Understanding Basic Music Theory, 2013a

170 CHAPTER 5. HARMONY AND FORM
Figure 5.6
5.2 Naming Triads 3
The position (Section 5.1) that a chord is in does make a dierence in how it sounds, but it is a fairly small
dierence. Listen 4 to a G major chord in three dierent positions.
Figure 5.7: G major chord in three dierent positions.
A much bigger dierence in the chord's sound comes from the intervals (Section 4.5) between the rootposition
notes of the chord. For example, if the B in one of the chords above was changed to a B at, you
would still have a G triad (Section 5.1), but the chord would now sound very dierent. So chords are named
according to the intervals between the notes when the chord is in root position (Section 5.1). Listen 5 to four
dierent G chords.
Figure 5.8: These are also all G chords, but they are four dierent G chords. The intervals between
the notes are dierent, so the chords sound very dierent.
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