THEORY 55: Chord Naming 4b

As covered recently in Chord Naming 4a, some names can be misleading because of convention e.g. people who say Gsus, actually mean either Gsus4 or Gsus2. For this reason it’s always a good idea to check the intervals inside to figure out what they mean.

Here is a list of some common chords alongside their interval structure. Notice some of the names do not reflect their intervals precisely:

• min 7 ( or m7 or -7) = R b3 5 b7

• dim 7 (or min bb7b5) = R b3 b5 bb7

• min 7 b5 (or half-diminished) = R b3 b5 b7

• dom 7 (or 7) = R 3 5 b7

• alt.dom = R 3 #5 b7 #9

• maj 7 = R 3 5 7

• aug (or maj #5) = R 3 #5

• maj 6 (or 6) = R 3 5 6

• maj add9 = R 3 5 9

• maj 9 = R 3 5 7 9

• sus 2 = R 2 5

• sus 4 = R 4 5

Finally, it is worth remembering that the 2nd & 9th, 4th & 11th, and 6th & 13th of the scale have the same name, so people often describe them interchangeably even though the precise octave makes all the difference to the actual sound of a chord e.g. you might find A maj add9 written as A add 2.

Intervals are covered in THEORY 1 and elsewhere if you search the term in the archive.