Need some help reading chords

Dark Artist

When I read sheet music for the piano I just look at the chords and improvise rather than play the song exactly.

I'm having some trouble understanding the chords, however. I'll number them as questions and I would very much appreciate if someone could answer them all!

1. I understand, for example, 'A' as A-major. I also understand 'A6' as A-major. Is there really any difference between these two? What's the need for the number?

2. Chords like 'A/E' also confuse me. Is it meant as a combination of the two chords or is it meant as 'either/or'?

3. Here's another example of a chord that I don't understand - 'Bb7(#9)'. All I can make out from that is Bb-major.

4. 'C#dim7'. I don't understand the 'dim' or the '7'. I assume that this chord is major too.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time

-=al=-

ahhh theory, gota get into some of that!


key signatures, chord construction and some scale theory

that will help you understand all this kinda stuff theres loads of resources on the net for this kinda thing

as for the questions

Key of A major has the notes... A b c# D E f# g# ...So as A being the key and root note its the 1st note, and b is the 2nd and c# is the 3rd etc...

a major contains the notes = A C# E ...or the 1st note 3rd note and 5th notes...


A6 is adding the 6th note of the scale in... so tis A C# E F# - 1st 3rd 5th and 6th

A/E are split chords or a chord variation... meaning U use E as the bass note, or start the chord on the E

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Bb7(#9) same thing.. notes in Bb are... Bb c d Eb F g a

so... Bb D F Ab c# are the notes.... Bb7 = Bb d F Ab


...so to get the #9 note we go back to the start of the key...

Bb c d Eb F g a - (we go back to the first note) - Bb c D

So its 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th etc....

so the 9th note is c but the chord says to sharpen c so thats where the c# comes from..

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dim = diminished ...C# is the chord and its a diminished 7th

but 7th is already flattened.. so we go to a double flat "bb" OR the 6th note... double flat means it goes a whole step so 7th > 6th = whole note...

so its the chord contains the notes C# E G A

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this is kinda hard to understand without understanding a little bit of theory!

Dark Artist

Yes I think you're right I need to brush up on my theory a little bit. A lot of what you wrote is going over my head but my understanding is definitely being made a lot clearer Thanks a million, this is a huge help.

crosstownk

The best solution is to brush up on the theory side of things. It's always easier if you have an understanding of what is going on.

In the meantime you could use something like this > http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/

Dark Artist

Wow crosstonk that link is amazing! Perfect - thank u both for the help, really appreciated. I think I'm gonna go pull up my socks and get some theory in me.

-=al=-

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/index.php

thres one more pretty similer i had inm y favourites for a while, its pretty cool

stevejazzx

Dark Artist wrote:

1. I understand, for example, 'A' as A-major. I also understand 'A6' as A-major. Is there really any difference between these two? What's the need for the number?

yes add (fsharp) sixth note to the major chord, improvisers usually look s at this the opposite way i.e when they see a plain amaj, they use an a6, amaj7 or even csharp minor variants.

da wrote:

2. Chords like 'A/E' also confuse me. Is it meant as a combination of the two chords or is it meant as 'either/or'?

They confuse everyone. But usually a maj with an e bass. Sometimes called a slash chord,

da wrote:

3. Here's another example of a chord that I don't understand - 'Bb7(#9)'. All I can make out from that is Bb-major.

again add the sharp 9 (csharp in this case) ( to dominant seventh chord it's easy, a dominant 7th is major like b7 or Bb7 as opposed to minor 7th. the dominant seventh sharp nine is a regualr jazz chord. you negate the major third with a sharp 9 so in Bb7 sharp you have a
d natural over a csharp,

[quote=da
4. 'C#dim7'. I don't understand the 'dim' or the '7'. I assume that this chord is major too.
http://www.audio-guitar-lessons.com/guitar-chord-theory-2.html

diminshed chords are easy enough, the above link explain s it very well.


Thanks to anyone who takes the time [/quote]

A Primal Nut

Dark Artist wrote:

Yes I think you're right I need to brush up on my theory a little bit. A lot of what you wrote is going over my head but my understanding is definitely being made a lot clearer Thanks a million, this is a huge help.

As long as you know that chords come from scales it's all fairly easy from there.

The major scale has seven notes (in key of A major: A B C# D E F# G# A). Bear in mind it starts all over again from the eighth note, so 8th= 1st, 9th = 2nd, etc. An A Chord uses the first, third and fifth of the major scale. Here's a quick guide

A - 1st, 3rd, 5th
A6 - you add a 6th, i.e. 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th.
Amaj7 - 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th.
Aadd11, - 1st, 3rd, 5th, 4th. Reason is that 11th is the 4th, just one octave higher, as the scale starts again from 8th.
Aadd 9 - 1st, 3rd, 5th, 2nd.
Asus4 - 1st, 4th, 5th (same as Aadd11 but no 3rd)
Asus2 - 1st, 2nd, 5th (same as Aadd9 but no 3rd)

In actuality what order (in terms of pitch) you play the notes is irrelevant as long as A is the lowest note. In a slash chord(A/E) however, you still play the 1st, 3rd and 5th, but this time the 5th must be the lowest note, i.e. E in this case.

As for the Bb Chord...
Bbmaj7 - Same as Bb but with added seventh - so 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th
Bb7 - Same as above but with flat seventh i.e. 1st, 3rd, 5th, flat7th)

This is an important distinction. It doesn't say it's flat seventh because that's the convention, but it is! It's accepted as the seventh because its the most common, as songwriters always try to avoid playing a chord with two notes a semitone apart.

Now:
Bb7(9) - Same as Bb7 but with added 9th (same as 2nd), ie. 1st, 3rd, 5th, flat7th, 2nd)
Bb7(#9) - Same as above, but 9th (i.e. 2nd) is sharp. i.e. 1st, 3rd, 5th, flat7th, #2nd)

There are two other important terms. As you can see every chord contains the root and fifth. But that's assuming the fifth is a perfect fifth. However if the fifth is flat, it becomes a diminished chord. If the fifth is sharp, it's an augmented chord.

so C#Dim - 1st, minor 3rd, flat5th
and
C#Dim7 - 1st, minor 3rd, flat5th, flat seventh.

Note: I haven't studied dimished chords in a while, but i think the third is a minor 3rd, I'm not sure. But I think Augmented chords have a major third.

If your not sure how to find the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, note of a scale its time to learn the notes in each of the keys, major or minor. I'm sure you can find them on the internet, or just work them out.

Nichololas

I divide the chords into three categories: major, dominant and minor.

I'm going to work in C because I find that easiest. Also, most of my theory is from jazz rather than classical and there are quite a few differences.

The notes of the C scale are C D E F G A B, but I'll lay out all the notes from C to C because you need to know the names of the intervals.

C - root
C# - flat 9 (or flat 2, but I call it a flat 9)
D - 9 (or 2, again)
Eb - minor third
E - third (major third)
F - 4th
Gb - flat 5
G - 5th
G# - raise or sharp 5th
A - 6th or 13th
Bb - 7 (or minor 7 or dominant 7)
B - major 7th
C - root again

Major chords have a major third note (E). A basic major chord is root, 3rd, 5th - C E G.
Major 7th (add a major 7th note), 6th, augmented chords, add9s and sus chords are also major, but have a 4th, 6th or a 9th etc added in. (I can't remember if you add a 4th to an aug or a sus chord, anyone?).

Dominant chords are chords that are essentially major but have a 7th added in. In chord charts these are always written as (for example) C7, which means it has a root, 3rd, 5th and 7th - C E G Bb. Other examples of dominant chords are C9 and C13. A C9 chord has a root, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th. A C13 has a root, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 13th (a 13th is a 6th note, but it's named differently to distinguish it from a C6, which is a major chord with a 6 added, while a C13 has a 7th, making it dominant. The 13th note is also usually played an octave higher). When a chord chart says C7, you can generally play it as a C7, C9 or C13, however you want to play it. In the interest of keeping this less complicated, I won't explain but just say that there are also flat5th, raise5th, flat 9 and sharp 9 chords, but they can be kind of difficult to explain (you have to omit the 5th or the root note to you don't get a clash) so I won't go into them here (oh look I kind of did)..

Minor chords are any chords that have a minor 3rd note (Eb). A basic C minor chord has root, minor 3rd and 5th. A Cm7 chord (C minor 7), is the same a C7, but has a minor third instead of a third, making it a minor chord. A fun one is Cmmaj7 (C minor major 7), a basic C minor with a major 7 added.



It's 2:30a.m and I'm supposed to have a 2500 word philosophy essay handed in yesterday so I'm gonna stop there, but I hope this has been helpful. Actually, I found it quite helpful for myself..

Dark Artist

Thanks again this really sheds light on everything for me. I see now that my understand of scales is also something that I need to work on. All your posts are amazing, thanks so much. I'm going to print them all out for reference - Hugely appreciated!