Brainlag Plus Music

Chords and cadences in a score

Music theory, Reading a score, 15 minutes

Naming a chord when its notes are spread over several staves and clefs, and the cadence at the end of a phrase.

Collect the notes first

In questions 4 and 5 the chord is not written as a neat stack: its notes are shared out between the parts. To name it:

Collect every note sounding at that moment, from every stave. Read each stave in its own clef.
Stack them in 3rds to find the root. Then name the chord in the key: I, IV, V and so on.
Look at the lowest note (the bass part) for the position: the root (no letter), the 3rd (b) or the 5th (c).

A note held from earlier still sounds, so count it in.

A string quartet in C major. At A the notes stack as chord IV with its root in the cello: IV. The last two chords, V then I, make a perfect cadence

The rest of this lesson and its 5 practice questions are in Plus Music.

Screen 1 of 4, free to read.