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In classical theory, the necessity or lack thereof of a particular chord member is generally determined by the note's tendency to lead to another note. That tendency comes most often from the interval of an augmented fourth or diminished fifth. Enharmonically, those intervals are the same, but in context, they are not, and they resolve differently. In a ...

Well, a musical chord is by definition a collection of two or more notes sounding simultaneously. So, mathematically, in the usually used 12-tone pitch system of Western/pop/jazz music, there are 2^11 - 1 = 2047 different possible combinations of pitch classes modulo transposition (2^11 is the number of ways additional tones can be added once you fix a root ...

Sure, chords can contain major and minor thirds at the same time! We see 'em all the time in jazz. I call it a major-minor chord (which however is quite different from a major-minor seventh chord). It's also called a mixed-third chord. In jazz chords you will also sometimes see it notated as a ♯9 instead of as a ♭3, though that implies a slightly different ...

There is exactly one note that is a diminished 3rd above Db: Fb. Db to Eb is not a diminished third, it is a major second. Those comments are wrong. This question explains the difference between two enharmonically equivalent notes.

In classical Western music theory, each diatonic scale contains seven notes, and each of the notes must be assigned a different note name. (So one also does not write CX for the D in the C major scale.) In non-equal temperament, C# and Db may in fact be two different pitches, and a diatonic scale that contains a C must not also contain a C#. In more ...

Other, better music theory people than me should give their opinion on this, but here's my thought: In certain cases, the proper name of a chord can depend on its function in the chord progression where you find it. In other words, a certain group of notes in a certain voicing in one key and chord progression would properly be named differently if found in ...

A chord does not have to be made up of thirds. A chord is by definition two or more notes heard as if sounded simultaneously. Not all chords have three notes either. There are dyads (two notes), triads (three), tetrachords (four), pentachords (five), and hexachords (six). There's no limit on the number of notes, and also, by definition, there's no limits on ...

An article by Joe Monzo at http://tonalsoft.com/enc/s/savart.aspx defines the savart as 1/300 of an octave. A savart is calculated as the 300th root of 2, or 2(1/300), with a ratio of approximately 1:1.002313162. It is an irrational number. A savart has an interval size of approximately 4 cents. savart = 1000log10(f2/f1) cents = 1200log2(f2/f1)

Personally, I prefer to call this aural skills phenomenon "absolute pitch," (AP) and only make use of the name "perfect pitch" when the level of skill is indeed at that point where it can not be distinguished from perfection. I was recently told that I should not always rely on my memory because it doesn't show as much "talent" as it would with a tuning ...

Flash cards can be an effective method. You can make up a few dozen cards with different intervals, with multiples of each interval starting on different notes and so on. On the back you can have the name of the interval or something like that. Then you'd play/name the top card, flip it and confirm, play/name the next card, flip it and confirm, and so on. ...

The aim of tuning an instrument is to make the instrument be in tune, and not "being impressive". Use whatever works - but try to be sure it actually is in tune. A pitch pipe and a tuning fork are both sources of a reference pitch, and neither is better or more "impressive" than the other. I think I would personally prefer a tuning fork, because in my ...

Supplemental note to the other answers: Chords are "vertical" but sometimes music is "horizontal". For example, play this and hold for 4 beats: C F A C F Now play this C E G C F Hold for two beats and then move the high F to E. That is a "suspension". The first chord you played was an F major chord (IV, the subdominant of C). The second ...

What I am going to write below is just simple jazz harmony fundamentals, and should naturally be considered as school stuff ! You have to understand the role of each voice in a chord, to define what should be played, and what can be omitted. Mandatory voices The root note defines the root of the chord, and must be played globally. I mean, if you have a ...

I can think of at least one example where I encountered a C and C# conjoined. In Béla Bartók's Nine Little Piano Pieces, you'll find them in the Menuetto from measure 10 on. It would be natural to find more of these in Bartók, especially the pieces using polytonality. Other composers using polytonality like Stravinsky should also have them. So, look for ...

I think you've made a good start (and the other answers here are very good, too). But I think the heart of the issue is in a different place. For chords naming, the interval between each note and the "root" is of primary importance; but for chord building you must also consider how each note relates to all the others. So relative intervals become very ...

Well, sure. As a chord is simply any number of notes defined in terms of their interval from a "root" note, a chord can have any two or more semitones in it. A lot of contemporary composers such as Eric Whitacre play around a lot with dissonant intervals and "cluster chords" involving minor-second intervals like C/C#. More realistically, it would be rare to ...

Three ear-training exercises that will be beneficial whether you intend to study pop or classical music: Key: Find the key of a piece. This is the note often referred to as "1", "do", or sometimes "the home note". Solfege: Next, try to determine what other pitches (the pitches of the melody, for example, or the bass line) are, relative to do. Use solfege ...

It depends. It always depends. But the bassist is playing the root and fifth, so I've heard that dropping them in favor of the third and seventh (and ninth, and six, or whatver) is something I've heard suggested. This analysis of Freddie Green's style shows that he's hitting two notes, and one is muted to be mostly there, but that's in the Count Basie ...

What makes these intervals so difficult to sing is that they are very dissonant. Dissonance is used all the time in music to set-up tension that will later be "released" by a consonant interval. Augmented fourths and diminished fifths (which are also enharmonic tones) are the two most dissonant intervals.

Add a third note to determine chords. You should be able to pick out the root of a chord, and from that learn to distinguish if the chord is inverted. For example, in a C major chord, you'll have C, E & G. In "the root position", C is the lowest pitch in this chord. In the "first inversion" then E is the lowest pitch (usually C gets moved up an octave). ...

Øystein Sunde, a norwegian singer/guitarist/song writer, sits by his guitar when he writes songs, and finds good sounding chords that suits his songs, and then afterwords tries to figure out what chord it is. Then the result can be quite unusual, like: D9-5 (D9 where the 5 is lowered) G#7+5 (G#7 where the 5 is raised) E96 (E9 where the 7 is replaced ...

It might be useful to inject a note about the language we use when talking about music, and specifically music theory. It sounds like you are asking about why music theory would call one thing a chord and not some other thing. "Building" and "constructing" have no precise meaning when used in music. Are you talking about "building" an actual chord that gets ...

Cents, as the name implies, are 1/100th of a semitone (or "chromatic interval"), when working in 12-tone equal temperment (12-TET). So, as long as your definition of "savar" is in relation to a "chromatic interval" that is defined as a 12th of an octave, then you should be able to convert back and forth by simply defining 1 savar = 2 cents. However, if the ...

In a piece of music, if the melody instrument was the only thing playing an F# while accompanying instruments were playing a G chord, one might figure that the instruments together form a Gmaj7 chord, but it may be more meaningful to recognize that the accompanying instruments are playing a G chord and the melody instrument is playing something that isn't in ...

"Slash notation" is also known as Macro-analysis, which is an analytical tool sometimes used in analyzing compositions. Most of your confusion lies in the fact that the chord in question is actually mislabeled. Before I answer your question, I will briefly explain Macro-analysis. Macro-analysis is derived from the practice of Figured Bass, which was a ...

The notation can often give a hint on how to play things. If you were to play the notes E G# B G the most appropriate notation would be E#9 (or more likely E7#9 which replaces the B with a D). This indicates that the "odd" note (G) should be played on top. The slash notation puts the G bass note on the bottom, i.e. it would be played as G E G# B or maybe G ...

In my experience as a musician and using Kodaly, it's less about the intervals themselves as it is about the notes of the scales used. For instance, a minor third down is represented as "sol mi" and a perfect fourth up is "sol do". You can see how these are the notes of the tonic triad. Therefore, in ranking the complexity of an interval, I believe it would ...

Consider also the questioning of naming the unison an interval by italian music theorist Zarlino which I personally find very relevant (rather think of it as a point in geometry). Equality is never found in consonances or intervals, and the unison is to the musician what the point is to the geometer. A point is the beginning of a line, although, it is ...

A fifth and a fourth are two sides of the same coin, like an implication and its contrapositive. "If it is a real piano, it has strings inside" means the same thing as its contrapositive "If it does not have strings inside, it is not a real piano." It's the same but different. Likewise D3->G3 amd D3->G2 are "the same" because they both have a D and G and ...

For instance, take the A♭m chord. I'm pretty sure it is correct that this chord contains the notes A♭, C♭ and E♭ ? In many places I look online, they say the C♭ is a B. But I don't think that is right, because in the A♭ major scale, the B is flat. A minor triad is a minor third then a major third. A♭ to C♭ is a minor third and C♭ to E♭ is a major third. ...