Mastering Roman numeral analysis can provide an excellent foundation for understanding chord progressions. Capital Roman numerals typically represent major chords while lowercase Roman numerals denote minor chords.
As discussed in the Embellishing Tones lesson, adding an “m” after Roman numerals representing minor chords will make them easily identifiable when analyzing pieces using Roman numerals as they provide more precise clarity regarding chord quality analysis.
Major Triads
Label each note of a major triad with its Roman numeral; lowercase letters represent its root while capital letters stand for its type of triad. Roman numerals in uppercase indicate major chords while lowercase characters indicate minor ones.
Establish the quality of a triad by counting half-tones between its roots and outer notes, which will reveal its intervals and name. For instance, if the distance between the 3rd and 5th notes is three, that would indicate that this chord belongs to minor mode (m3); label this in your key signature with its appropriate letter while adding any necessary accidentals for building the chord on staff before playing it for confirmation of its sound quality.
Minor Triads
Once you’ve mastered major triad shapes and sounds, it is time to advance to minor triad shapes. Remember that these minor forms form larger chords and scales; don’t simply treat them as random triad shapes!
Like their major counterparts, minor triads also possess unique qualities corresponding to each scale degree. To demonstrate this fact, consider the C melodic minor scale.
As A is the second note of our scale, our minor i triad will begin by playing A-C-E; we can then flatten out this third to create A-C-E-F as needed.
Roman numerals used to identify these triads can also be modified to indicate variations, such as adding an “o” (such as in viio) to indicate that a chord has been diminished, or an “+” sign to signify its enhancement.
Dominant Triads
If you want your chord progressions to have a stronger, more dramatic sound, consider including dominant sevenths in them. They are very common in jazz and pop music and tend to lead listeners directly towards the tonic which gives this type of chord its name: dominant sevenths are considered dominant chords.
For Roman numerals to accurately represent triads, all you need is their root and interval between root and 7, such as in G7 which fits C major scale; you then write its number above its letter name of root in order to avoid confusion when referencing it in music pieces.
Dominant Sevenths
Dominant seventh chords are an indispensable part of many pieces of music. Their strength lies in their stability and strong sound when combined with the tonic. Furthermore, dominant sevenths provide an effective method for modulations as they contain both major triads and tritone intervals that act together to push towards another key center.
Locate and write down the key of the work on its first blank line under the score using an uppercase letter name for a major key and lowercase “m” for minor keys. Next, for each triad or seventh chord identified all notes in root position while taking their quality into account.
For seventh chords, a superscript 7 is added to indicate their quality: V7, ii7 and viio7. A small “o” indicates a diminished chord while an “+” sign shows an augmented one.
Minor Sevenths
Roman numerals help music students grasp the relationship between chords in a key. A Roman numeral indicates the distance, or interval, between two notes that form a triad in that key; most frequently this will be five scale degrees between them – making a fifth the most frequently occurring interval.
An uppercase Roman numeral denotes a major triad while its lowercase version indicates minor. To denote the quality of seventh chord (i.e. minor, half-diminished or fully diminished), add superscript symbols with respective letters; for instance “m” denotes minor, while “h” and “o” both provide additional indication.
Modal chords altering their roots require Roman numerals with accidentals to represent this change in scale degrees, since their root has already changed modally.