UK Piano Page Piano Forum

Hi. I'm just recently learning a jazz arrangement of 'somewhere over the rainbow'. I've come across some chords that i am unfamiliar with. can someone please help. The chords are:

- C7sus (I didn't understand this because what is it i need to suspend? a 4th? a 2nd?)

- C7ALT

- G+/E (i understand G/E, E being the bass note)

- Amaj9

- Bsus13

- G∅ (dont know what this symbol is but it was in the score)

Any help will be very appreciated.

Thanks, Thomas

Contemporary composers, particularly in Jazz I have to say, use all sorts of ways to notate chords that aren't immediately recognisable to people who are used to reading the universal chord layouts. No doubt someone will post here and say that they're not strange to Jazz pianists, but if you're playing across styles, this is unusual notation that you won't find in contemporary pop, gospel, blues, rock or country. Jazz has its own way of doing things.

Anyway, I will go through these and more or less translate the notation for you:

- C7sus: C7 with the 4th suspended as normal, but lose the E (the third)

- C7ALT: C altered chord

- G+/E: "G+" is G augmented

- Amaj9: A major seventh, with an added 9th

- Bsus13: Same idea as above, Bsus(4) with an added 13th

- G∅: Not sure what this is. I have seen G- which is G minor or GΔ which is Gmajor7 but never with a square.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is an unconventional symbol specific to the composer because that can also happen in Jazz music. Still, 5 out of 6 isn't bad!

markymark wrote: - G∅: Not sure what this is. I have seen G- which is G minor or GΔ which is Gmajor7 but never with a square.

I just got a new monitor this afternoon and re-read this post. The symbol looked like a square on my old monitor. Anyway... the G∅ means "G half-diminished" so msytery solved after all!