Yamaha PSR-E303, YPT-300 owner manual About chords, Chord names

Playing Auto Accompaniment Chords

■About chords

Playing two or more notes together simultaneously creates a “chord.”

Playing a note together with two other notes spaced three notes (steps) apart—such as the
notes C, E and G—creates a harmonious sound. Chords like these are called “triads” and
they play an important role in most music.	3rd	Root	3rd

Taking the chord above as an example, the lowest note of this triad is called the “root note.” This is the central note sound, and it supports or anchors the rest of the notes chord.

You’ll notice that the middle note of the chord above (E) is the third step in the succession of scale notes—C, D, then E. There are two types of “thirds” in chords: major thirds and minor thirds.

Major third—four half steps from the root Minor third—three half steps from the root

We’ll also alter the top note of our original chord and make three additional chords, as shown below. (The captions indi- cate the intervals between each of the notes.)

◆ Major chord

◆ Minor chord

◆ Augmented chord

◆ Diminished chord

CM

Cm

Caug

Cdim

Minor 3rd

Major 3rd

Major 3rd

Minor 3rd

Major 3rd

Major 3rd

Minor 3rd

Minor 3rd

The basic characteristics of the chord sound are same, no matter if we change the order of the notes from bottom to top, or if we add other same name notes in different octaves. Beautiful sounding harmonies can be built in this manner, and emotional music can be created by playing different chords one after the other according to commonly accepted rules.

Harmony determines the nature of chords, and music is created based on harmony.

●Chord names

From the chord name, you can tell at a glance what type of chord it is and which notes make up the chord. Understanding the basic structure of chords is very useful—once you’re familiar with this, you’ll be quickly and easily play chords by looking at the names that appear above the notation.

Cm

Root note Chord type

●Chord types (These chords are among those that can be recognized by the Fingered method.)

Suspended 4 th

7 th

Minor 7 th

Major 7 th

Csus4

C7

Cm7

CM7

Perfect 5th

Perfect 4th

Flatted 7th

Major chord

Flatted 7th

Minor chord

Major 7th

Major chord

Minor/major 7 th

7 th, flatted 5 th

Minor 7 th, flatted 5 th

7 th, suspended 4 th

CmM7

(b5)

(b5)

C7sus4

C7

Cm7

Major 7th

Minor chord

Flatted 5th

7th chord

Flatted 5th

Minor 7th chord

Flatted 7th

Suspended 4th chord

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