question re: Chord notations

Factual Questions
1

A few questions about chord notations. Could somebody tell me if I have the following right:

  1. E7 is E 7th (E,G#,B, D)

  2. E-7 is E minor 7th (E, G, B, D)

  3. F#-7 b5 means “F sharp minor 7th with a flatted 5th,” i.e. F#, A#, C (normally sharp, but not here because it’s flatted), E.

  4. C/E means a C chord with E on the bottom, right? In orther words, first inversion, So E, C, G?

  5. C6 means C major chord with an added 6th, right? So C,E,G,A. But how is that different from an A minor 7th?

  6. What does (G7) mean? What does A-(maj 7) mean? What in general do parentheses mean when notating chords?

Thanks,

Constantine

2

#1-#4 - Yes, you have it right.
#5 - they are the same chord, but the implication is that when it’s notated as a C chord, you’re likely to double the root © someplace. a mi 7 is, in fact, an inversion of the C6 chord, but, again, as it is notated as an A chord, one infers that a doubling of the root (A) would be in keeping with the feel of the chord, and that a doubling of the third, the C, would be somewhat of a distortion of the sense. A pretty minor difference - no pun intended.
#6 I am unaware of any significance to the parentheses except where the composer is attempting to indicate that the chord is optional. Sometimes, the last chord written will do just fine, but if you want to throw in a bit of additional interest, give the G7 a shot there.
#7 the A-(maj 7) is usually an indication that the chord is an a minor chord with the major seventh added, i.e. a, c, e, g#. Sometimes, writers will do you a favor and write the minor chord notation in lower case and the above chord is, then, alternately notated thus: a mi (M7), with or preferably without the parentheses. Again, parentheses imply to the performer a degree of choice. If I want that 7th to be part of the sound, I don’t put it in parentheses. Playing guitar or piano? or something else? xo C.

3

It’s also an indication of what the bass player, or the pianist’s left hand should be doing. For example, a chord progression written like so:

C G/B F/A G F C/E G/D C

That would provide a bass line that walks down the C Major scale under the chord progression. The voicing of a “slash chord” is most effective when the note to the right of the slash is treated as a “bass note”, i.e. separated from the rest of the chord by an octave or so. So in practice, the chord being played by a guitarist, or a pianist’s right hand could really be any inversion of the chord, as long as the bass player or left hand is hitting the “bass note”.

The technique can be used to create tension in music. For example, by playing a C chord over a D bass note: C/D. Technically speaking, that would be a D2 chord, and would sound a little dissonant. But by playing the D and octave or two lower than the rest of the chord, the dissonance is transformed into tension.

4

#3) F#m7b5 – F# A C E – you had the A#, which would have this still a major third. As written, yours would be F#7b5.

Just in case you haven’t seen it that way, a “minor 7 flat 5” is also known as “half diminshed.” A fully diminished F# chord would be F# A C Eb. The symbol for half diminished is a circle with a slash through it, usually in superscript. The fully diminished symbol is the circle without the slash, usually superscript.

5

…and my theory teachers hated that. It was official Berklee policy that there was no such chord as a “half diminished”, and you should use “minor 7 flat 5” instead. Apparently to remove ambiguity, so everyone would know what you meant rather than just the folks who’d seen a half diminshed chord before.

6

thanks everyone for your extremely helpful replies.

To answer CC’s question, I am playing piano. I just got a Yamaha P-120 electronic piano and I LOVE it. For me at least the sound is very good, and I’m sure my neighbors and landlord appreciate that I can play it with headphones. I also like it that it can play harpsichord, electric piano, and organ voices as well.

I’ve played mostly classical for a long time, and I am trying to finally get serious about playing from lead sheets and fake books. I’ve got Norman Monath’s book on playing from lead sheets, as well as copies of several tunes from the Real Book, so wish me luck.

Constantine

7

Easy. Good luck. Incidentally, I believe the various tensions that Eegba reports in the theory faculty at Berklee is a reflection of the way people want to treat the movement of the various voices in the chord. Traditionalists want to name and resolve varous aspects of the chord in conventional voice-leading ways. Therefore, the half-diminished chord gives them lots of problems, as it resolves in ways that clash with traditional voice-leading conventions, and it’s not really a 7th chord to them. Constantine - have fun with the fake books. It’s a really great way to make music. xo C.

8

constantine, there’s a book (maybe two) that might help you get your arms around the main issues with chords, their names, their symbols, the associated scales that underlie them, and related topics. Mark Levine has two books in this area, one I have read and the other I only heard about.

The Jazz Theory Book is the one I’ve read. The Jazz Piano Book is the other.

Earlier when I mentioned that the chord you had spelled out as

“3) F#-7 b5 means “F sharp minor 7th with a flatted 5th,” i.e. F#, A#, C (normally sharp, but not here because it’s flatted), E.”

would really be a F#7b5, I should have mentioned that another name for this chord is F#7#11. This has given me a bit of trouble in that so much sheet music, fake books, lead sheets, etc., refer to this chord as having a “flat 5” that it’s hard to shift thinking to the point of regarding the altered note not as a flatted fifth but as a sharped 4th (11th).

This is just to say that the efforts to bring jazz theory (and practice) into serious academic circles has caused a fair amount of additional confusion about what’s what and how it should be done.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re going to see a lot of conflicting signals in anything relating to written music. And you’re going to hear many versions of “the truth.” Just know that once you get your arms around the sound you want, that the person listening to it most likely won’t care what you call it.

Hope this helps some.

9

Just a little bit more info…

I’ve see lots of different notations for “guitar” chords. Sometimes folks write a lower-case “m” instead of using the minus sign to indicate minor:

F#m7b5 = F#, A, C, E (and yes, ignore those Berklee tight***es, it’s a half-diminished chord).

I’ve also seen a capital “M” used to indicate a major seventh:

CM7 = C, E, G, B

But personally I find that hard to read. Others notate it with a slashed 7. Ask the Berklee guys what’s best. :slight_smile:

As for the C/E notation, I’m with Phase42: It means the bass part, either the bass player or the left hand. Since you’re playing from a fake book, you can do whatever you want–whatever sounds musical to you–with the right hand.