do you know where I could find a good reference on chord notation?
so that we will all use the same standard?
Don't know about a good one, but this is based on over 20 years of refining from various texts - I'll just put it into this post and then maybe repost as stand-alone later.
When referring to scales we generally number the notes of the scale using the Hindu-Arabic numbers
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 etc
The names of the notes of the scale and their Hindu-Arabic numerals are:
1 Tonic
2 Super-tonic (literally above the tonic)
3 Mediant (half-way between the tonic and the Dominant as you ascend)
4 Sub-Dominant (the note a 5th below the Tonic - the under dominant)
5 Dominant (the note a 5th above the Tonic)
6 Sub-Mediant (half-way between the Tonic and the Sub-domnimant as you descend)
7 Leading tone or Sub-Tonic (literally under Tonic)
In the major scale, these notes are exactly as as named and described.
When we move to the Minor scales we can rely on the naming convention of the Major scales.
However to distinguish the notes from the major scale we begin to use the flat sign (b) in front of the note show that it is moved down 1 semi-tone/1 fret/1 black or white key:
Natural minor: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8
Harmonic minor: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7 8
Melodic minor (ascending): 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7 8
Applying this logic to Chord notation we can formulate the following rules:
- For standard chords (no alterations)
- Uppercase Roman numerals for major chords (chords with a major 3rd in their construction)
- Lowercase Roman numerals for minor chords (chords with a minor 3rd in their construction)
- For flattened 5ths we indicate this with b5
- For sharpened 5ths we indicate this with #5
- For chromatic shifting of chords (non-scale tone based chords):
- Put a flat in front for a chord that is moved a semi-tone lower
- Put a sharp in front for a chord that is moved a semi-tone higher
We then add chord tone extensions as we would for guitar chords:
6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 6/9.
For any chromatic tones in a chord we indicate these by adding #/b in front of the individual tones in the extensions as we did for the #5/b5.
Sometimes we might need to group an accidental with its scale tone to isolate it from other tones or the chord number, avoiding any confusion in the name of the chord; i.e.
A maj7 chord built on scale tone b2 of a major scale would need to be indicated as:
bII(#7)
Taking C as the key center, the above chord would be rendered as
Db F Ab C
If it were II(#7) instead then it would render as
D F# A C#