- Hi.
In this video, we're going to play a little game of
name that chord.
So, we're in a key that has three sharps, which means what?
It means that if you're looking at the circle of fifths,
or if your key knowledge is already well established,
you know that we're now in the key of A major
or in it's relative minor, F-sharp minor.
And as soon as you're going to name some chords,
labels some chords,
it's pretty imperative to know which key you're actually in.
If you try and do it this in A major,
when it's in F-sharp minor, or vice versa,
then you're going to get a load of results
that don't make any sense.
So, knowing which key we're in is important.
I should say that these chords are not meant
to be related to each other as a chord progression.
Some of it works quite nicely
as a chord progression actually,
but that's not the intention.
We're just looking at individual chords.
But all of these chords are inside a key.
So the first thing you need to decide is are we in A major,
or are we an F-sharp minor?
Well, a few clues.
We've got some E-sharps sort of lurking around, haven't we?
So E-sharps wouldn't really indicate A major to us.
But if we were in F-sharp minor,
where the seventh note is E-natural,
when you raise the E-natural, it becomes E-sharp.
So E-natural becomes E-sharp.
So that's what we might expect to happen
in the key of F-sharp minor.
The first chord also looks as if it might be
something to do with F-sharp minor as well.
So I think the balance of evidence
is that we're in F-sharp minor.
Now you might be looking along this end of things,
thinking, well, that's all very well,
but that's got G-naturals in it
and that's got a B-sharp in it.
Well, we'll come to those chords later.
But you may want to freeze this for a moment
and just see if you can work out your own answers
to what you think these ten chords are,
and then you can come back.
So if you want to play it as a quiz for your own amusement,
pause for a moment,
see if you can name the chords and come back to us.
And then meanwhile, I'm going to carry on
and talk through what these chords are.
So if we're in the key of F-sharp minor, well,
it's always a good idea to have some idea
what you think the basic chords are.
So again, if you've done this many times before,
you'll be familiar with it.
If you haven't, then the best advice I can give you
is simply to write out a scale of F-sharp minor
and to construct the basic triads.
So here we are in F-sharp minor, there's the key signature.
Because we're doing chords, we're doing harmony.
So it's best to think about the harmonic minor scale.
So, let's just scribble down the notes
of the scale of F-sharp harmonic minor.
I'm not going to put the top note in
because it's the same as the first note.
So from the point of view of chords,
it's only going to throw up the same chord twice.
Okay, now, in order to find the triads,
we put the third and the fifth above each of these notes,
because I've got E-sharp,
any time E comes up in another chord,
it will also need to be sharp.
So I've put an E-sharp there.
Okay, and guess what?
Here's another E-sharp there.
It's always worth bearing in mind as well,
that if you're going to have an E-sharp
or any other accidental in the scale,
when you're dealing with the triads,
that's going to come three times
because E-sharp in this case,
will be the bottom of one triad.
It'll be the middle of another one.
It will be the top of another one.
And you see we're just kind of,
they're alternate chords, aren't they?
That we've got this one, this one, there's one in this one,
this one, there's one in that one.
So that's kind of useful stuff
just to remind yourself about.
And then if we're going to do the conventional
chord naming system, we use Roman numerals,
and we're just literally counting off the degrees
of the scale, putting them in Roman numerals,
because that's then indicating the triads.
If you then want to identify the chords,
you look at the notes inside the chord,
and you say, which triad does that belong to?
And that will work for much of the time when we're trying
to identify things we call diatonic chords.
In other words, the basic chords
that are based on the seven triads inside any key.
Now there may be some chords that don't quite fit with that
because there's something more complicated going on.
We'll come to those a little later,
but let's see how we get on with this for starters.
So let's look at the first chord.
What have we got?
We've got F-sharp, A, C-sharp, F-sharp.
So if we organise those three notes,
you see the F-sharp comes twice.
So we've got F-sharp, A, C-sharp.
Well, that's looking like chord I, isn't it?
So the correct answer to this one is that
this is chord I.
It's entirely bassd on the notes of the triad
from I there.
Okay, if we look at the second chord, what's this?
We've got C-sharp, C-sharp again, E-sharp and G-sharp.
So can we see any triad that's got those notes in it?
Don't worry if they're all spread out in a different order,
that doesn't matter.
But the notes that make up this chord
are C-sharp, E-sharp, G-sharp.
If you're in four parts as we are here,
but you only have three different notes,
it's very likely that you're dealing
with one of these basic triads.
If you've got more than three notes,
then, you know, if you've got four different notes,
that's telling us something
slightly more complicated is going on.
We'll meet those shortly.
Okay, so we've got C-sharp, E-sharp, G-sharp.
Well, that's looking like chord V, isn't it?
So chord number two is actually V.
When you look at the next chord,
you might've thought, well it's almost the same
as the second chord here.
The G-sharp's the same, the E-sharp's the same,
the C-sharp's the same.
Just this C-sharp's gone down to a B.
So it kind of looks like we've got three notes
that belong to chord V again,
but we've got this B.
Now, what's that B doing there?
Because if chord V is C-sharp, E-sharp, G-sharp.
Why would we have B in it?
That's because we can extend any of these chords.
So, for example, in this case, what have we done here?
We've added another note to the top.
So do you see how this goes?
Each triad has got a root, a third and a fifth.
This one, root, third, fifth, but I've now added a seventh.
And I could carry on by adding a ninth
or an eleventh or a thirteenth.
By the time you get to fifteen,
you're back at the bottom note again,
but you can, what we call extend the chords,
extended chords, adding a seventh and ninth,
eleventh, and thirteenth, if you want to.
So what this has done is it's got the three notes
that belong to chord V, and it's got the seventh as well.
So that's why the correct description of this chord is V7.
So hopefully you can see how that works.
And that's where the seventh has come from
because it's an extended chord.
And of course you have four different notes there,
didn't you?
So if you have four different notes,
you might begin by thinking,
I wonder if this is an extended chord.
If I've got three notes that belong to a triad,
and one other note, just think now, is that a seventh?
Or is it a ninth or something?
It may be one of those extended chords.
Okay, onto chord four.
Well, what have we got here?
We've got D and D comes again, doesn't it?
So D and the bass, D in the alto.
F-sharp, A.
So, D, F-sharp, A.
Again, it doesn't matter that those notes are spread out
in whatever kind of order.
You could have had these the other way around.
F-sharp in the alto and D up here in the soprano.
But the whole point is the notes that make up that chord
are D F-sharp, A.
Well, where's D, F-sharp, A?
It's here, isn't it?
So that's a chord VI.
It's got no added notes.
It's got no sevenths in it or anything.
It's just a straightforward chord VI.
And we go onto the next one.
What have we got here?
Well, we seem to have two B's, a D, an F-sharp.
So what's going on there?
B, D, F-sharp.
Well, it looks as if it's chord IV, isn't it?
So let's call that chord IV.
One thing to notice about this chord is this.
So far, we've had the bottom of the triad
in the bass, haven't we?
When we had chord I, F-sharp's in the bottom of the triad,
F-sharp's in the bass.
When we had chord V, C-sharp's at the bottom,
C-sharp's in the bass.
Now this time, we've got the notes of chord IV,
B, D, F-sharp.
So always think about the notes first.
So, you know that we have the notes of chord IV,
but then only have to say,
but interestingly B is not in the bass, is it?
The note in the bass is D,
It's the third of the chord.
So we could have B in the bass.
We could have D in the bass.
We could have F-sharp in the bass.
If B is on the bass, that we say it's chord IV
in root position.
If D's in the bass,
we say it's chord IV in first inversion.
If F-sharp's in the bass,
we say it's chord IV in second inversion.
If B's in the bass, root position is chord "a",
so it's a IVa,
but because lots of chords are in root position,
if you just say IV, we assume you mean IVa.
If D is in the bass,
then it's in first inversion,
and we need to call it IVb.
If F-sharp's in the bass, it's in second inversion,
we need to call it IVc.
So this is chord IVb
because it's got the notes of chord IV, B, D, F-sharp,
and because the D the third is in the bass.
That's a IVb chord.
What about the next one?
Number six?
Notes we've got here, F-sharp, A, two C-sharps.
Three different notes,
it's probably a basic triad.
So which triad has got those three notes in it?
Oh, it looks like chord I again, doesn't it?
F-sharp, A, C-sharp.
So those notes all belong to chord I.
But before we move on, notice what's in the bass.
C-sharp is in the bass.
That's the fifth of chord I, isn't it?
So that's a second inversion chord, a, b, c.
So we call that chord Ic.
It's got the notes, of chord I.
F-sharp, A, C-sharp, but the fifth,
the C-sharp is in the bass, so it's Ic.
Okay.
What do we think about this one then?
The one I've numbered seven?
Now we've got four different notes there, haven't we?
You can see that straight away.
So, that might be indicating one of these extended chords.
Who knows? Let's have a look.
What are the notes?
We've got B, we've got D we've got F-sharp,
we've got G-sharp.
Oh my goodness.
So what's going on here?
It sort of looks like it might be something to do
with chord IV, you know, B, D, F-sharp.
Oh yeah, that's nice.
But the G-sharp is a bit odd, isn't it?
Because it's not adding a seventh, a ninth,
eleventh or thirteenth.
So it's sort of adding a six above the bass.
So, some people might describe that as a
B minor six chord or IV6 or something,
but actually let's look at this another way.
If we look at chord II, G-sharp, B, D, okay.
G-sharp, B, D.
If I extend chord II, then I have that as the seventh.
Now then, G-sharp a the bottom of that chord,
B and D and F-sharp is the seventh, so actually,
rather than thinking of it as something to do
with chord IV, it's really much more likely
to be something to do with chord II, so this is chord II,
and it has a seventh on it.
So it's a II7 chord.
And it doesn't have G-sharp in the bass,
it has B in the bass, doesn't it?
So the third is in the bass.
So it's a II7b chord.
Hopefully that makes sense.
So it's chord II, G-sharp, B, D.
It's got the seventh in it,
the F-sharp that's in the alto part,
but the third of the chord is in the bass, that B.
So, it's in first inversion.
So it's II7b.
Okay.
Now we're going into more tricky turf.
And if people want to call it a draw so far,
that's absolutely fine.
I'm just throwing in three chords now
for the people who can go a little bit further
with chords and think about something
called chromatic chords.
So chromatic chords are chords that use notes
that are not in the key, which may seem a funny thing to do,
but they add colour.
So they kind of function as part of the key,
but they're just odd chords that are thrown in
to give you a little bit of a surprise factor.
"Oh, I wasn't expecting to hear that note there."
And so that's a chromatic chord,
but it will use notes that you may not be quite expecting
to come across. So have a look at this one.
This is a very funny chord, isn't it?
We've got two G's, a B, and a D.
Now what's the nearest thing to G, B, D.
Well, the nearest thing is chord II, isn't it?
But in chord II, we should have a G-sharp.
Now I'll tell you what this chord is
and then if you've identified it,
you can see if you're right or not.
And if you've never met it before,
don't lose any sleep over it.
But when you take chord two and you lower that second degree
of the scale by a semitone,
so that G-sharp becomes G-natural,
and you build a major chord on the
lowered second degree of the scale.
Does that make sense?
So, the second degree of the scale is G-sharp,
lower it to G-natural, build a major chord G, B, D.
That's what we've got here.
So this is what we call a Neapolitan chord,
nothing to do with Neapolitan ice cream,
but Nea-poli-tan.
Okay, and it's a major chord built on the
flattened second degree of the scale,
normally in first inversion,
which you can see is happening here as well,
because we've got B in the bass.
So that's that one.
What's the next one?
Well, we've got four different notes,
so it could be something to do with these
extended things again, but we've got E-sharp, G-sharp, B,
and we've got D.
Now then, what's going on in chord VII?
We've got E-sharp, G-sharp, B.
If we extend that up there to D,
we've accounted for it, haven't we?
So in other words, that looks like a sort of a
VII7, doesn't it?
However, if you've got minor thirds
between each of these intervals
or the equivalent of minor thirds, so E-sharp to G-sharp,
minor third, G-sharp to B, minor third, B to D, minor third.
And it's built on the seventh degree of the scale
as this one is, then this is a diminished seventh chord.
Okay, diminished seventh chord.
You can meet a diminished seventh chord anywhere,
just by putting minor thirds on top of each other.
But if you're diminished seventh is built on chord VII,
then that is the diminished seventh
in the key of F-sharp minor.
And what about this one?
Well, this is going to cause a lot of angst I'm sure
because that B-sharp leaves you thinking
what on earth is going on here?
Well, there's a group of chords
called the augmented sixth chords,
and that's what we're dealing with.
So very quickly, when you make an augmented sixth chord,
you build it on the sixth degree of the scale,
which is D in this case,
that's the sixth degree of F-sharp minor.
You put an augmented sixth above that, which is B-sharp.
You put the tonic in the middle, that's the F-sharp.
And that's the basic augmented sixth chord.
If it just has those three notes, it's called Italian.
If you then add an augmented fourth above the bass note,
which is what this G-sharp is, it becomes a French sixth.
And instead of that,
if you had a perfect fifth above the bass,
it would be called a German sixth.
So this is a French sixth in the key of F-sharp minor.
Now, if French sixths are a step too far at the moment,
that's absolutely fine.
If you want to just get into these augmented sixth chords,
a little bit more, the Italian, the French and the German
have a look elsewhere on the YouTube channel,
because I've already made a video that explains those
in a bit more detail, but there we are.
Those were the ten chords.
How did you get on?
If you scored ten out of ten, well done,
you're a musical genius.
And if you manage to get seven out of ten,
you're doing really well.
Maybe it's just the chromatic chords
that caught you out there.
And if you didn't know about extended chords
and about inversions, but you did know about the rest, well,
that should hopefully have pushed things forward
a bit for you.
So there we are.
Name that chord.