11
Aug
2009
Understanding Chord Symbols
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music lesson
With the growing interest in Jazz and other forms of music, I find more and more people asking about chord symbols and chord construction. While there are many books out there on the market, there is very little explanation of how chords symbols are interpreted. I’d like to share some of my insight with all you music enthusiasts.
In many song sheets chords are given for guitar or keyboard players. Functional names are not used for this purpose. Instead, the root and quality of the chord are given in what may be termed lead-sheet notation (for example, Amaj and F#dim7).
Chord symbols are made up of 3 component parts:
1. The ROOT
The alphabetical name of a chord.
i.e. A, Bb, G F# etc.
2. The Chord Type
Indicating either Major, minor, dominant, augmented or diminished.
3. The extension:
Tones added to the basic three note chord (triad) that changes its sound but not its type. Extensions are represented by scale step numbers i.e. 9, 11, 13
Here are the basic chord types:
MAJOR Indicated by GMaj., GMa, GM or just G (Note: the capitol “M” is used to designate Major chords.) Major chords are sometimes written without chord type designation. Symbols are also used to designate Major chords.
minor Indicated by Gmin., Gmi, Gm or G- (NOTE: The lower case “m” is used to designate minor chords).
Dominant 7 Indicated with only the root and extension numbers. Since some major chords and all dominant 7 chords can be written without chord type designations, the following will help you to distinguish between a major chord and a dominant chord: If the FIRST extension number following the root or letter name of the chord is 7 or greater, and it does not specifically state major or minor then it is a dominant chord.
EXAMPLE: C7b5, C13, C9 and C7sus4 are all dominant chords, but Cm11 is a minor chord and CMaj.9 is a major chord.
If the FIRST extension number following the root or letter name of the chord is 6 or under, it is a major chord.
EXAMPLE: C6/9, C2, Csus4 are all major chords
Augmented These are 3 note chords indicated by G aug, G+, or G#5
EXCEPTION: G+7 is always a dominant chord as is G7#5
Diminished Indicated by G dim, Gdim7, or Gº, or Gº7
August 27th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Thanks for posting this lesson Dennis. It is very simple and self explanatory.
Since some songs are available on the net showing chords only or music sheets without chords, this really helps. All the while I thought that Gº is also Gaug. How silly of me.
Now I know….
Thanks again for doing a great job to help self learners like me.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Thank You very much for your kind words. I’m here on the planet to help people with music and to also make music. If you have a high speed internet connection and care to hear some of my music please visit http://www.ritmolive.com there are a couple of jazz tunes I recorded in the Drummers studio several years ago.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Hi Mr. Dennis,
I love jazz too but I cannot play up to that level, anyways I listen to jazz stations. I did listen to your music and I loved the “Caravan” as it gave me a little rush of suspense… maybe due to the base riffs… I bookmarked your site.. and will be visiting it from time to time. By the way sir, is it hard learning jazz? I’m trying to play keyboard and guitar again after years of dormancy. I think I need to learn basic blues first. Anyways, great site you have with the lightning effects:)
December 16th, 2009 at 2:12 am
nice post. thanks.
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:27 am
Keep working ,great job!
July 26th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
music sheets can help you play much better on your choosen musical instrument.:.”