Talk:Chord notation

Triangle

The delta symbol was always used to indicate "Major 7th" - used by itself it indicates this. C∆ means "C Major 7th". C∆7 is redundant, but is understood to mean the same thing. Yusef Lateef's Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns as well as Coltrane's own hand written lead sheet for Naima (1959) sttest to this, as does general usage.

The delta symbol is not used to represent triads, at least it shouldn't be. We already have a historically established way of indicating a triad - if you want to indicate C triad, for example, write "C". This is the way. Regional differences notwithstanding, this is one of the few instances when you can say "this means this and only this."

Musicians and educators who either didn't understand the meaning of the original symbol, or needed some way to emphasize the need for a clear triad from a chord player who insisted on adding extensions (color tones) to every chord, are partly responsible for a misunderstanding that continues to this day. It is not an "ambiguous" symbol - it has a clear meaning. The fact that a triangle has three sides and a triad has three notes is entirely irrelevant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8803:9402:b000:bdc5:9d2c:357a:55f5 (talk • contribs) 13:49, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

I agree that the delta shouldn't be used for major, but _is_ it used for major? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 15:36, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Delta is used to mean "Major 7th interval above the root." It does not mean "major triad". 2600:8803:9402:B000:F1AC:7EAA:1481:CE39 (talk) 21:25, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 13 February 2022

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved to Chord notation. (closed by non-admin page mover) Extraordinary Writ (talk) 06:35, 20 February 2022 (UTC)

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Chord names and symbols (popular music) → Chord names and symbols – We don't need this title to be disambiguated, there is no other page with the name Chord names and symbols. ~BappleBusiness^[talk] 02:14, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

• Comment. Scratching my head about the need for this article. This is just about chord notation? Walrasiad (talk) 07:43, 13 February 2022 (UTC)
• Support, makes sense, and per brevity. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:29, 13 February 2022 (UTC)
• Move to Chord notation (which redirects here) per Walrasiad. An article with this title used to exist until 2010, when it was histmerged into the one with convoluted name. No such user (talk) 12:55, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

  I would support that. ~BappleBusiness^[talk] 16:39, 16 February 2022 (UTC)

• Move to Chord notation; that name should suffice. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 15:36, 14 February 2022 (UTC)
• Comment As it happens, this article was originally entitled Chord notation. That got changed in 2010 to Chord names and symbols (popular music); that was changed in 2020 to Chord letters. Then I changed it back to the current name because the "chord letters" change happened without any discussion. Talk:Chord names and symbols (popular music)/Archive 1#Changing article title has a little bit of discussion. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 16:21, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Citation needed

I can't find anything in this article that is likely to be challenged. Do we need the banner at the top? ---- CharlesTGillingham (talk) 07:59, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

X and N semitones?

Apologies if I've missed it, but should the numbers of semitones that X and N represent (first appearing in the 'Seventh chords' section) be clarified within the article? It would make the article entirely self-contained. ~2026-36394-23 (talk) 19:25, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

I think they certainly should. A while back I marked this column with "citation needed", then it was removed with "This is unlikely to be challenged". I wasn't really concerned with not being sourced as much as with needing explanation. I can see that if a major triad is "047", then this is counting the semitones from the root as zero, but is this standard notation anywhere? Perhaps 'X' means (Roman) 10, perhaps 'N' means 11... but this seems very unsystematic. Imaginatorium (talk) 04:22, 23 June 2026 (UTC)