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Hello knowledgeable friends,
sorry, I don't know where else to put it.
How do you name a chord that's inverted in a "special" way - for example, C G B E.
This was once a CMaj ( C E G B ) but instead of putting the lowest note ( C ) on top, you do that with the second note of chord.
How do you write that down, what is it called?
Thanks in advance for answering

diminished wrote: ↑

02 Apr 2019

Hello knowledgeable friends,
sorry, I don't know where else to put it.
How do you name a chord that's inverted in a "special" way - for example, C G B E.
This was once a CMaj ( C E G B ) but instead of putting the lowest note ( C ) on top, you do that with the second note of chord.
How do you write that down, what is it called?
Thanks in advance for answering

Take a look at Static Cling’s REs. All your chord naming needs will be fixed.

I usually just give mine names like ‘John’, or ‘Sally’, etc. but I’m not very good at music theory, so those are probably not right.

It's called Open chords (as opposed to Close chords), or Spread voicing. Placing the third in the octave above is the most common but you could also for instance play C1 - E2 - G3, that would still be an open chord.

Cmaj7/E is the official voicing.
or
Cmaj7 1st inversion in speaking terms.

Still a Cmaj7. Inversions don't change the name of a chord. However if the bass note (not the same as the bottom note of a chord) is E, then like Reasonable man mentioned, in this case it would be Cmaj7/E. If the bass note is still C then it's just Cmaj7.

He's placing the E on top (soprano), not at the bottom, so it's not a slash chord, nor an inversion, it's an open chord. C is still the base note and as QVprod notes, it's still a Cmaj7.

Yip ..Wongo is of course right ...there is no specific name for that voicing . Quite a few times now i havn't read the original post correctly...nothing more fustrating than that.

If the bass note is anything other than the root note of the chord it can warrant a name change/variation ..otherwise the chord is just a 'variant ' of cmaj7. My apologies.

Thank you guys! All of you. Today I learned, even what "slash chord" means, which wouldn't have come up without a discussion about what's right and wrong. Cheers!

Since the voicing has no specific name, let's call it after its discoverer, dimini... oh wait

Joking aside, it's interesting that "open chord" can mean many different voicings, because to my ears they are all very different and somehow deserve a distinct name in my mind.

Follow up question regarding C G B E, could you consider G B E == Gmin, with a C in the bass Gmin/C?

Gmin would be G Bb D, so it would be a really hard stretch to call that a Gmin... Even if you meant G, the fifth still isn't there, and the "sixth" is: there are so many conditions to corral that chord into that naming that it's generally a sign that it should rather be called something else. Exaggerating to show my point: if you have to name a chord "C double major (no5) 6 (add9) without the bass", it'll probably be simpler to call it a Dmin (and chances are it will fit the key better, too).

I agree it does sound different, but it can be argued that this difference is in the arrangement layer, and not the composition layer, in the same way that the same chord played on a piano and on guitar does not sound the same, even though it's the same notes in the same order. Even inversions can be considered as being part of the arrangement, as soon as you leave the Common Practice period. I say "can" because it can be argued both ways, naturally, depending on who you ask and what the composer's intentions are.

WongoTheSane wrote: ↑

03 Apr 2019

Gmin would be G Bb D, so it would be a really hard stretch to call that a Gmin...

hehe around here a Bb is called a B and a B is called H so his way of saying it in my country would make it a Gmin while a G major is G H D around here. just adding to the confusion