So... I'm a violin player. Only technically these days since I haven't picked up the instrument for a few years, sadly, but I played all my childhood.

In Sweden you get money for studying and tuition is free, so I picked up a summer course to get some extra cash. The course I picked is an introductory music theory course, basically how to read sheet music. Which I know how to do from playing the violin.

Well, it turns out that a big part of the course is based on note intervals and chords, which is playing 2 or more notes at once. This isn't a thing for the most part when playing the violin, mostly you'd play one note at once. Well, at least the course material would help me with that? No, of course not. I can't find anything on how to learn to do the thing I was assigned.

So what was I assigned?
I got some piano sheets for a song played in F major. I'm supposed to find and name these two highlighted chords- So playing two notes with each hand. There is nothing in the course material that explains chords this way. I can't find anything on the internet, a chord finder gives me D minor for the first and G minor for the second, but those have 3 notes and not 4 so I wouldn't know if it's correct.
Is there anyone here who knows this stuff?

I also wonder if there are more musicians here on SG. Do you play any instruments?

Mandatory GA

1 year ago*

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Do you play any instruments?

View Results
Yes, string! (Guitar, violin, etc...)
Yes, wind! (Flute, sax, etc...)
Yes, percussion! (Drums etc...)
Yes, piano!
No, but I sing!
I don't play any instruments

I don't play any instrument but as a kid I played the recorder and I could also play some keyboard but if I would want to play those again I would have to teach myself again.
I tried to play the guitar but I found it so hard (have a horrible memory) and after some time I just gave up!

1 year ago
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At some point in my life, but not current, some self-taught, some instructed: piano, basically all brass, some percussion
Currently: Guitar, Bass, Synth, Trumpet

Cannot help with the chords. My music reading skills were only on single-note instruments. :(

1 year ago*
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I'd very like to sing, but sometimes (a few time for a year) playing on guitar (trying)

1 year ago
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multi instruminetally gifted here , and know the ' not playing for a while' feeling.

regretably i dont do sheet music, just tablature

1 year ago
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I tried to study how to play the recorder a bit, but it didn't really caught on.
Spent a few years playing the french horn

1 year ago
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Found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/9q6iof/how_do_you_name_dyads/

Two-sound "chords" are dyads and they don't really seem to be named, rather desctibed (haven't found another source that even tried to name them)

1 year ago
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But 2 dyads would make up a 4-note chord then? Just split between bass and treble so I have no clue what is going on D:

1 year ago
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That's something I can't help you with. I only learnt single-note instruments, I'm not sure what would make more sense with piano - dyads for left and right hand, or mash them up to what sound it makes.

1 year ago
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It seems like we're coming to a conclusion a bit below. But yeah, same - one note at a time for the violin.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Oh no! But searching for solutions is also a way of learning. Well, according to a friend of mine who regularly visits https://www.integral-calculator.com/ to help with her math problems.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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i used to play piano but i couldn't remember those things to be named. we just call it by the note instead. don't quote me on that, though. it's been ages since i played - i couldn't even remember how to play it anymore.

1 year ago
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Same problem here. I asked my sister who has played the piano but she couldn't name any chords either. She could play the notes though.

1 year ago
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1 year ago*
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I think I'm starting to come to the conclusion that maybe I should just look at the notes played. So the second one has G, Bb, D, and Bb again, but since it's the same note played twice I could remove it and conclude it as G minor. Maybe, I actually have no clue. I'm going to turn it in and see if it's sent back, I have 3 attempts to make it.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Yeah, I've figured. Glad I could learn something new today. Thank you!

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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The number of times the notes are repeated is not relevant, just the actual notes shown. So you have DFA in the first and GBbD in the second. DFA will always make a D minor chord, no matter how many times you repeat those notes, and GBbD will be a G minor. So yes it's correct to say these are D minor and G minor. I would guess this would be sufficient for what your course is asking?
There are more technical ways of describing chords, but the basic idea would remain the same, that the notes shown make up those two chords.

1 year ago*
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It's a very simple course. The assignment has a couple other questions, like what key the song is in and they wanted me to recognize a dotted half note. I just suck at chords since I haven't worked with them before. Thank you!

1 year ago
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String mostly. Guitar, bass, mandoline, ukulele, and i did play piano a bit before but i know very little nowadays of it. Also i bought a flute but i didn't get into playing it yet.

1 year ago
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I was an enthusiastic triangle player in kindergarden but somehow my efforts weren't appreciated enough :)

1 year ago
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Multi-instrumentist here.
The chord you found are the good ones. The notes are just shifted. For example, D minor can be wrote with any combination of D, F and A and these notes can be doubled like it often happens on guitar when 6 strings are played when the chord only have 3 notes.

1 year ago
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I've never gotten serious about an instrument except when I was forced to do music class in elementary school, but I did enjoy writing sheet music using Noteworthy Composer when I was young. I didn't know fully what I was doing, but I enjoyed making my own music that could be saved to Midi files.

No idea how chords are named though, but it looks like you have it figured out above.

1 year ago
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used to be a pro

View attached image.
1 year ago
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I learned the piano for the longest period, like about 6 years? It was when I was an elementary school student. About 3 years ago I started learning the guitar but only learned like 3 times. About 2 years ago I learned the drums for 1 month (the COVID hindered me & my tutor, couldn't contact him) and from the beginning of this year I learned the guitar from a professional (the former teacher was an amateur who was learning longer than me) for 3 months.

So, piano should be the instrument I can create the best output, but these days I'm into the guitar & drums.

1 year ago
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I play the electric guitar. I also have a classical guitar, that I started on, but I very rarely use it since I've got an electric.
I'm self taught and I play mostly improv. Play everyday, no exception. Currently on a 800+ days streak from the day I first picked up the instrument and the progress I've made is more than I had hoped for!

As for your assignment, I don't know what your degree of knowledge is, so I'll maybe be explaining things you already know, sorry f that happens!
The most basic thing you should know to get by is the structure of a minor and a major chord. A minor chord uses three semitones then four. (i.e: chose a root note then add the minor third, then the fifth). A major chord is the opposite: four semitones then three (i.e, the major third then the fifth). This will help you recognize this pattern of notes in the wild. You can also learn the basic triads (groups of three notes) for every note by heart, which will make it easier to make sense of more complex chords. So, that'll be: CEG, DFA, etc etc. Some of these triads will be minor and other will be major, if you want to turn a minor triad into major you sharp the second note, if you want to make a major triad minor you flat the second note. So C major is CEG, C minor is CEbG, A minor is ACE, A major is AC#E.

A chord will be named from the notes it contains, and the number of each is irrelevant. So if you have C, E, G, but have three Cs on different octaves, it's still a C major chord. If you change this order, and have for instance E, C, G, it's called an inversion, and is still a C major chord, just an inverted one. It could be notated as C/E, which basically mean : play a C major chord but the lowest not is a E. You can create infinite voicings from the same triad using as many octaves as you like, and as long as you use no other notes than these three, it will still say the same chord (mostly, it can depend on the context but here we stay in simple territory)

Now, for your chords.
The first one has D, A, F, D.
The first clue here is that the lowest note is a D, and it is repeated an octave higher. This is a good sign that this is a note we should focus on.
So, if you know your scales you perhaps know that that in F major, we have a naturally occurring D minor chord. If you don't know that, perhaps you know that F major is relative to D minor ? If you don't know any of it, perhaps you know that a D minor chord is DFA ?
Anyway, so D, F and A are in this specific chord, they are just shuffled around! So This would be a D minor chord with an inversion and an extra D on top :)

The second chord is a bit easier as the notes are in the correct order: we have G, Bb, D, Bb. If you just look at the first three notes, it is a basic G minor triad. And we add another Bb on top to make for a prettyer chord, but it still is a G minor chord, as none of these notes are outside of the G minor triad - it's just another voicing.

I hope this helped!

1 year ago
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I'm trying to learn using FT Studio or DAW software to create music for my YouTube and my wife's. I think it's a useful skill, but I wish I knew how to play instruments.

1 year ago
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Only mayonnaise

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Well, I had a short phase of playing the mouth-organ. I've learned some tunes that I like, but thats it, I sadly did not learn it properly.

1 year ago
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i played classic trumpet for 10 years when i was young and pure. Also reached the last grade on solfege but I dont practice anymore since the electronic music and some stuff corrupted my perception and my minds. Hope you find the enthusiasm in your practice. For me that became a pain playing ranges exercices and trying to push the physic limits

1 year ago*
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I play BASS but, sadly, (i wish i knew it) i'm not into theory.

1 year ago
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I sing in the shower! Then I feel confident to try it with everybody

1 year ago
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I own a mini piano and a harmonica, haven't used them for years though

1 year ago
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