Harmony: music symbols explained

58 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

Chord

Three or more notes sounding together. Two is an interval; three makes a harmony that has a name.

Triad

A three-note chord built in thirds: root, third, fifth. The unit almost all Western harmony is made of.

Root

The note a chord is named after and built from. In C major that is C, wherever it happens to be sitting.

Third

The note that decides major or minor. Everything else about a triad can stay the same.

Fifth

The note that makes a triad stable. Flatten it and the chord is diminished; raise it and it is augmented.

Major triad

Root, major third, perfect fifth. The bright one.

Minor triad

Root, minor third, perfect fifth. The same chord with the middle note a semitone lower.

Diminished triad

Minor third and flattened fifth. Unstable on purpose: it is built to move somewhere.

Augmented triad

Major third and raised fifth. Every note is a major third apart, so it has no obvious home.

Inversion

The same chord with a different note at the bottom. First inversion puts the third in the bass, second inversion the fifth: same harmony, different weight.

Seventh chord

A triad with another third stacked on top. Four notes, and a good deal more tension than three.

Dominant seventh

The chord on degree five with a flattened seventh. It contains a tritone, and resolving that tritone is what pulls a piece home.

Suspension

A note held over from the previous chord that does not belong to this one, then resolved down by step. The moment before it resolves is the point of it.

Sus4

The third replaced by the fourth. Neither major nor minor until it moves.

Sus2

The third replaced by the second. Open and unresolved, and the sound of a great deal of modern piano writing.

Added ninth

A triad with the ninth added and no seventh. Colour without tension: it does not ask to resolve.

Slash chord

A chord with a bass note named after it: C/G is a C chord over G. Usually a smoother bass line rather than a different harmony.

Arpeggio

The notes of a chord played one at a time rather than together.

Broken chord

A chord split into a pattern rather than a straight arpeggio. Alberti bass is one.

Alberti bass

Low, high, middle, high, over and over in the left hand. The accompaniment under half of Mozart and Clementi.

Cadence

How a phrase ends. The two chords at the end are the punctuation of the sentence.

Perfect cadence

Dominant to tonic, V to I. The full stop.

Plagal cadence

Subdominant to tonic, IV to I. The amen at the end of a hymn.

Imperfect cadence

Any cadence ENDING on the dominant. A comma: the phrase stops but the music has not finished.

Interrupted cadence

Dominant to something that is not the tonic, usually vi. The floor you expected is not there.

Progression

A sequence of chords with a direction. I V vi IV is one, and you have heard it several thousand times.

Voice leading

How each note moves to the next chord's note. Good voice leading moves as little as possible, which is why chords sound joined rather than stacked.

Passing note

A note between two chord notes, filling the step. It does not belong to the harmony and does not need to.

Pedal point

A note held or repeated underneath while the harmony changes over it. Usually the tonic or the dominant, and it builds tension by refusing to move.

Secondary dominant

The dominant of a chord that is not the tonic: V of V. It borrows a note from outside the key to make a stronger pull.

Borrowed chord

A chord taken from the parallel key, most often a minor iv in a major key. One note out of key, and the whole bar changes colour.

Diatonic

Using only the notes of the key. Nothing borrowed and nothing chromatic.

Chromatic

Using notes from outside the key. A chromatic line moves by semitones regardless of what key it is in.

Ninth chord

A seventh chord with another third on top: five notes. The added colour of most jazz and a lot of Ravel.

Eleventh chord

A ninth with one more third stacked. Usually voiced without the third, so it sounds open rather than crowded.

Thirteenth chord

Every note of the scale but one, stacked in thirds. In practice, a dominant seventh with a sixth-sounding colour on top.

Half-diminished seventh

A diminished triad with a MINOR seventh. Written with a slashed circle, and the chord that opens Tristan.

Diminished seventh

Minor thirds all the way up. Every note is the same distance apart, so it can resolve almost anywhere, which is why it is the hinge of nineteenth-century harmony.

Augmented sixth

A chord that stretches out to an octave from both sides at once. Italian, French and German versions differ by one note, and all three drive to the dominant.

Neapolitan sixth

The chord on the flattened second, in first inversion. A dark, sudden lean towards the cadence.

Cadential six-four

The tonic chord in second inversion, sitting on the dominant bass, delaying the dominant that follows. Not really a tonic chord at all: it is a suspension in disguise.

Roman numerals

Chords numbered by their scale degree: I, ii, V. Capital for major, lower case for minor, and it lets a progression be discussed in every key at once.

Power chord

Root and fifth, no third. Neither major nor minor, and the whole vocabulary of rock guitar.

Quartal harmony

Chords stacked in fourths instead of thirds. Open, modern and rootless: McCoy Tyner, and the sound of a film scored in the seventies.

Cluster

Notes a second apart sounded together. A texture rather than a chord, and often written as a block.

Modal interchange

Borrowing a chord from the parallel key: a minor iv in a major piece, the flattened seventh in a pop chorus.

Tritone substitution

Replacing a dominant seventh with the one a tritone away. They share the two notes that matter, so the pull home survives and the bass moves by a semitone instead.

Circle progression

Chords whose roots fall by fifths: vi, ii, V, I. The strongest forward motion in tonal harmony, and it is everywhere.

Chord inversion

Which note of the chord is in the BASS. Root position is stable, first inversion is lighter, second inversion is unstable and usually going somewhere.

Voicing

Which notes of a chord you actually play, and where. Same harmony, entirely different sound.

Close position

The chord notes packed as tightly as they go, all within an octave.

Open position

The same chord spread out over more than an octave. Airier, and easier to hear as separate voices.

Non-chord tone

A note that does not belong to the harmony under it: passing notes, neighbour notes, suspensions, appoggiaturas. Most of what makes a line a line.

Neighbour note

A step away and back again: the note above or below, returning at once.

Anticipation

A note of the coming chord played early, while the old harmony is still sounding. It resolves by staying still.

Escape tone

A step away from the line, then a leap back the other way. A small evasion before the resolution.

Retardation

A suspension that resolves UPWARDS instead of down.

Resolution

Where a dissonance goes. Every tension in tonal music has a note it wants to move to, usually by a step.

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