Chord types and names

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D-Tuned
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Chord types and names

Post by D-Tuned »

Still working on my own chords learning aids and getting close to finishing. Before going further and with your help I'd really like to clean up my brain and purge any faulty concepts from it so here goes a review of what's in there thus far:

m = minor: Cm = C minor

/ = slash: C/D = C slash D (a D as bass)

º = diminished: Cº = C diminished, C+ = C augmented.

5 = power: C5 = C power chord

6 = 6th, always a major 6:

7 = 7th, default a minor 7th: C7= C+m7 (dominant 7), Cm7 = Cm+m7, CM7 = C+maj7, CmM7 = Cm+major7

Add = added (always a major 9) to a major or minor triad: Cadd9 = C add M9, CmAdd9 = Cm add M9

extended = (always to a 4 note (default m7 i.e. just 7) chord, the extension qualified
as # or b if required): G713 = G7 plus 13th, B7b9 = B7 plus b9, D7#11 = D7 plus #11

I'm also trying characters that most filesystems will accept in file names, "/" is definitely out.
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by folderol »

Use a '-' instead
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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Michael Willis
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by Michael Willis »

That all seems accurate from what I know (although I'm not the best at this stuff, so I could stand to learn a thing or two).

D-Tuned wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:10 am Add = added (always a major 9) to a major or minor triad: Cadd9 = C add M9, CmAdd9 = Cm add M9
This can also be used to add intervals further out than the 9th, like Cadd11 or Cadd13.
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by luciorgomes »

dTuned
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by dTuned »

folderol wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:37 am Use a '-' instead
Just having re-registered from ANOTHER pwd reset fiasco I'm back
with id *dTuned*. I hope this will be an interim solution and that I can
get access back to my older D-Tuned soon :-)

I'm coming up with major (I think) improvements in symbology for
guitar music including chord diagrams and such. I don't wanna
get too much into it until I recover my previous user-id, but one of
the ideas is to stay as close as possible to existing characters
in addition to the now prerequisite suitability for inclusion in a
digital file-name. The proverbial dash "-" will have one or more
other uses but I'm evaluating the broken vertical bar "¦" as one
possible replacement for the slash "/" (aka oblique).
dTuned
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by dTuned »

Michael Willis wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:28 pm That all seems accurate from what I know (although I'm not the best at this stuff, so I could stand to learn a thing or two).

D-Tuned wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:10 am Add = added (always a major 9) to a major or minor triad: Cadd9 = C add M9, CmAdd9 = Cm add M9
This can also be used to add intervals further out than the 9th, like Cadd11 or Cadd13.
I see that you are regularly interested in the topic :-)

From what I understand the Add is constrained for use with
a 9th but I also figure that it could/should also serve the other
possible 'accenting' higher ending notes which for the time being
are just appended directly, a rather sloppy approach IMhO.

Like I said, this is just to explore opinions and most importantly
the accuracy of the stated definitions (gotta start somewhere).
dTuned
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by dTuned »

Thanks for the pointer :-)

I'm working on guitar chord diagrams and part of the idea
is to give them (*.png) file names that also convey as much
of the info on their own as possible. Many of the existing
symbols used are incompatible with file-name requirements,
some others are too long ('Add' is NOT a symbol and I
would also want to avoid yard-long file names).

There are many other string instruments too, so to the
extent possible I would not want to cook something that
they cannot use.
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by merlyn »

First of all it might be worth pointing out that the sound comes first, then a name is given to that particular collection of notes. Plonk your fingers down anywhere on the guitar and the resulting chord can be given a name (mostly). Chord nomenclature starts to break down with chords made up of semitones next to each other, which we would call a cluster.

I would say there are two main approaches -- symbols and letters.

In the symbol approach :

major -- triangle -- Δ
minor -- minus -- -
diminished -- circle (degree sign) -- °
augmented -- plus -- +

This is a pain to type on a computer. I copied and pasted the symbols not immediately available on the keyboard. For writing out by hand this notation is the most compact. e.g. C minor major seventh = C-Δ7.

In the letters approach no letter means major.

C major -- C
C minor -- Cm
C diminished -- Cdim
C augmented -- Caug

It depends what kind of music you want to play. The fancy extended chords only really come up in jazz -- rock and pop mostly uses triads with the occasional seventh. There are exceptions of course, like the Hendrix chord -- E7#9. It's a cool sound, but understanding that chord I would say is quite advanced.
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Re: Chord types and names

Post by D-Tuned »

merlyn wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 2:33 pm First of all it might be worth pointing out that the sound comes first, then a name is given to that particular collection of notes. Plonk your fingers down anywhere on the guitar and the resulting chord can be given a name (mostly). Chord nomenclature starts to break down with chords made up of semitones next to each other, which we would call a cluster.

I would say there are two main approaches -- symbols and letters.

In the symbol approach :

major -- triangle -- Δ
minor -- minus -- -
diminished -- circle (degree sign) -- °
augmented -- plus -- +

This is a pain to type on a computer. I copied and pasted the symbols not immediately available on the keyboard. For writing out by hand this notation is the most compact. e.g. C minor major seventh = C-Δ7.

In the letters approach no letter means major.

C major -- C
C minor -- Cm
C diminished -- Cdim
C augmented -- Caug

It depends what kind of music you want to play. The fancy extended chords only really come up in jazz -- rock and pop mostly uses triads with the occasional seventh. There are exceptions of course, like the Hendrix chord -- E7#9. It's a cool sound, but understanding that chord I would say is quite advanced.
True, copy-paste can be a royal PITA but so are yard-long file-names,
I systematically delete any that are over 12 characters long :-)))

It's gotta be give-and-take, we can't have it all, alas..

Rather than cannibalize this thread title I'm going to start
a new one that is more to the point.
Artificial-Stupidity will never be competitive
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