chords, ot just place a chord over a differet ass pitch.] 4 For more complex harmoies, chords may also e sho over a o-chord toe i the ass, a "foreig" ass pitch. Or to differet chords may e stacked oe atop the other, separated y a horizotal lie, resultig i hat is commoly termed a "polychord". See the eighth ad ith ars for examples of these approaches. + TRIAD D TRIAD G D + TRIAD Do these first four pages preset a plethora of rules that require memorizatio ad assimilatio? Yes, ideed they do. But do't e discouraged y the ork that eeds to e doe. Ad take heart i the koledge that the more chord symols you gro to uderstad, the quicker ad easier it ecomes to lear other oes, so just keep at it! To compare your groig koledge of chord symols agaist a stadardized referece poit, a chord glossary is foud o the ext three pages. You should't ecessarily strive to memorize every sigle oe of those chords; istead revie them to cofirm you uderstad the omeclature rules that defie hat otes are i each chord.

5 hord Symol Nomeclature 5 HORD SYMBOL GLOSSARY These three pages sho ho to spell various harmoies usig the correct chord symol omeclature guidelies. For those chords ith multiple accepted symols, oly the first chord i each sectio ill sho all the alterate variatios. As a example, ill also e sho as M, Ma, ad Maj at the egiig of the Exteded Major hords sectio. But susequet related harmoies, such as 11 ill ot also appear as M11, Ma11, ad Maj11, eve though those are all uiversally recogized ad accepted symols for the harmoy i questio. [This has ee doe i order to keep the layout maageale, as a harmoy such as mi 7 could coceivaly have as may as 16 acceptale ays of eig represeted y chord symols.] 5 BASI SEVENTH HORDS: ad ad Δ 7 Maj 7 Ma 7 M 7 mi 7 _ 7 m 7 mi 7 ad ad N N Δ 7 5 mi 7 mi Ma ad 7 sus N Δ Ma 7 o 7 dim 7 ø 7 mi 7 5 Δ7 sus o Δ 7 dimma 7 14 ADDITIONAL FOUR-NOTE HARMONIES: 6 mi 6 add mi add 18 EXTENDED DOMINANT HORDS: The fial to chords o this page merit some discussio here eve i a glossary. 11 ad are spelled correctly as they appear to the right. The ay they are sho here aides y the rules goverig chord symol omeclature. Hoever, a ufortuate circumstace regardig these to symols is that they have ee used iaccurately y performers ad a fe pulishers for some time, to the poit that their meaig has gro muddled Popular music pulishers have ee ko to put the symol 11 i vocal/piao folios he they really mea to idicate sus, a similar chord, ut oe ith o "E" i it. Ad orkig musicias ho come from more of a jazz traditio ill sometimes treat 11 ad as though they are 11 ad 11, respectively. But more koledgeale performers ad composers/arragers uderstad ho to iterpret ad use these to symols appropriately as sho here.

6 6 hord Symol Nomeclature EXTENDED DOMINANT HORDS cotiued: sus sus EXTENDED MAJOR HORDS: ad ad Δ Maj Ma M Δ 5 Δ 5 + Δ7 5 Δ EXTENDED MINOR HORDS: mi mi sus [As the "sus4" equals the diatoic 11th, this is ideed iclusive from the th ack do to the root] Δ7 11 Δ 11 5 mi 7 Δ 7 5 Δ Δ Δ 11 Δ 7 5 mi sus Δ Δ Δ sus mi 5 7 sus Δ 7 sus 11 Δ7 11 mi more spelled commoly as... Gø Δ 7 ut rarely spelled this ay... Δ 11 5 more commoly spelled... G Δ sus 11 mi

7 EXTENDED MINOR HORDS cotiued: mi 7 11 mi mi 7 11 mi 711 mi 11 mi 7 mi 11 EXTENDED DIMINISHED HORDS: o 7 add o 7 add 11 o 7 add ø ø 711 hord Symol Nomeclature ø 7 mi 7 11 mi 11 o 7 11 mi 7 ø 11 mi 11 o 7 o 7 1 ø could also e spelled as a polychord, a la... mi 11 D TRIAD mi 7 mi 7 11 mi mi 11 1 o 7 1 aother cadidate for polychordal treatmet... B mi 7 mi TRIAD 1 ø 7 o 7 add 7 [Note eharmoic spellig here] 11 ø ø 7 ø ø 7 11 ø o Δ o Δ o Δ 7 mi 6 o Δ 11 ADDITIONAL FIVE- ad SIX-NOTE HARMONIES: o Δ mi 6 11 o Δ 7 11 mi 6 11 o Δ 11 or sho i chordal form... poly- D TRIAD mi TRIAD