Yamaha PSR-240 Owner's Manual - Page 35

Selecting and Playing Styles - The Style Mode Writing Chord Names Knowing how to read and write chord names is an easy yet invaluable skill. Chords are often written in a kind of shorthand that makes them instantly recognizable (and gives you the freedom to play them with the voicing or inversion that you prefer). Once you understand the basic principles of harmony and chords, it's very simple to use this shorthand to write out the chords of a song. First, write the root note of the chord in an uppercase letter. If you need to specify sharp or flat, indicate that to the right of the root. The chord type should be indicated to the right as well. Examples for the key of C are shown below. Major chord C Minor chord Cm Augmented chord Caug Diminished chord Cdim For simple major chords, the type is omitted. One important point: Chords are made up of notes "stacked" on top of each other, and the stacked notes are indicated in the chord name of the chord type as a number - the number being the distance of the note from the root. (See the keyboard diagram below.) For example, the minor 6th chord includes the 6th note of the scale, the major 7th chord has the 7th note of the scale, etc. The Intervals of the Scale Dominant 7th (flatted 7th) To better understand the intervals and the numbers used to represent them in the chord name, study this diagram of the C major scale: CDEFGABCDE F Other Chords Root 4th 3rd 2nd 5th Octave 7th 6th 11th 9th Csus4 C7 Cm7 5th 4th Dominant Major 7th chord Dominant Minor 7th chord CM7 Cm7b5 Cm6 C(9) 7th Major Dominant Diminished Minor 6th 9th chord 7th chord chord 35