Music Theory/Complete List of Chord

Patterns

This is a complete reference on chord formation. Notice the diminished seventh chord has a double-flatted
This one of the chord trees that will aid in the writing and seventh, which is enharmonically the same as a sixth, so
analysis of music. You can move down the tree but you you may find the diminished chord alternately written as
may not retrograde(go backwards) until reaching the bot- “1 ♭3 ♭5 6”. The double-flat notation is more correct be-
tom. There are, of course exceptions including cadencing cause it shows how the seventh is further diminished from
using the IV to I and the so-called deceptive cadences that the half-diminished state.
typically go from V to vi. You may move across the levels Sometimes a diminished seventh chord is notated the
and interchange the chords and can skip levels entirely if same way as a diminished triad. Even more confusingly,
so desired. (Example- I, IV, ii, V, I, vi, V, I) sometimes both forms are called the “diminished chord"!
I vi --- iii IV --- ii V --- vii diminished You can make the distinction between the two to avoid
ambiguity. However, keep in mind that they're ultimately
I very similar chords anyways, and you can usually inter-
Note numbers in parentheses are optional: change them.

1 Major
2 Dominant/Seventh
Normal
The dominant seventh is sometimes just called the “sev-
enth”, even though it contains a minor seventh and not a
major seventh.
Altered
Suspended
Any chord with a major third can have the third replaced
by a major second or perfect fourth to form a suspended
chord. Given a chord C, this would be written Csus2 (“C
suspended second”) and Csus4 (“C suspended fourth”)
for a major chord. As these only apply to the major
second and major fourth, there is no such thing as, say,
a Csus6, which would probably be properly written as
Gsus4/C or C5add6 if it has a fifth, or else Am/C. How-
ever, in certain circles it is said thought that replacing the
fifth in a triad with a sixth is a type of suspention, eg Csus6
would contain C, E and A, rather like an Am. This is
however more accurately notated as C6.
3 Minor
Normal
Diminished
4 Other
It’s worth mentioning that you might hear some people
(usually rock guitarists) call fifth chords 'power chords’.
5 9th, 11th, and 13th chords
7th chords can be extended to 9th, 11 and 13th chords.
If you have a C7 (C dominant seventh), then the corre-
sponding chords would be C9, C11 and C13 . The C9 is
a C7 with a major ninth (or second) added. The C11 is
a C7 with a eleventh (or perfect fourth) added as well as
the major ninth. The C13 is a C7 with a major thirteenth
(or sixth) added as well as the major eleventh and major
ninth added.
The same principles that can be applied to seventh chords
apply to minor and major 7th chords. For instance, you
can have a minor 13th: 1 ♭3 (5) ♭7 9 11 13. The notes
added are always the same: ninth, eleventh, and/or thir-
teenth, not augmented or diminished. Only the seventh
chord base changes.
It is very uncommon to extend a major 7th chord with
an 11th. This is because there would be an interval of
a minor ninth between the third and the eleventh. If an
eleventh is played, it is usually altered (this is dealt with
below).

1
2 9 POLYCHORDS

6 Additions The names in brackets after the full name refer to the
mode from which the chord is derived (there should be a
When a note is added to these chords in a manner that section on this eventually).
does not fit the tables above, it is often written “addX”,
where X is the number of the added note, e.g., add6 for
an added sixth. For instance, C major with an added sixth
would usually be written Cadd6. If the number is above
8 Bass notes
7, then it will be an octave higher than the root note.
The bass note of a chord is the lowest note of the chord.
Do not confuse Csus2 and Cadd2, or Csus4 and Cadd4.
The most common case is that the bass note is the root
Suspended chords must not have a major third, but ma-
note, for instance, in a C major chord C-E-G ascending
jor chords with additions must. (Note that in jazz, sus-
in pitch from left to right, the bass note is C, which is the
pended chords sometimes have a major third added, but
root note. But if the chord were instead G-C-E, it is still
only when the player wants dissonance).
a C major chord (specifically, an inverted C major), but
Do not confuse Cadd9 with C9; the latter has a minor G is the bass note, while C is still the root note. Some-
seventh, but the former does not. times the bass note is omitted for brevity when it is still
An “added second” and “added ninth” are often consid- a part of the chord, which may be needed, for instance,
ered synonymous, because a ninth is a second. Some mu- when many rapid chord changes would otherwise make
sicians argue they imply different voicings of the chords, the names illegible on a printed score.
for instance, add9 should have the second raised an oc- Occasionally, bass notes are not a part of the original
tave, but add2 should not. The “added ninth” is more chord. For instance, a D minor does not have a C note,
common, especially since it is rare that one wants to add but sometimes Dm/C is seen, meaning the D minor chord
a major second that is literally one whole tone away from is played normally but with a C note below it. These are
the first (and possibly a third as well). often called slash chords.
The 9th here is what is often referred to as a compound This notation can also indicate a polychord.
interval, that being an interval greater than an octave, such
as a 9th being an octave up from a 2nd, a minor 10th
being an octave up from a minor 3rd... Greater intervals
eg a minor 17th theoretically exist (this being a minor 9 Polychords
3rd raised 2 octaves) but such things above a modification
of a 13th are never spoken of. To create a compound Polychords are superimposed chords. They are more
interval one would add 7 (once for every octave) raised to common in some kinds of music (jazz) than others
the number in the name to raise the interval. The same (classical).
applies subtracting seven to lower the pitch by octaves.
This may occur, for instance, when a piano player plays a
D minor with the left hand (possibly omitting its fifth) and
a G major with the right hand. The most common nota-
7 Alterations tion for this polychord is probably G/D. This leaves out
something important: that the D is a minor chord! (Usu-
Sometimes something such as "♭5” or "♯5” (also written ally, only the first chord, the higher one in pitch, has any-
"−5” and "+5”, respectively) will be appended to the end thing more than a single note specified.) This also clashes
of the chord; this means play the chord as normal but with the more common meaning of “G chord but with a
flatten or sharpen the fifth respectively. (This is why Cø D bass note”, which is really a specific case of a poly-
is sometimes written Cm7♭5, because a minor 7th with a chord where the lower “chord” has only one note. There-
flatted fifth has the same notes as a half-diminished chord. fore, this notation is incomplete, but it is the closest thing
Similarly, it may also be pronounced “C minor seventh to a standard notation for polychords. There are many
flat five”.) nonstandard systems in use, however. Sheet music using
Any of the extension notes (9th, 11th and 13th) can also polychords should explain the system used, if possible.
be altered, something fairly common in jazz. The pos- A common use of polychords is arpeggiating one chord
sible alterations are ♭9, ♯9, ♯11 and b13. You may be against a different chord. For instance, on a piano, the
wondering why there is no b11 or ♯13. Stop and think for left hand may be holding down a G5 chord while the right
a second about which notes they would be in the key of hand arpeggiates D minor chords. This would be notated
C major. The b11 would be E, which is the major third Dm/G.
in C, and the ♯13 would be Bb, the minor 7th, so a chord Polychords might be used as exotic voicings for many
symbol like C b11 ♯13 would imply C7. Which would chords. The following examples use a pipe (|) to sepa-
you rather read? rate the upper chord from the lower one. (the examples
The table below shows common altered chords: are given here for a C chord)
 3

10 Quartal Chords
Some arrangements use chords based on fourths, often
two fourths in the upper notes with an independent bass,
which gives the following possibilities:
Of course, the fourths part of the chord can be present
in two other inversons - sus4 or sus2, making B♭7sus4/C,
Ebsus4/C and Absus2/C equivalent for instance.

11 Chord implication
Sometimes chords are not specifically indicated by notes,
but are indicated by the chord structure, or even notes that
don't form chords by themselves but sound like they be-
long to a certain chord. The most usual way to handle this
is to put the chord name in parentheses. Implied chords
are also often used when there are constant chord changes
throughout a section (several per measure), and mark-
ing each one would make little sense, so the “underlying”
chord is chosen (usually a chord the others are temporar-
ily centered around). Sometimes sheet music will use
only implied chords, in which case often chord names will
appear normally, and perhaps a footnote will state some-
thing such as “chords reflect implied harmony”.I hope this
helped you!
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