In both music as well as musical theory, chords are described as being sets of three or more unique notes in a specific key that are sounded simultaneously. Chords that are constructed of three notes are known as being triads, and they consist of two different intervals. The technical name for a triad chord is a tertian sonority. These triad chords are understood to be made up of chords that are constructed based on stacks of thirds that are relative to an underlying scale. It is understood that these chord combinations are referred to most commonly as intervals. The technical name for such an interval is dyad. When you have a succession of different chords, what you have is a chord progression.
The four most common ways for representing or notating chords are with roman numerals, with figured bass, with macro symbols or with popular music symbols.
Constructing Chords and Naming Chords
Every single chord has certain shared characteristics, and these characteristics include:
- The number of chromas that are used to construct the chord, or the number of pitch classes that are unique and that the chord derives its notes from.
- The basic interval types that it contains, such as seconds, or thirds, or fourths for example,
- The precise intervallic construction of the chord, which is sometimes known as the chord quality. As an example, when the chord is a triad, is it a major triad, minor triad, augmented triad or diminished triad?
- The scale degree for the particular root note.
- Whether or not the chord is inverted in its register.
Note Count
One of the ways that you can classify your chords is based on the number of different pitch classes that are used in the construction of the chord. A pitch class is identified by the scale's degree. What this means is certain notes such as A B C and D without any regard to which octave the notes are occurring in.
Chords that use three different pitch classes are regarded as triads. Chords that use four different pitch classes are known as tetrads. The chords that use five different pitch classes are known as pentads. The chords using six notes are known as hexads. They are sometimes also referred to as trichords and tetrachords, pentachords and hexachords, but these terms are generally used to refer to contiguous pitch classes in one scale, typically spanning a perfect fourth rather than being played simultaneously in most cases.
Theorists tend to differ when it comes to whether the chords consist of at least three different pitches. Otto Karolyi for example has disagreed, stating instead that a chord is two or more notes that are sounded simultaneously. A chord known as a triad is described as the vertical combination of three different sounds, the fundamental note, the third and the fifth.
Continued in pt 2.
Photo Credits: (Tres) "descamarado"
Originally posted 2009-09-23 03:35:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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1 comment so far ↓
Great overview of chord structure. Once you learn how they are formed it opens up your playing.
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