Yamaha PortaTone PSR-202 Owner's Manual - The Intervals of The Scale

Selecting and Playing Styles

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •  Writing Chord Names  • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

Knowing how to read and write chord names is an easy yet invaluable skill.  Chords are often writ-

ten in a kind of shorthand that makes them instantly recognizable (and gives you the freedom to 

play them with the voicing or inversion that you prefer).  Once you understand the basic principles 

of harmony and chords, it’s very simple to use this shorthand to write out the chords of a song.

First, write the root note of the chord in an uppercase letter.  If you need to specify sharp or flat, 

indicate that to the right of the root.  The chord type should be indicated to the right as well.  Exam-

ples for the key of C are shown below.

One important point:

 Chords are made up of notes “stacked” on top of each other, and the stacked 

notes are indicated in the chord name of the chord type as a number — the number being the dis-

tance of the note from the root.  (See the keyboard diagram below.)  For example, the minor 6th 

chord includes the 6th note of the scale, the major 7th chord has the 7th note of the scale, etc.

The Intervals of the Scale

To better understand the intervals and the numbers 

used to represent them in the chord name, study this 

diagram of the C major scale:

Other Chords

Major chord

C

Minor chord

C

m

Augmented chord

C

aug

Diminished chord

C

dim

For simple major chords, the type is omitted.

C D E F G A B C D E F

Root

2nd

4th

3rd

5th

7th

6th

Octave

11th

9th

Dominant 7th (flatted 7th)

C

sus4

5th

4th

C

7

Dominant 

7th 

Major chord 

C

m7

Dominant 

7th 

Minor chord 

C

M7

7th

Major chord 

C

m7

b

5

Dominant 

7th 

Diminished 

chord 

C

m6

Minor 

chord 

6th

C

(9)

9th

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