Different Ways to Write out Chords
Lesson 9 from: Music Theory Essentials: Chords, Scales and ModesTomas George
Different Ways to Write out Chords
Lesson 9 from: Music Theory Essentials: Chords, Scales and ModesTomas George
Lesson Info
9. Different Ways to Write out Chords
Lessons
Scales Introduction
03:08 2Working out a Major Scale
06:45 3Working out a Major Key from a Melody
05:51 4Major Keys and Scales
01:54 5Major Scale on a Score
02:56 6Triads
03:37 7Inversions
03:21 8Working out the Chords in a Major Scale
09:27Different Ways to Write out Chords
04:11 10Working out Major and Minor Triads
07:01 11Diminished and Augmented Triads
05:22 127th Chords
12:16 13Extended Chords
06:34 14Suspended Chords
06:02 15The Circle of 5ths
12:48 16How to Change Key
14:54 17Natural Minor Scale
11:21 18Chords in the Minor Scale
05:59 19Harmonic Minor Scale
07:15 20Melodic Minor Scale
11:12 21Modes
03:54 22Ionian Mode
00:47 23Dorian Mode
03:14 24Phrygian Mode
03:14 25Lydian Mode
01:21 26Mixolydian Mode
02:11 27Aeolian Mode
01:03 28Locrian Mode
03:56 29Section introduction
00:17 30Song Analysis 1 - Capsize
15:25 31Song Analysis 2 - Floating
18:07Lesson Info
Different Ways to Write out Chords
Hello and welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at the different ways we can write the chords in a diatonic chord progression. So here we actually have the diatonic core progression for a major. And this has a combination of major chords, minor chords and also this one here, which is a diminished chord. So there's a few different ways we can write this. We can use a capital M for major, a lowercase M for minor or dim dim for diminished. You can also put the letter of the chord before this. So for example, this first one here will be a, which means it's a major. The second one will have B with a lowercase M which means it's B minor and all the way to this diminish here. So this is a G sharp diminished. So we can write this as G sharp dim. Another way to write out chords in a diatonic chord progression is the kind of jazz way with triangles, negative signs and a circle. So a major will be a triangle, a minor will be a dash and a diminish will be a circle. So here we wil...
l have a major. So A with a triangle and then B minor. So B with a dash then continuing along, we have C# minor. So we have C# with a dash, then we have D major. So D with a triangle, then we have E major, so E with a triangle and then going along, we have F sharp minor. So F sharp with a dash and then we have G sharp diminished, so G sharp with a circle and then we go to a again. So a with a triangle, this is the way I like to do it a lot of the time just from reading jazz scores. However, the most practical way of writing chords is probably with Roman numerals. So this goes from 1 to 7 in Roman numerals and we don't actually use the eighth, we go back to the first. So the Roman numerals will tell you which chord it is. So for example, the fourth chord, this one here, this D major will have the letters four in the Roman numerals. Also, if we have uppercase Roman numerals, this will mean major. So for example, this D major here will be a four in uppercase. But if we have a lowercase, for example, this C# minor, by the way, it's a C# not ac because we're in the key signature of a major. So this one will be a minor. So we write Roman numeral free, however, lower case because that means it's minor So uppercase for major, lowercase for minor and for diminished, we write lowercase with a circle. So from seeing these Roman numerals, it will tell us what type of chord it is and which chord progression it is in the scale. So if you see five, you know, it's a major chord and you also know it's the fifth chord of the scale. However, if we're in another key, I've now changed these to the C major diatonic core progression, the C here will become the first. So depending on what key you're in, depends on where the Roman numerals are and which type of Roman numerals you notice in a major, the D was ad major and it had the Roman numeral of four. Now it's ad minor and this will have the Roman numeral of two, but a lower case two. So the Roman numerals do change and alter depending on what key you're in. So they are the three main ways you can write chords. The first way was a uppercase M for major, a lowercase M for minor and dim dim four diminished. The second way it was a triangle for major, a negative sign for minor and a circle four diminished. And the third way it was Roman numerals. So uppercase Roman numeral for major, lowercase Roman numeral for minor and a lowercase seven with a circle for the diminished seventh chord. So if you see any of the chords written out like this, you should be able to tell if they're major, minor or diminished. So, thank you for watching this lecture and I'll see you in the next one.