Two Types of Chord Symbol Notation
Two Types of Chord Symbol Notation
It’s going to happen. More so than most other instruments, pianists are required to know a little bit about everything. There’s no doubt that at some point you’ll be asked to play some obscure song that you’ve never heard before and sometimes, you have to play it tomorrow or even worse, in an hour. Anybody who gains a reasonable amount of skill will run in to this problem at some point.
If you’ve progressed beyond beginner status, your teacher likely started working with you on playing songs or accompanying other musicians. Although any music can be written down using traditional notation, styles like jazz, pop, and contemporary religious music may come with chord symbols or numbers instead of notes and rhythms.
There are two ways to express music without writing down every note and rhythm – chord symbol notation. The first is called figured bass or in modern day terms, “the number system.” This system assigns a number to each chord and is expressed in roman numerals. Let’s assume we’re playing in the key of C Major. A chord that starts on C and includes the 3rd and 5th scale degree (the basic triad) is called a “one” or “I” chord. A chord that starts on D is called a “two” or “ii” chord. (lower case because it’s a minor chord.
Figured bass: I IV V7 etc.
By assigning a number to each chord in the scale, the player knows which chord to play over top of the melody. This works well because once you learn the number system, you can accompany a song in any key. If a singer decided that they wanted their song in the key of D instead of C, you don’t have to rewrite the chords because the numbers remain relative. A “I” chord is the first chord in the key regardless of what the key is.
The only problem with this system is that it’s not often used in modern music. You’ll see it in older music but rarely with songs or other music outside of the orchestral realm.
The other system is a chord symbol. You might hear it called tablature but tablature is actually a system used primarily by guitar players to denote finger positions instead of chord names. Chord symbols replace roman numerals with letters. If you’re supposed to play a C major chord over the melody, you’ll simply see a “C”. If you’re supposed to play a C Major 7 chord, you’ll see “CMaj7”. You don’t have to figure out the name of the chord—you only have to figure how to spell the chord.
In Jazz as well as popular music, these types of symbols are the most common but they have a drawback. If that same singer who now wants to sing the song in the key of D tells you to change it, you’re going to have to do some fast writing to change all of the chords or your transposing skills better be sharp. When the key changes, so does the whole chord chart and that can get confusing.
Which is better? Classically trained musicians insist that the number system is better and often, once a person masters it, they believe that as well but for those without a strong music theory background, the chord system gets you up and running fast. Although it’s a lot of extra work, learning both is the best way to assure a worry free gig.