[LAU] OT: Chord finder

Funs Seelen funsseelen at gmail.com
Tue Jul 17 10:53:26 UTC 2012


Hi Ralf,

On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Ralf Mardorf
<ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
>
> So a b# would be a h#?

Yes, the circle of 12 fifths starting from C would then be:
C-G
G-D
D-A
A-E
E-H
H-F#
F#-C#
C#-G#
G#-D#
D#-A#
A#-E#
E#-H#



> Somebody mentioned that understanding this theory
> does include to know the history.

As far as I understood:
In ancient notation a B (or better: the note between "la" and "ut" or
"do") can be flattened without accidental to avoid the tritone (F-B
(german: F-H)). To readers/singers it was clear when the B should be
sung flattened or not. So there happened to be a soft (mollum) and a
hard (durum) B. In Germany (and probably other German speaking
countries) both still exist, in the rest of the world the B is "hard"
unless it is flattened.

> For people who just want to note guitar chords, ignoring any theory
> regarding to keys, in Germany it's safe to name h = h, but to name the
> German b anyway bb or a#.

I understand what you mean, but when people would start using Bb and H
both together in one notation it might even get more confusing.

Using A# instead is even worse when you meant to write a B-flat.
The chord "C7" consists of C-E-(G)-Bb. So in German notation this
would be written as C-E-(G)-B, which could be interpreted as a C^7
(Cmaj7) by a foreigner and that's confusing. C-A# however isn't a 7th
but an augmented 6th. The harmonic function is totally different, just
like B# (German: H#) and C (Belgian: TI# and DO) as we discussed
before.


The names of the notes are squishy, nobody can
> see if written chord names are written "in German" or not, as long as
> there's only a "B" but no "H". Btw. "a" means "Am"?! There are different
> writings, large and small letters, signs for same chords.
>
> I suspect notation needs a disclaimer. We have similar issues for guitar
> tabs, you'll find tons of dropped-D tuning tabs where the name of the
> strings aren't added and there's no hint that it's a dropped-D tuning.
>

Yes, that sounds like good practice, although usually it gets clear
pretty quick when you're looking at German notation, because of more
differences than just H and B, like "a" instead of "Am" as you
mentioned, and of course the language of any (non-Italian) words
written next to it.


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