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Topic starter
12/11/2006 5:18 pm
Hi again:
The Standard Notation (part 2) by Noteboat gives really god tips about how to to recognize chords. But they are mostly in closed position. Do you have a tip to help us to read first,second or third inversion chords?
Thanks again.
12/11/2006 8:05 pm
I tell my students that reading chords is like reading English - the notes are the alphabet (symbols representing sounds); the chords are words.
When you're learning to read words, it's slow - you sound them out a letter at a time; you come to unfamiliar words and you trot off the the dictionary to look them up. Same's true with chords - you'll build them a note at a time for a while, and when you come across one you haven't seen before, you think through it (which one's the third? the seventh? etc)
So the biggest hint in chord reading is to read chords a LOT - every day. Just like reading English, you start with simple things... you read "Hop on Pop" a hundred times, and you recognized the words before tackling James Joyce; you should read triads a few hundred times before adding sevenths and extended/altered chords. After a couple years, you'll recognize all the common inversions at sight as units, just like you do with words (as a bonus, you'll also recognize most arpeggios as chord fingerings!)
For position reading, I always notice the top note first. If you blow a middle voice, few people will notice... but they'll hear it if the highest note is off. That top note also narrows the general position - if it's C (two ledger lines), I'll be in 5th-8th position if I put it on the E string, and 10th-13th position if I put it on B.
Next I look at the bottom note. Like I said, the middle voices are the least likely to be picked out of the mix, but soprano and bass are usually pretty important. Then it's a matter of filling in the other voices on the strings available.
The number of accidentals steer your thinking too - if I see one sharp, I'm thinking the chord is probably a V in a minor key, or maybe an augmented or a III in a major one. One flat, it's probably a minor or dominant. (These are in relation to the key signature - by 'flat' it could be either a flat or a natural; by 'sharp' it could be a sharp or a natural, depending on how the key signature is written.)
If I see a couple of accidentals, it's likely to be either diminished or a passing chord.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Topic starter
13/11/2006 1:29 am
Thank you again Tom!
It 's great to have excellent instructors like you here.
All the best.