New answers tagged chords
1
I may be a bit prejudiced because I’m a bass player by trade but I think one of the most important things to develop in harmonic ear training is picking out the bass motion. Once you can establish the bass motion it makes it easier to figure out what is going on above it. For that reason you’re taking a good approach to your bullet point #2
As for bullet ...
2
The vii(dim 7) will have a more dissonant sound that the v, also there will be four different pitches in the seventh chord than in the basic triad. Finally, vii(dim 7) has no tones in common with i, whereas v has one pitch in common with i.
So three things you could listen for:
relative level of dissonance
four distinct pitches vs. three
common tone with ...
1
I don't know EarMaster, but I'll try to answer anyway.
Yes, major and minor triads differ by the third, and this gives them a different color. It should become quite natural for you after a while
Listening to root is a good idea. I'm not sure what do you mean by VIIdim7. Is it a diminished chord (e.g. Bo7 B-D-F-Ab in the key of C) or half diminished (Bm7b5 ...
2
Like I supposed in my comment it is the pattern descending from the root of the major scale: la so fa mi. Actually the bass line is integrated in the melody. If you cut the first note of each bar and let it play by the bass you have this line (in a minor a g f e).
Chords accompaniment:
You can keep the primary triad la do mi (d# f# g#)
or you can play the ...
4
Here is one trick if you just want to lay down a series of chords under your melody.
Work out what key you are playing in, then write out all the triads (1st, 3rd, 5th) in that key. There should be seven of them, with one starting on each note of the scale.
Pick a group of notes to lay a chord under. This could be a bar, but doesn't have to be. Pick two ...
2
This answer is assuming you meant the bass, but the same techniques apply to laying chords beneath your melody with any groove you want
This answer will probably amount to "Music theory is a useful tool in a musicians tool belt, so learn it to speed up your workflow, and to know what to do at certain situations," and while this is true, I don't ...
5
This is where your musicianship skills become useful. (Or where you realise you need some!)
Write down the melody and show it to us as notation. Then we know what we're talking about.
Hint: You'll probably find it much easier to notate with an E♭ minor key signature.
I'm really not trying to belittle you. But if you want to work with music, LEARN THE ...
1
C-D-E doesn't have a clear root because "chords" and "roots" are concepts we use to describe a particular subset of music, a subset of music that doesn't usually include tone clusters like that. There's no "physical basis" for the "root" of a "chord" any more than there is a "physical basis" for the ...
5
The rules are thus:
Can you play it? Like, physically, can your fingers reach the notes and can they do so consistently in the context of a song as chords are changing? This sounds obvious but it's important because sometimes "closed" voicings can be tough on a guitar fretboard especially when you get into seventh chords. This rule invalidates ...
5
Simplistically speaking (and ignoring lots of important detail about intonation and temperament), the major third has a frequency ratio of 5:4 compared to the root, and the perfect fifth 3:2.
Let's imagine that we have a root at frequency 100 Hz, and pick out the first few partials of each note of a major chord.
Root: 100 Hz, 200 Hz, 300 Hz, 400 Hz, 500 Hz, ...
0
The pitch of a tone is fact more difficult to recognize when it lacks overtones!
A tone can also be recognized if the fundamental is suppressed or missing. If you take a recording of a 440 Hz A played on a piano, and sharply roll of the lower frequencies below, say, 1000 Hz, you will still recognize the note the same way. It must be that the overtones almost ...
0
This is not a chord of B major, nor of B minor, but a chord 'on B' in the key of C major; B being the 7th note of C major, and D and F both being in that key. (Yes, it could be A minor alternatively.)
This chord is usually referred to as VII, because it's based on the 7th note of the key. VII chords are always diminished triads in any key.
In 'Twinkle ...
4
Alban Berg and Elliot Carter are among some to use chords with all twelve tones in them. This wikipedia list documents some chords and what pieces they have been used in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-interval_twelve-tone_row
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It is not because the fundamental is the loudest. In fact the fundamental does not even need to be there! There is a function of the brain called fundamental tracking. We have evolved to be sensitive to the harmonic sequence, f_n = n*f_1, even though not all vibrating systems follow this sequence. Given an input of several frequencies the ear responds to ...
3
First, note that all overtones are not all octave apart: considering a frequency f, the first overtone (or second harmonic) will have a frequency of 2f, corresponding with an octave, the second overtone will have a frequency of 3f, corresponding to an octave plus a perfect fifth, and so on…
About your question, as it is illustrated by the mechanism of "...
8
Remember that there are two further triad qualities other than major and minor: diminished and augmented.
The triads are named after their qualities of fifths, so a diminished triad has a root and diminished fifth, and an augmented triad has a root and augmented fifth. Filling in the gaps, we can also understand diminished triads as a stack of two minor ...
0
I agree about the working out. It has affected my practice in bar chord. I really like to work out. But maybe it’s interfering with my beginner to intermediate guitar progression.
I went to guitar center today, and was going to buy an electric instead of an acoustic that I use. And they let me demonstrate for them how I do my bar chords. I live with a lot of ...
0
Michael Curtis, Tim, and Rodrigo B. Furman are correct, and the accepted answer is misleading. You write:
If I were to share this chord progression with someone, without mentioning the key, and they decide to play this in the key of C minor, ...
It's not possible to play that chord progression "in C minor" because it is a major-key progression. ...
0
My take on this is pretty simple, Bill Evans and other jazz pianists are aware of and hear the roots in their heads when they play chords where the bottom note is not the root. They have developed systems of voicing either one or two handed chords where the bottom note is either a 3rd, 6th or 7th in order to avoid clashes with the bassist. They sometimes ...
1
There is a big difference between "adding" color to an existing chord via extension, and "subtracting" from a chord by dropping notes. In classical harmony theory the 5th of a chord is considered unnecessary, and is often dropped from the V7 chord and the root doubled. Not always but often enough for it to be mentioned in every harmony ...
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Answering what I think you're asking: the point of using RN is that it applies to any key. So in key C major, C=I, G=V. In key E major, E=I, B=V. And so on. That's the point.
Changing from a major key to a minor key, and expecting to use the same RN, it won't work.In key C major, I=C, and in C minor, i=Cm. After that, there are no real likenesses - with the ...
7
The quality of the chords given by upper/lower case hints at the mode, major or minor.
I ii iii a major chord on the first scale degree, and two minor chords and the second and third degrees fits the pattern of major keys.
i iio III minor, diminished, major chord qualities on the first three scale degrees matches the pattern for minor.
But some combinations ...
3
Yes. In Roman Numeral notation, the Roman Numeral used corresponds to the note number counted from the tonic. Individual notes are usually given with Arabic numerals (usually with a caret on top, but I don't know how to generate these easily.) So in the key of C Major, the notes (in order) C-D-E-F-G-A-B or 1-2-3-4-5-6-7; in Eb Major the numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 ...
1
Letter case does the job. Upper case always for major or augmented chords; lower case for minor or diminished. In analysis, usually you set the tonic center before the roman numerals flux, sou you'll always know that c: i is C minor and c: I is C Major (also, when modulating, you inform again the tonic center).
Changing the mode means you need to change the ...
0
Yes, if you go from major to minor you likely need to change the chords. In this case: Cm Ddim (or Dm7b5) Ebmaj . It may still "work" or sound good, but it will be a different progression.
Be mindful of:
dominant chords: you may or may not want to preserve major (or dominant seventh) chords in the minor key. If in your progression contained G(7) ...
2
As Imaj7sus4 is identical with V7 over a pedal tone of the tonic it is obvious to me that it has function of dominant 7 resolving to the tonic. The tension of the 4->3 and 7-8 is the same as in V7-I in the end of a piece, especially in the Baroque and Classic era.
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I think the issue here is that if the tritone resolution is given the standard treatment - A4 resolves by half steps outward, d5 resolves by half steps inward - a maj7sus4 chord's tritone will resolve to a chord with the same root, ie bVmaj7sus4 will resolve to plain bV.
Standard tritone resolution...
...FA descends to MI and TI ascends to DO.
If we give ...
1
Some sonorities give a clear sense of having a certain root and function, while others don't. The one you're describing has a relatively weak and ambiguous root and function, which makes it possible to analyze it in terms of a different root. In the example you give, your analysis is bVmaj7sus4 -> I. Spelling out the notes, we have F# B C# E# -> C E G. ...
1
The R library tabr contains such database:
It features 4000 chords.
The website given by @top in the comments contains more (40k) and is convenient to scrape.
None of those addresses non standard tuning nor 7 or 8 strings.
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There's nothing wrong with the notation, if you see it as instructions for players, instead of an analytical description of all of the pitches heard in the song.
Even if you look at this as a transcription of the original recording, it's not far off. (well this is a "remastered" version, but I guess the remastering didn't change the notes that ...
2
The Em7 label pertains to (is part of) the guitar chord diagram, not to the score below, and is accurate. The diagram shows a standard open-string Em chord with an alteration to the minor seventh.
The guitar chord diagrams in pop music sheets like this are almost always rubbish. If at all the original pop music recording has any guitar part in it at all ...
1
Looking at the original example given, I’d lean towards an A9(sus4) as a more accurate chord. You’ve got the A, the B natural (9th), the D (sus 4), and the G (dom 7). Don’t really need the E, and the C (3rd) is replaced by the suspended 4. The Beatles don’t use the B (above) so the 9th would be out of place in their score - the A7(sus) works.
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Quick answer: The chord symbol is wrong.
Want a long answer?
This is what is normally seen in song copies.
This is what The Beatles actually played - according to 'The Beatles - Complete Scores', which is usually reliable.
That's OK. Song copies are frequently only approximate. The usual published version and your version are not quite accurate, but ...
9
The chord is Em7 and you’re right, the piano part is playing all the notes in an Em7 chord except the E. Paul plays an Em with the E root on the guitar but the cello in the string quartet plays a low note of A at that moment both times. The A dominates the low register because the note is sustained and it seems the piano part is likely based more on the ...
0
They sound different because, guess what, they’re different. Simple as this. But there’s a broad spectrum of differences, parameters of differences and how they function within a context. For example, there’s also a difference between C Major and F Major triads and still they’re both major and discernible chords.
Other example, major and minor chords are ...
1
You have the answer in the two systems above the song: primary chords in C major and broken chords.
G7 is a tetrad, a chord built by 3 thirds: gbdf. The fifth (d) can be omitted.
Look up dominant 7 chords.
0
When playing a dominant 7th chord on the piano, it is permitted to remove the perfect fifth. In this case the D (perfect 5th) has been removed and the B has been inverted.
It looks like you are using an Alfred book, if you go back a bit you’ll find a section on Primary Chords in C Major.
0
A G7 chord contains the notes G, B, D, and (the minor 7th) F. Those two bars, including the melody, contain those notes in the first inversion. The seventh in a dominant seventh chord is minor.
Here's an introduction to chord symbols.
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This is the linked source...
The melodic intervals are exactly the same: Minor 3rd - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th
Let's treat the D#5 as Eb5 so we can properly call it a third.
You are overlooking both the direction of the interval (ascending or descending) and the relationship of tones to chord roots.
C5 to Eb5 and G5 to E♮5 are indeed both minor thirds, but ...
0
What you see under the tabs isn't the full standard notation, it's only the rhythmic values of the notes, i.e. the timing of the notes.
In other words, the tabs tell you what notes to play, and the rhythmic figures below tell you when to play them, and for how long.
In any case you can do this in a couple of different ways:
Listen to the original song and ...
3
Edit. I think the OP's primary source of confusion was caused by not realizing that individual "melody" notes affect the perceived harmonic situation just as well as notes played simultaneously as chords, and that the ear's harmony tracking considers actually heard and imagined pitches over a longer time window than just individual note pairs. The ...
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Human perception in general doesn't only detect differences, but the direction of those differences.
If someone pumps more air into a balloon so that it becomes twice as big, you don't think "I can tell that the size has changed by a factor of two, but I can't tell if it has got bigger or smaller" - you can actually tell that the balloon is now ...
0
Apart of a) difficulties with sight reading and learning to understand the chords by analyzing the triads, intervals and progression beginners always have b) sensomotoric problems with the coordination of the body, arms, elbow, hand, wrist and fingers.
Some ideas for practice:
a) notate the chord, not only you have to play in this piece, write down similar ...
-1
Realising that block chords are just broken chords re-joined will help. Look at your broken chords, usually done in triads, occasionally in fours. The triad version uses a pattern of root (1st 3), 1st inversion (2nd 3) and 2nd inversion (3rd 3). Play those as chords, moving up and down as you would with broken chords. You'll see that each new set leaves the ...
3
From what I could read in your explanation, I think the first important thing to do is to slow down the tempo, so that you can perform all the changes in the metrum.
Practice in sequences (e.g. every change is one sequence). Sometimes this is a tedious task, but think as if this is the whole piece and if you wanted to make music with it.
Be aware of what ...
1
I had similar problems with this.
What I tend to do is to hold down the pedal on the far right called the sustaining pedal. However, this also holds down all the other notes played and can sound quite messy. An alternative it the sostenuto pedal, the one in the middle. Perhaps this picture can explain it better then I can:
https://www.google.com/imgres?...
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The l.h in bar 2 must persist at least into the next bar - the two '2' fingerings must refer to different hands! The brackets apply to just that note I think. There's certainly no convention of 'a bracket lasts for a bar, like an accidental'.
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The brackets should be interpreted only for the marked notes, i.e. they don't apply for the whole measure.
-1
It coud have easily been written out so the middle section notes appeared in the bass clef. That would eliminate the need for any bracketry. However, as with any new piece, fingering is personal, and just one of the myriad of 'things to consider' when exploring a new piece. The correct way to play it is so that it sounds authentic, and that's up to the ...
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