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I'm studying Andantino no. 15: in 'Studi per Chitarra' by Ferdinando Carulli enter image description here

but I can't figure out what chords would be under the 3s. I think they are auxiliary notes but since they are on the strong beat and a crotchet long I think they should have a chord or have some harmonic influence to the piece. I'm also confused that one of them is C and the other is C#. They seem to contradict the key signature.

How can these notes be explained and what chords would they be?

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    Harmonize them on a different instrument? Carulli intended this piece to be a complete work for solo guitar, so he would not have expected those notes to be “harmonized”. Are you asking how one would harmonize them if you were arranging them for an ensemble or something?
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Mar 30 at 15:15
  • More just what the actual chords are. I find knowing the chords helps me play it.
    – BadUsername
    Commented Mar 30 at 15:32
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    Side note: where you have “transposes to C” a better word is “modulates to C”. Also the fact that there are C#s and D#s in the next few measures strongly suggests it does not modulate to C at that time. It does look like it might modulate to C at the last measure of the excerpt.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Mar 30 at 16:06
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    There are no “actual chords” because it’s just single notes in a guitar part, however there is usually implied harmony which is I think what you’re curious about. The thing about implied harmony is it can often be more than one thing, so there’s going to be some ambiguity.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Mar 30 at 17:41
  • @ToddWilcox I'm curious how modulating later would work. In the section I think is C major all of the Gs are G naturals rather than G sharps. That would indicate its C major rather than A minor
    – BadUsername
    Commented Mar 31 at 15:17

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The auxiliary notes under the 3s are not supposed to make sense harmonically - they're accented non-chord tones.

I was taught that these particular accented non-chord tones are appoggiaturas except for the note at the second 3, which is an accented passing note.

If you want slightly more reasoning for the other notes at 3s, you could theoretically harmonize the notes at the first and fourth 3 with V/ii, the note at the second 3 with Gsus4, and the note at the third 3 with a common-tone diminished 7th (though this third harmonization is less convincing).

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  • I’d like to suggest the c natural under the second 3 might imply a ii7 chord where the seventh resolves down to the third of the V chord. Delaying the resolution would create a true sus4, so the Gsus4 is part of it, but it might be closer to what the asker is looking for to include the possible implied harmony leading to the suspension.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Mar 30 at 18:15

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