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Music Notation Question
Eggplant Wizard
Little Rock, ARRegistered User regular
Little Rock, ARRegistered User regular
In roman numeral notation for chords, assuming a major key, what type of chord is the I7? Is it a maj7 chord?
To state it another way, how does one determine the major/minor character of the 7?
I've seen some publications call for a "diatonic unless otherwise noted" convention. In this system, I7 is a maj7 chord, but V7 is a dominant 7 chord. Other publications seem to use a "dominant unless otherwise noted" convention, similar to performance notation, in which case both are dominant 7 chords.
Is it simply not well standardized?
To state it another way, how does one determine the major/minor character of the 7?
I've seen some publications call for a "diatonic unless otherwise noted" convention. In this system, I7 is a maj7 chord, but V7 is a dominant 7 chord. Other publications seem to use a "dominant unless otherwise noted" convention, similar to performance notation, in which case both are dominant 7 chords.
Is it simply not well standardized?
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Eggplant Wizard on
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I would say go by the standards of whatever publisher you're looking at. Failing that, I would assume it would be a major 7 instead of a minor, since in the scope of the scale you have to change the note to make it dominant as opposed to major, and so it would theoretically be the notation's job to tell you.
If you are writing the piece, well just make sure that it is clear to your audience. If you are reading the piece, and really can't decide and there's no standard for the publisher, then just try both and play the one you like better, or listen to a few recordings of the piece and see which one gets played or doesn't.
To answer the question in general though, I'd say it's a major 7 unless otherwise noted, theoretically.
Try playing it and see what it sounds like, and also, look for raised or lowered 7th degrees of the scale around in the melody.
When I see something like I7 followed by IV, my gut tells me that's it probably a dominant 7, but I've seen some sources which contradict.
The vibe I'm betting from your replies (which are much appreciated) is that it really depends on the author.
IM7 = MM7
I7 = Mm7
i7 = m7
iø7= ø7
iº7= º7
Very much correct in the standard practice sense. Just be careful if you're working with forms of music that do not use standard notation. (I once threw my theory book at my first semester class analysis partner, who was a self-taught guitar student, for making me use a piece for our project that was about three years beyond our level "because it looked cool on the page." But it was only a workbook. Didn't even give him a paper cut.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_symbol