Fifth (chord)In a chord, the fifthfactor is the note five scale degrees above the root (including the root itself in the count). For instance, in a C major triad, G is the third factor. Audio playback is not supported in your browser. You can download the audio file.When the fifth is the bass note (i.e., the lowest note) of the triad or seventh chord, the chord is in second inversion.
Chord (music)A chord is the simultaneous sound of two or more musical notes. The most common chord has three notes and is known as a triad. Added tone chords, extended chords, and tone clusters can have more than three notes and are common in contemporary classical music and jazz. An arpeggio is a chord where notes are sounded separately. A series of chords is sometimes called a chord progression.
Seventh chordA seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" usually means a dominant seventh chord: a major triad together with a minor seventh. However, a variety of sevenths may be added to a variety of triads, resulting in many different types of seventh chords. In its earliest usage, the seventh was introduced solely as an embellishing or nonchord tone.
Voicing (music)In music theory, voicing refers to two closely related concepts: How a musician or group distributes or spaces musical notes and chords on one or more instrumentsThe simultaneous vertical placement of notes in relation to each other; this relates to the concepts of spacing and doublingIt includes the instrumentation and vertical spacing and ordering of the notes in a chord: which notes are on the top or in the middle, which ones are doubled, which octave each is in, and which instruments or voices perform each note.Triad (music)In music, a triad is a set of three notes (or "pitch classes") that can be stacked vertically in thirds. Triads are the most common chords in Western music. When stacked in thirds, notes produce triads. The triad's members, from lowest-pitched tone to highest, are called: the root Note: Inversion does not change the root. (The third or fifth can be the lowest note.)
Perfect fourthA fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth (Play) is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to the next F is a perfect fourth, because the note F is the fifth semitone above C, and there are four staff positions between C and F. Audio playback is not supported in your browser.
Root (chord)In music theory, the root of a chord is the note that names and typifies the chord. Tertian chords are named based on (1) their root, (2) their quality (assumed to be major if no quality is named), and (3) their extensions, if any (assumed to be a triad if no extensions are named). For example, a C chord refers to a C major triad, a major triad built on the note C, which is its root.
Bass noteIn music theory, the bass note of a chord or sonority is the lowest note played or notated. If there are multiple voices it is the note played or notated in the lowest voice (the note furthest in the bass.) Three situations are possible: The bass note is the root or fundamental of the chord. The chord is in root position. One of the other pitches of the chord is in the bass. This makes it an inverted chord The bass note is not one of the notes in the chord.
Figured bassFigured bass is musical notation in which numerals and symbols appear above or below (or next to) a bass note. The numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsichord, organ, or lute (or other instruments capable of playing chords) should play in relation to the bass note.
Consonance and dissonanceIn music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unpleasantness, or unacceptability, although there is broad acknowledgement that this depends also on familiarity and musical expertise.Interval (music)In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or harmonic if it pertains to simultaneously sounding tones, such as in a chord. In Western music, intervals are most commonly differencing between notes of a diatonic scale.
Inversion (music)In music theory, an inversion is a rearrangement of the top-to-bottom elements in an interval, a chord, a melody, or a group of contrapuntal lines of music. In each of these cases, "inversion" has a distinct but related meaning. The concept of inversion also plays an important role in musical set theory. IntervalsAn interval is inverted by raising or lowering either of the notes by one or more octaves so that the higher note becomes the lower note and vice versa.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.