As you know, a lot of my blog posts have exercises at the end that invite readers to participate.

One exercise might be to figure out the introduced chord voicing in all 12 keys, with each reader taking a key of their own (I love those!)

Others are more complex.

And while these have been an overwhelming success, sometimes I’ve noticed some common mistakes when it comes to naming chords.

So in this post, I want to introduce a foolproof method (literally) that will ensure that you never misname a chord again. I’m serious! Read carefully as this may be one of the most important posts you read when it comes to “musical grammar.”

But let me say this first…

At the end of the day, even if you spell the chords wrong, they’ll probably sound totally right! So this may not revolutionize your sound. It’ll just make sure you’re calling something what it is.

For example, when you talk, you may say, “can you hand me that remote control over there please?” And no one knows if you’re really thinking of the word “there” as “their” or “they’re” or “dare” — because they all sound the same. No one knows because they can’t see inside your brain. When spoken, it’s a lot easier not to mess up. But on paper, one will know, definitively, if you write “there,” “their,” “they’re,” or even “dare.”

That’s what “enharmonic” pretty much means. Notes are said to be enharmonic when they make the same sound but are spelled differently. Isn’t that similar to the words “there”, “their,” and “they’re?” Spoken, you cannot tell which one I’m thinking of because they sound the same.

That’s exactly how it is for “ear musicians.” Many of us can get away with spelling it wrong because it supposedly doesn’t matter. All people hear is what comes out!

“So forget that I think the ‘F# major’ chord is F# + Gb + C#” (which is wrong WRONG WRONG). It doesn’t matter because people hear a nice major chord at the end of the day, right?

That’s one school of thought. And quite frankly, I don’t totally disagree with it either. That’s why I always say, “if you’re not studying for a music theory exam, you can call this what you want.” Because at the end of the day, most people just want to play.

Take someone from a remote island somewhere who doesn’t know English and assimilate them here in the States and they will be happy just to be able to communicate with others and ask for directions… the writing part can come later.

But…

There’s the side of me that believes that knowledge is power and why would I want to spell something wrong if I don’t have to? And that’s what premise this lesson takes :)

Here’s the big secret…

Most chords (major, minor, major 7, minor 7, diminished, diminished 7, augmented, etc) use thirds.

And here’s the secret about thirds (regardless of whether “they’re” major or minor thirds)…

They always encompass three alphabet letters in their intervals. There’s never a time when they don’t.

That is the key!

Which means these are thirds…

A C
A C#
C E
C Eb
C E#
B D
B D#

…I can go on and on.

And these aren’t thirds.

Gb A
Ab B
Db E
Bb C#
E F#

…and so on.

What’s my point?

Since the chords I mentioned above ONLY use thirds (in other words, they’re usually constructed with some type of third on the bottom and some type of third on the top — or if they’re bigger seventh chords, they have a third on the bottom, a third in the middle, and a third on top), that means you can never get around this “three alphabet letter” rule.

But let me make it super plain…

“Encompassing three alphabet letters” basically mean that you’re always skipping an alphabet letter. It’s that simple.

Take a look at the correct thirds again:

A C
A C#
C E
C Eb
C E#
B D
B D#

Notice between the “A” and “C” intervals, they skip “B.”

Look at the “C” and “E” intervals. They always skip “D.”

Even the “B” and “D” intervals. They skip “C.”

So when I say “encompass,” you can think of it two ways:

1) “A” to “C” includes three alphabet letters: A (B) C (the “B” isn’t played, of course, but it is “wrapped” inside the interval).

2) “A” to “C” successfully passes the test because it skips one alphabet letter, “B.”

The second option is what I call my “foolproof” method! Because it’s just too easy!

Make sure any time you write a major, minor, dominant, diminished, major seventh, minor seventh, diminished seventh, augmented, augmented seventh, etc — that the notes you use always skip an alphabet letter and you can’t go wrong.

Why is the “informal spelling” of C diminished 7 wrong (C + Eb + Gb + A)?

Well, the first three notes pass the foolproof test. That is, C to Eb skips the “D” alphabet letter. Eb to Gb passes the foolproof test, too. It skips the alphabet letter “F.” But the Gb to A. Hmmm, it fails. It doesn’t encompass three alphabet letters which means it’s impossible to skip one. G and A are right next to each other in the alphabet. That “A” needs to be some kind of “B.” It can’t be a real “B” because that’s not what the chord needs. It basically needs a “B” that sounds like “A” — and the only way you can get a “B” that sounds like “A” is to flat it TWICE: “B double flat.”

(I used to think music theory just made up its own rules when it needed them. Lol, “double flat?” But really, “flatting” or even “sharping” something for that matter doesn’t mean to make it a black key. That’s what people think since the black keys are called “sharps” and “flats.” Sharp means to raise and flat means to lower. It’s that simple. If you sharp “C,” yes, it will give you a black key, “C#.” But you can sharp or flat a black key, too, making it a white key. You can even sharp or flat some white keys and they will still be white keys (e.g. - “E#” is basically “F”). And in this case, you can flat something TWICE making a white key another white key. It’s crazy!!!! I know!!!)

This may still confuse people right now! But if you think about it, some still don’t know the difference between “there,” “their,” and “they’re” so it’s the same battle. No worries. It will click over time if that’s the case.

So, let me take one example from a student (which actually inspired this post)…

Gb minor chord

(First off, it’s very hard to write a Gb minor chord without using crazy spellings. That’s why when you run into these sorts of problems, you should try changing the chord to its “enharmonic” counterpoint. Regular terms: Change the flat version to its sharp version and see if that makes things easier. So, that’s what I would do here. I’d make that Gb an F# minor in a second! Helps out a lot).

But let’s take on that Gb minor anyway.

For that to work, we must make sure we follow the foolproof method. We MUST skip a letter between each note but it still needs to sound like a minor chord.

Gb minor
Gb + Bbb + Db

(Not Gb + A + Db!)

There you have it! But as you see, it got ugly again with a “B double flat.” But we had no choice. Gb to A would have failed the foolproof test.

So Gb to Bbb works because it skips a letter. And Bbb to Db works because it also skips a letter. Bingo! Passes the test!

Until next time —

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