Continued from pt 1.

In contrast, however, Andrew Surmani has written that three or more notes, when sounded together, create a chord. George T. Jones has stated that two tones when sounded together, form an interval, and three notes when sounded together create the chord. It has also been said that chords are combinations of three or more different tones that are sounded simultaneously when the distances or intervals between each of the tones are based specifically on a particular formula. In this explanation, when two notes are sounded simultaneously they are not considered to create a chord but rather are simply intervals.

Interval Type

Many chords are capable of being arranged in the form of a series, where the elements of the series are separated by way of intervals, and these intervals are all roughly similar in size. For example, a triad in C major would contain the notes C, E, G. These notes can be arranged in the C-E-G series where the first interval, the C and E notes make a major third, and the second interval, the E and G notes form a minor third. Any chord is a tertian chord if it is capable of being arranged as a series of both major thirds and minor thirds.

A chord like C-D-E♭ is going to be a series of seconds, with a major second, in the C and D notes, and then a minor second in the D and E♭ notes. These chords are known as secundal chords. The C F B chord, consisting of a C F perfect fourth and a tritone F B augmented forth is known as a quartal chord. Most types of western music primarily use tertian chords.

Upon closer examination, terms like quartal, secundal and tertian can become somewhat ambiguous in nature. The terms fourth, third and second are often much more understood, but especially relative to the scale. They are unfortunately not the clearest terms when it comes to determining which scale they are actually referring to. As an example, you should consider the G A C D F pentatonic scale. Relative to this scale, the intervals G and C and C and F are thirds, because there is a note between them. On the other hand, relative to a chromatic scale, these G and C and C and F intervals are actually fourths simply because they made up five semitones in width. For this particular reason, the G C F chord may be described as being both a tertian chord and a quartal chord, depending on if intervals are being measured relative to the chromatic scale or the pentatonic scale.

Next comes the use of accidentals, which is capable of complicating the picture even further. A B# E A♭ chord is generally notated as being a series of different diminished fourths, B# and E, and then E and A♭.

Continued in part 3...

Photo Credits: il Quoquo

Originally posted 2009-09-25 03:43:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts

• Fiddle or Violin? The violin is traditionally associated with western style Classical music. Musicians who learn the violin do so by reading printed music, playing exactly what is written from one note to the next. The music associated with playing the violin is often regarded as being complex and challenging. One example of......
• Chords 101 pt 3 Scale Degree Chords are also capable of being distinguished as well as notated based on the scale degree for their root note or their bass note. For example, since the C major scale's first scale degree is the C note, a triad that is built on top of this note......
• Harmony 101 When it comes to music, you can look at harmony as the use of chords or pitches simultaneously. The study behind harmony involves the study of chords and the way that they are constructed as well as harmonic progressions and the connection principles that are used in order to govern......
• Scales 101 When it comes to the world of music, scales are a group of musical notes that are collected in both ascending and descending order, and they are responsible for providing material for musical work, including a combination of both harmony and melody that can be converted into instrumental play. Scales......
• Bongos and Congas If you are interested in making beats, then you should know that there are a wide variety of different types of drums out there that can make beautiful music. Two of the most intriguing drums from the family of drums are the bongo drums and the conga drums. The bongo......

Related Websites

• What Acoustic Guitar is Recommended For Beginners? by Jaspal Egdaire Beginning guitarists sometimes experienced a lot of problems in their guitar journey and decided to quit. Some gave up because they never produced good musical tones with their guitar while others complained they could not take the pain. These problems may be related to the guitars they......
• Learn to Play Bass Guitar For someone starting out with a first instrument, a bass guitar is an excellent choice. The bass guitar is probably the easiest stringed instrument to learn to play, far easier than either an acoustic or electric guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, or a violin, for instance. And a stringed instrument......
• Feeding Two Birds with ONE Seed   I was checking out this blog titled, "Deb Brammer: You and me -- working together" and its posting, "Gluten-Free Company".  It started out with, "You've just invited company and now you find out they have to have a gluten-free diet. Now you are having second thoughts. What will you......
• 100 Quick Tennis Tips pt 1 Here are 100 quick and easy tennis tips to get your game going. We're going to spread this list out over a couple of posts to keep it interesting. Tip #1 - Before you pick up the game of tennis, you should absolutely make sure to consult a physician to......
• Way #30: Avoid Unnecessary Temptations as you Move Toward Your Version of Gluten-Free Simplicity Way #30: Avoid Unnecessary Temptations as you Move Toward Your Version of Gluten-Free Simplicity.   Remember that saying, "Out of sight; out of mind"?  Of course you do.    This posting is about things like that which one can use to help simplify their Gluten-Free Life.  Here are some ideas to......

Online Stores

• Series Romance Books
• Guides, Tips Ferrules Rod Building Repair Fishing
• Playing Cards Breweriana, Beer Collectibles

If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.



Categories:

Acoustic Musical Instruments, For Beginners, Playing Tips

Tags:

andrew surmani, b chord, c major, combinations, distances, elements, interval, intervals, major thirds, minor thirds, pentatonic scale, triad, tritone, two tones, western music