What's this chord?

As it's a decending bassline, I'd go with G5/Eb.

2nd chord is Em7, 3rd is Ebmaj7

Thanks guys, that was quick....

I'll go with F6/9, Em7, Ebmaj7 and Dsus4 - looks nicely logical, doesn't it, going down a half-step at a time.....

The Em7 (I actually play that chord in the chorus as 022033) could also be an Asus4, that comes into the chorus as well - x02033 - I'm keeping two fingers on the B and E strings all through the song to get a kind of droning effect....

Thanks again, you are truly princes among men....now I can actually write down what I'm playing.....

Oh and if anyone's remotely interested, the song's the week 12 Sunday Songwriter's assignment, Angel on The Corner - hope to have it finished and on soundclick later, that's if the Newcy Brown (celebrating the Cricket win this AM) doesn't take too strong a hold......

:D :D :D

Vic

Hey just so you know when your in a situation like that where you cant decide what to call a chord, the simplest one that is easy to understand in context is "right" cause the only the thing that determines which name to call it is the notes surrounding it.

Well - I got it done - it's on my soundclick site, if you care to take a listen......

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=225059

Song's called "Angel On The Corner".....

Thanks again for the help....

:D :D :D

Vic

Hey just so you know when your in a situation like that where you cant decide what to call a chord, the simplest one that is easy to understand in context is "right" cause the only the thing that determines which name to call it is the notes surrounding it.What does this mean? :? I don't understand.

It means chords are named in context, not in isolation.

The notes C-E-G-A can be C6 or Am7; only one of them will be correct in a progression... it depends on how the whole thing moves.

It means chords are named in context, not in isolation.

The notes C-E-G-A can be C6 or Am7; only one of them will be correct in a progression... it depends on how the whole thing moves.
Is this a function of which key the tune is in, and how the chord being named fits into the melody or harmony of the tune being played in that key? That would sort of make sense to me. Because it seems that if the chord is formed from a C root (C E G A) it would be called C6, whereas if the root were A (A C E G) it would then be called the Am7. Since C E G is a CMaj triad and A is a 6th over C, and A C E is an Amin triad and G is a m7th over A.

Sorry, I'm sort of thinking out loud. Did I come close?

Yes - it's the root and its relationship to the other notes within the chord that determine the correct name for the chord.
But it's the musical context, as supplied by the surrounding progression, that determines which one of those notes is the root.
For example, the Beatles song "Fool on the Hill" opens with the chord D6 (D F# A B) - or is it Bm7 (B D F# A)? It's impossible to tell, because it's the first chord and there is no context to guide us. Later, as the song gets underway, it becomes clear that the key is D major and the chord in question is D6, not Bm7.

What makes it tricky, Tucker, is that "root" and "bass" are commonly confused. So a C6 might have A in the bass, and an Am7 might have C in the bass... or either could have E or G as the lowest note.

Mixing up the order of notes won't change the chord name.

There are two other quirks of music that often confuse guitarists in naming chords:

1. A note that's being played might not be a chord tone. Songs are essentially combinations of harmony and melody, and the melody doesn't have to strictly follow the harmony. So you'll see some interpretations (especially on the web) that might give a progression of C-Cmaj7-C6-C; that's almost always wrong - in analysis it's a descending melody line (C-B-A-G) over a C triad; guitarists like to equate "chord" with "fingering", but that's often not accurate.

2. The flip side of that is a harmonically important note that's being played by something other than the guitar. A song might finish up with the guitar playing a C6 fingering, and the keyboard playing notes that would form a Dsus or Asus - harmonically, the song is probably ending on C6/9.

Yes - it's the root and its relationship to the other notes within the chord that determine the correct name for the chord.
But it's the musical context, as supplied by the surrounding progression, that determines which one of those notes is the root.
For example, the Beatles song "Fool on the Hill" opens with the chord D6 (D F# A B) - or is it Bm7 (B D F# A)? It's impossible to tell, because it's the first chord and there is no context to guide us. Later, as the song gets underway, it becomes clear that the key is D major and the chord in question is D6, not Bm7.Yes, I guess it is really not possible to name some chords in isolation. I have asked this question on some other "Musician" boards, and was told that chord names don't change. That seemed wrong to me, but I got the same answer several times, so....
What makes it tricky, Tucker, is that "root" and "bass" are commonly confused. So a C6 might have A in the bass, and an Am7 might have C in the bass... or either could have E or G as the lowest note.

Mixing up the order of notes won't change the chord name.

There are two other quirks of music that often confuse guitarists in naming chords:

1. A note that's being played might not be a chord tone. Songs are essentially combinations of harmony and melody, and the melody doesn't have to strictly follow the harmony. So you'll see some interpretations (especially on the web) that might give a progression of C-Cmaj7-C6-C; that's almost always wrong - in analysis it's a descending melody line (C-B-A-G) over a C triad; guitarists like to equate "chord" with "fingering", but that's often not accurate.

2. The flip side of that is a harmonically important note that's being played by something other than the guitar. A song might finish up with the guitar playing a C6 fingering, and the keyboard playing notes that would form a Dsus or Asus - harmonically, the song is probably ending on C6/9.
Thanks Noteboat, I understand inversions, and I agree that they cause some confusion. I hear so many guitar players making the assumption that the bass note is the always the root.

1. I've never really considered the chordal harmony and melody confusion thing, but it makes some sense. But if notes are played together, isn't that a chord? Maybe it depends whether they are strummed or played individually?

2. This is something else I've never considered. But, it makes perfect sense to me. I don't know why I never thought of it. Probably because I mostly play solo. It sounds like it might be a really fun technique to try out.

I'm trying to learn theory on my own, so I'm glad I've come across you and this resource. Sometimes I require discussion to understand a point. Books don't usually provide that.
Anyway, thanks guys.

In one sense, any three (or more) different tones form a chord, whether they're played together or individually as an arpeggiated figure. Any label that would let another musician duplicate this chord is a proper name - as much as I rail against the oddities like 'sus2' chords, they do fit this function. C6 and Am7 always describe the same set of notes.

But in the sense of "chord progression" some chord names will be right, and some will be wrong. That's because a chord progression gives information beyond what tones are being played at the same time.

Most modern music is homophonic, which means there's a distinct melody being played against a distinct setting of moving chords. It doesn't matter if we're talking about Green Day or Beethoven - there's a melody, and there's a chord progression. In the context of homophonic music, the melody doesn't affect the chords... so to understand what the progression is, you need to look at it without the melody.

Take Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It starts out with the familiar theme G-G-G-Eb... F-F-F-D; all done in octaves, so all we have is the melody. But as the next bit of melody appears (G-G-G Ab-Ab-Ab Eb-Eb-Eb-C) the orchestra begins playing chords. Each different melody note appears in a separate measure, but the underlying chord is Cm for all four notes. The first, third, and fourth measures have the melody doing chord tones - the second one doesn't. Trying to rename the "chord" of that measure as Abmaj7 would be correct in isolation - after all, the notes are Ab-C-Eb-G - but it would only confuse understanding the harmony.

Or take a tune like "Color My World" by Chicago, which starts out with single notes. We clearly hear the chords (Fmaj7, Am, etc.), because it's not an independent melody there - it's just the chord tones... even if they're presented only one note at a time.

So it's not really a question of when the notes are being played, it's a question of whether or not all the notes are harmonically important. If a melody note isn't harmonically important it's called a "non-harmonic tone", and it won't change the underlying chord name even if a single instrument like the guitar or piano is playing it at the same time as the chord.

And once you've separated out the real chords in a progression, there's almost always a clear 'correct' name for the individual chords. An appopriate illustration is Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" (You say tomato, I say to-mah-to...). The chords start G-Em9-Am7-D7-G - major to relative minor, then roots moving by fifth E-A-D-G. Calling the Am7 a C6 would be accurate in isolation, but not in context.

1. I've never really considered the chordal harmony and melody confusion thing, but it makes some sense. But if notes are played together, isn't that a chord? Maybe it depends whether they are strummed or played individually?

While beginning music students are told that a chord is any three notes played together. The more advanced answer to this question is "No." Just because you play notes together doesn't make them chord in the context of any particular song.

Sometimes it is a chord, sometimes it's not.

Guitarists really don't get this, as we tend to think in terms of shapes. But it's usually moderately clear when looking at musical notation.

Some notes are clearly part of the harmonic progression, some notes are clearly part of the melody, some notes are just decorations, and some notes are a toss up and might belong to one or more categories and you just can't really say how the composer was thinking about that particular note.