Naming Chords: An Introduction
This is the third instalment of my series on Music Theory: An Introduction. The main goal of this series is to introduce the basics, at roughly an ABRSM Grade 5 level. I plan in the future to have a series that goes into more advanced topics.
These next two months we will be talking about Chords and Cadences. Cadences are a vital part of your vocabulary when writing and analysing music. The best way to think of them is that they represent punctuation in the music. They delineate sections by highlighting halfway points and endings. With good use of cadences, the listener is smoothly guided through the piece of music. With a lack of cadences, the piece can end up becoming an incoherent mess.
However, to write and analyse cadences you need to be able to identify chords, and the different roles they play within the key. So this month we will begin by introducing how to name them. Then next month we will start putting the chords into action!
For the previous two blogs in the series click here.
1) Naming Chords
In music there are multiple ways of naming chords.
One way is to give each chord an individual name, such as:- A Diminished, D Dominant 7th, G Major, F Augmented, etc.
Another way is to name the chord in the context of what key the piece is in. For classical music we tend to use roman numerals, with I (one) representing the chord based on the starting note of the home key.
It is important to understand both ways of reading chords. So we’re going to focus on both types starting off with naming chords in the context of the key the piece is in, using the roman numeral approach.
2) The Roman Numeral Approach
To begin we need to grab a scale. If you need a recap on scales, click here. We’ll start simple with a C Major scale. Each note is given a roman numeral:
To build a I chord, we take the C (I), skip a note to the E (III), and then skip another note to the G (V). This creates CEG:
You can use this process to create a chord for any of the roman numerals. For example to create a II chord, you would start with the D, skip a note to the F, and then skip again to the A, creating DFA:
If you run out of letters, for example the G chord, all you have to do is loop back round. So for G that would be G, skip to the B, and then loop back to the start of the scale and skip the C to land on the D. This creates GBD:
Overall if we do this process for all 7 chords we create:
You can use this approach for any key.
For example in G Major:
The I chord in G Major would be GBD, the III chord would be BDF#. Notice that because G Major has an F#, that F# appears in chord with an F.
Because of this consistent pattern, there are only 7 different combinations of letters you need to learn. ACE, BDF, CEG, DFA, EGB, FAC, and GBD.
So far, we’ve only been talking about Major scales, but we can also use this technique on Minor scales. To do this we take the Natural Minor version of the scale. Let’s take A Minor Natural:
To create a I chord in A Minor, we do the same process: ACE. One little complication within traditional Classical harmony is that we tend to raise the leading note (the VII) for the V and VII chords. In A Minor the VII is a G, which becomes G#. So the V chord would be EG#B, and the VII chord would be G#BD. However the III chord would still be CEG, with no G#.
As long as you can work out what key you’re in, with this information you should now be in a good position to be able to give the chord you are looking at a name. However, if you were to grab a keyboard and play through the chords I’ve listed for C Major, you may notice that not every chord has the same quality to it. I, IV, V will feel similar, but II, III, and VI will have a darker quality to them. And what on earth is going on with chord VII?!
3) Three Note Chords
The reason for the differences between I, IV, V and II, III, VI, and VII is because they are different types of chords. There are 4 main types of 3 note chords:
Augmented
Major
Minor
Diminished
Major and Minor chords are the most common types of chords you’ll come across, but Augmented and Diminished have their uses as well.
A Major 3rd. Photo by Denise Jans.
A Minor 3rd. Photo by Denise Jans.
The best way to work out which chord is which (other than using your ear) is by analysing the intervals (the space) between each note. We’ll be talking about intervals in far greater depth in the future, but for now we only need to know two. The Major 3rd and the Minor 3rd.
To measure a Major 3rd interval, we need to count 4 semitones up from the starting note - for example if our starting note is C, we would count: C-C#, C#-D, D-Eb, Eb-E - therefore a Major 3rd up from C is E.
To measure a Minor 3rd interval, we count 3 semitones up from the starting note. Starting on C, we would count: C-C#, C#-D, D-Eb - therefore a Minor 3rd up from C is Eb.
Each 3 note chord has a mixture of Major and Minor 3rds:
Augmented = Major 3rd + Major 3rd
Major = Major 3rd + Minor 3rd
Minor = Minor 3rd + Major 3rd
Diminished = Minor 3rd + Minor 3rd
With these recipes we can build these chords starting on any note. For now let’s use C:
With this information we can now work out what type of chords come from the C Major scale.
The I chord of C Major is funnily enough a C Major chord. The C-E is a Major 3rd (C-E = 4 semitones), and the E-G is a Minor 3rd (E-G = 3 semitones). Here are the rest:
With this new understanding of chord types, we can make a small adjustment to how we write the Roman Numerals. For Major and Augmented chords we will continue to use capital Roman Numerals, but for the Minor and Diminished chords we are going to start using lowercase Roman Numerals.
4) Inversions
There is one final thing to talk about before we are ready to explore Cadences next month, and that is inversions. Let’s take a C Major chord - CEG. Now let’s listen to the same chord each time changing the order of the notes. The notes are written from left to right starting with the lowest pitch:
*Here there are 4 notes, but as one of the notes is doubled it is still considered a 3 note chord.
With C Major, chords that have the C at the bass are in ‘Root Position’, and are considered the strongest sounding. Chords that have the second note E at the bottom are in ‘1st Inversion’. Chords that have G in the bass are in ‘2nd Inversion’.
As different inversions have such an impact on the chord sound, it is important to reference them in the chord names. As with seemingly every facet of music theory there are multiple ways of doing this! The two most common ways are the abc method, or the figured bass method.
The abc method indicates which inversion by using ‘a’ for root position, ‘b’ for first inversion, and ‘c’ for 2nd inversion. Often the ‘a’ is dropped, so if you see a chord with no letter after it you can assume it is in root position.
The figured bass method is a little more complicated, using intervals to label the inversions. I won’t go into much detail about it here. Root position is labelled ‘53’, 1st Inversion is ‘63’, and 2nd Inversion is ‘64’. Again there is shorthand for these, with Root Position often not having its label written out, and 1st Inversion only having a 6 under it.
5) Putting Everything Into Practice
Now we know everything we need to work out chord names. So let’s go through a step by step process for putting this into practice.
Example Piece:
1) Determine the Key
Before you can do anything, you need to know what key you are in. This is where the Circle of Fifths from the previous blog comes in handy. This example is in C Major as can be seen by the lack of key signature, and the lack of any accidentals pointing to the Relative Minor.
2) Write out your chords
abc method chord chart
I like to build a chart at this point. This is a useful technique if you are in an ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory exam. Note that for the Grade 5 theory exam you will only be tested on I, II, IV, and V chords. For this example we’ll use all 7 chords:
In the chart to the right it is easy to work out what chord you are dealing with. By having the inversions (using the abc method) above each relevant note we can also work out the inversion by looking at the bass note of the chord, and seeing which column it is in.
3) Work out your chords
Let’s take the second chord from the example piece (marked with a *). The notes are E C G C. Looking at our chart we can see this matches with the I chord. The E is at the bottom meaning the chord is in 1st inversion. So overall we can call this a Ib chord. Be careful when identifying the chord, note how E C G C almost fits into chord iii and vi.
If you look at the last chord of the piece, you’ll see a bunch of Cs and an E. So should this be a vib chord or a Ia chord?
The moment you listen to the piece you’ll straight away identify this chord as a Ia chord, as it’s undeniably Major. Two factors determine this:
There is a hierarchy within a chord. The first note (the root) is most important. After that the 2nd note is more important than the 3rd note. So C and E leans more to C Major than A Minor, as C and E are C Major’s first and second notes.
The bass note of the chord leads the harmony. Our ears are led by what is supported in the bass. As a result, that C is very influential in determining which chord it is. Have a listen to these two examples:
Example 1
Example 2
The first is: Ia – via – Ia, and the second is: Ia – vib - Ia. By keeping the C in the bass on the second chord, it makes the 2nd example sound entirely Major!
That’s it for this week! Next time we’ll be looking at cadences where we will be taking all that we have learnt here and applying it. See you then!
Dan
