Name these chords

Filed in Free Lessons on December 04, 2010



I sort of manage Tim Parton's website, and he sent me some arrangements he is going to sell.  I was intrigued by one of them and have posted a short excerpt.  This is his introduction to "In My Heart There Rings a Melody."  Somebody take a shot at naming these chords.  Then we will talk about them.






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Sammy
12/4/2010 1:33:27 AM

Whew! I'm a beginner in naming chords. I notice that all the chords have a 7th, with a 6th and 9th added.

G7 (add 6, 9)
Bb7 (add 6, 9)
Eb7 (add 6, 9)
Ab7 (add 6, 9)

The last one, I guess, is a G with a 6th and 9th and a flat 8th.

That's all I can do.

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Daniel Blomdahl
12/4/2010 10:36:32 AM

Here's what I came up with from my studies of Sophomore theory here at college.

G7(add 6) I'd call the A a passing tone.
Bb7(add 6) with a C passing tone.
Eb7 (add 6) passing tone F.
I don't even know about this one...I would hazzard a guess at an Ab somehting but that's about as far as I'd go on that one.
I would call the last one an EmMajor7 just because that's the only way I can stack the left hand to make 3rds...I'm sure at least one of those notes is a color note....Oh well...there's the opinion of a college student studying music.

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James B
12/4/2010 2:19:27 PM

Daniel, if you label the first three chords the way you do, the 4th has to be Ab7. It uses exactly the same notes in relation to the chord.

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Greg
12/4/2010 2:30:45 PM

Everyone is close. The chords could be accurately labeled:

G7 - Bb7 - Eb7 - Ab7 | GM7

The GM7 (G triad with major 7th) is confusing but the Gb in the chord is really F#, which is the major 7th of a G chord. And it is logical for that chord to be a major 7th (it is the I chord, which you can almost always add a major 7th to).

But these chords could also be labeled entirely differently. Can anyone say how?

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Seth
12/4/2010 8:28:41 PM

Do you mean using Roman numerals?

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Greg
12/4/2010 8:57:01 PM

No Seth, I mean you could come up with entirely different chords for the first bar.

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Danny Gardner
12/5/2010 2:53:13 AM

For the first bar, I suppose they might be m7b5/half diminished chords (Bm7b5, Dm7b5, Gm7b5, and Cm7b5) since the upper structure of a dominant 9 is just a m7b5. Am I on the right track?

Then again, dominant 7 chords could be an upper structure for minor 9ths, which almost seems plausible in this case because of the add 6, but if these chords were minor then that would make the bass note a b9... so I'm going to sleep on this one.

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Mag
12/5/2010 3:05:29 AM

Hello, Greg
I am just thinking, but not sure

G 7 13(+6)
Bb 7 13(+6)
Eb 7 13(+6)
G Maj7 9
Thank you, and Lord bless you
Mag
P.S. Do you still offer the course "How to chart"?

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Greg
12/5/2010 3:39:41 PM

OK, maybe I am not playing fair. The chords I am looking for on the first bar are:

Db7alt - E7alt - A7alt - D7alt

"alt" refers to altered, meaning chords with flat/sharp 9ths and flat 13ths.

This is possible if these chords are what we call rootless, meaning they do not have a root (it is very common for pianists to play this way when playing with a bass player who plays the root).

The way Tim has voiced these chords allows a bass player to have choices. For the first chord, the bass player could play G or Db and both would sound good.

I will elaborate more later, but this might get you thinking.

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Danny Gardner
12/6/2010 10:45:27 PM

Oh! That makes sense. Good point, Mr. Howlett. I was caught up with thinking about different names based on common tone substitutions.

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