Yamaha PSR-170 Owner's Manual - Page 50

Selecting and Playing Styles 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 To better understand the intervals and the numbers used to represent them in the chord name, study this diagram of the C major scale: Dominant 7th (flatted 7th) CDEFGABCDE F Root 4th 7th 3rd 6th 2nd 5th 11th 9th Octave Other Chords Csus4 C7 Cm7 5th 4th Dominant Major chord 7th Dominant Minor chord 7th CM7 Cm7b5 Cm6 C(9) 7th Major chord Dominant Diminished Minor 6th 9th 7th chord chord 50