How Many Notes Does it Take to Make a Chord?

[Dad3353]

There's plenty of books out there explaining why the Earth is flat. It doesn't mean they're right. 

[Happy Jack]

Are we now on to The Music Of The Spheres?

 

[stingrayPete1977]

16 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

There's plenty of books out there explaining why the Earth is flat. It doesn't mean they're right. 

True but two stops on a violin, cello or double bass is a chord hence hundreds of books detailing those chords are readily available. 

[leftybassman392]

1 hour ago, Nicko said:

I do that a lot, not becessarily on purpose.

What, play notes together or call them names?

[Steve Woodcock]

Desregard the Wikipedia info, a chord consists of three or more notes:

"It is required of a chord that it consist of three different tones" - Schoenberg, Arnold. Theory of Harmony. University of California Press, 1983

Edited January 13, 2018 by Steve Woodcock

[SpondonBassed]

4 hours ago, Steve Woodcock said:

Desregard the Wikipedia info, a chord consists of three or more notes:

"It is required of a chord that it consist of three different tones" - Schoenberg, Arnold. Theory of Harmony. University of California Press, 1983

I suppose no-one had an opinion about it before 1983...

[ivansc]

22 hours ago, chris_b said:

2 notes might fit a theoretical definition but in practice how do you establish major or minor chords with just 2 notes?

Ask the bass player - he will usually be the one who makes it clear!   

[leftybassman392]

6 hours ago, Steve Woodcock said:

Desregard the Wikipedia info, a chord consists of three or more notes:

"It is required of a chord that it consist of three different tones" - Schoenberg, Arnold. Theory of Harmony. University of California Press, 1983

Some achievement considering he died in 1951!

[EssentialTension]

6 hours ago, Steve Woodcock said:

Desregard the Wikipedia info, a chord consists of three or more notes:

"It is required of a chord that it consist of three different tones" - Schoenberg, Arnold. Theory of Harmony. University of California Press, 1983

 

2 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

I suppose no-one had an opinion about it before 1983...

 

34 minutes ago, leftybassman392 said:

Some achievement considering he died in 1951!

First edition of Harmonielehre 1911, I believe.

Schoenberg, of course, was confident enough to take liberties with traditional harmony.

[Happy Jack]

So Schoenberg would not have seen Chopsticks as a sequence of chords?

[leftybassman392]

Just now, EssentialTension said:

 

Schoenberg, of course, was confident enough to take liberties with traditional harmony.

Indeed. Interesting that somebody should quote one of the great pioneers of atonality in a discussion on the subject of chordal harmony.

[Yank]

I say 3 notes to make a chord,  2 notes to imply a chord.  But,  then again,  who cares what it's called if what you play fits the context and sounds good.  Pedantic semantics.

[thebigyin]

Usually 3 notes makes up a chord...then obviously there's hundreds of chord formulas...major, minor, diminished, augmented, 7th, 9th, 13th plus there inversions ect...so many 

[stingrayPete1977]

A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of pitches consisting of two or more (usually three) notes (also called "pitches") that are heard as if sounding simultaneously.

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, EssentialTension said:

 

 

First edition of Harmonielehre 1911, I believe.

Schoenberg, of course, was confident enough to take liberties with traditional harmony.

Taking liberties is often a euphemism for taking the wee wee.  Just saying.

Edited January 13, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, Yank said:

I say 3 notes to make a chord,  2 notes to imply a chord.  But,  then again,  who cares what it's called if what you play fits the context and sounds good.  Pedantic semantics.

I only asked so that I could know whether I am yet capable of playing chords or whether it is bedroom player's bravado on my part to claim that double stops are in fact chords.  After reading the responses here I understand that some players consider them to be.

Pendant's corner is on BBC 6music on Wednesday mornings I believe, with the Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09mhw72

Edited January 13, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[DJpullchord]

What’s stopping you playing chords?

 

I enjoy Keaveney’s show!

[EssentialTension]

4 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Taking liberties is often a euphemism for taking the wee wee.  Just saying.

Some people did feel that way about it.

[skankdelvar]

15 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Taking liberties is often a euphemism for taking the wee wee.  Just saying.

In some circles 'Taking liberties' might include: robbing a post office on some else's turf without first asking permission; failing to repay an agreed sum of money; confiding sensitive private information to a third party. 

The variant - a 'diabolical liberty' - would probably be something like unexpectedly shooting dead a business competitor while he is quietly drinking in his locale of choice; or for the purposes of internal discipline razoring a subordinate without just cause.

Big Vern

Edited January 14, 2018 by skankdelvar

[SpondonBassed]

1 hour ago, skankdelvar said:

In some circles 'Taking liberties' might include: robbing a post office on some else's turf without first asking permission; failing to repay an agreed sum of money; confiding sensitive private information to a third party. 

It's variant - a 'diabolical liberty' - would probably be something like unexpectedly shooting dead a business competitor while he is quietly drinking in his locale of choice; or for the purposes of internal discipline razoring a subordinate without just cause.

Big Vern

'Chinese'* smiles all 'round then.

*This is a cultural reference from the story of London's notorious Kray twins.  Just so's you know like before you get the PC brigade involved.

[SpondonBassed]

3 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

What’s stopping you playing chords?

 

I enjoy Keaveney’s show!

I'm just not that interested in playing them.  I'm not sure why, I'm probably just weird.  At the moment, I like to find my place in the rhythm of a piece before I supplement the chords that are already there.  Sometimes a baseline will dictate the final form of an overall chord but I'm not tuned into that so much.  I'm really only starting to understand the effect of double stops at this stage.

It might help if I  explain that I am a late developer in bass playing terms and very much a hobby player anyway.  I've decided that the time I allocate to practice is best spent on tightening my sense of rhythm.  When I've achieved a decent standard of consistency I will spent more time exploring the subtleties of harmony.

[Steve Woodcock]

16 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Some achievement considering he died in 1951!

The quote is from the 1983 translation of his book, based on the 1922 revision of his orginal publication.

 

15 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Interesting that somebody should quote one of the great pioneers of atonality in a discussion on the subject of chordal harmony.

He was also a highly respected theorist and teacher. I could have chosen any of the many books on my shelf, they all agree three is the magic number.

[SpondonBassed]

6 hours ago, Steve Woodcock said:

The quote is from the 1983 translation of his book, based on the 1922 revision of his orginal publication.

 

He was also a highly respected theorist and teacher. I could have chosen any of the many books on my shelf, they all agree three is the magic number.

It might have looked like I was trying to discredit your earlier reference to this book.  I am sorry if it appeared so.  That was not my intent.

I am now thinking laterally about it.  If you try to draw a shape (call it a chord for this example) using only two straight line segments (notes, if you will) you will not have enough lines to make a two dimensional drawing of a shape.  You can imply some of the dimensions of the intended final shape but until three or more lines are present, you wont know whether you are looking at two sides of a triangle or a quadrangle or a pentagon.

[leftybassman392]

7 hours ago, Steve Woodcock said:

The quote is from the 1983 translation of his book, based on the 1922 revision of his orginal publication.

 

He was also a highly respected theorist and teacher. I could have chosen any of the many books on my shelf, they all agree three is the magic number.

Do any of them say why?

[stingrayPete1977]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

It might have looked like I was trying to discredit your earlier reference to this book.  I am sorry if it appeared so.  That was not my intent.

I am now thinking laterally about it.  If you try to draw a shape (call it a chord for this example) using only two straight line segments (notes, if you will) you will not have enough lines to make a two dimensional drawing of a shape.  You can imply some of the dimensions of the intended final shape but until three or more lines are present, you wont know whether you are looking at two sides of a triangle or a quadrangle or a pentagon.

If you put those line parallel in contact along their length you have a square or rectangle depending on their relative length to width. 

 

2 or more is a chord.