How to remember chords on the beginnings of famous melodies

It doesn't matter what causes the urgent need to memorize chords by heart. Perhaps you need to show off skills in front of fellow musicians. Or, much worse, the solfeggio exam is “on the nose”, and you do not distinguish a triad from a quartekstektakord — a crime within the framework of the criminal code, in the opinion of your theorist. Therefore, the chances of writing a dictation or recognizing a chord sequence are close to zero.

But maybe you are just interested and want to learn them for yourself, for common development.

For a start, you can recommend to study a similar article on the resource Music-Education, which considers the easy memorization of intervals from which popular melodies begin. After all, it is impossible to study a house without familiarizing yourself with the principles of the structure of individual parts of its construction. So it is here: the interval is one of two or three bricks, which, if properly constructed, turn into a house chord.

Let's give an example: major triad built like this - a large third and a small third. If you confidently recognize two thirds in a chord, and the first one is large, then the chord will turn out to be a major triad.

If you have already studied the materials of our music class, then you have learned some of the basics and chord names. If these outlandish terms for you are a novelty, then we briefly recall the basic information.

Chords are:

• Major or large - the lower brick of which is a large third, and the upper - a small one.
• Minor or small - everything is exactly the opposite, below - a small third, etc.
• Triad appeals are divided into sekstakkordy (the first and last steps form the sixth, the lower interval is the third) and quartext chords (the same sixth at the edges, but the lower interval is a quart).
• Ascending (sounds are built from bottom to top) and descending (sound from top to bottom).
• Septa chords (extreme sounds form septima).

I would like to clarify that the chord in the table below implies the sequential extraction of sounds, like, rather, arpeggios. But with the help of such listening chords, they are remembered easier than three or more sounds taken simultaneously.

This is just the tip of the iceberg - a small table, thanks to which you can easily remember how this or that chord sounds. Perhaps over time you will be able to assemble your own collection of musical examples, confidently recognizing the consonances in familiar or new works.

Instead of conclusion + Bonus

If you try to make a comic charts charts among the chords, then the undisputed winner will be not the lyrical and melodious little triad, and its second appeal will be the minor quarteksektakkord. Authors of patriotic music and romances, classics and contemporaries readily used it.

And there are still works, analyzing which, you will probably find any of the existing chords. Such an immortal creation is, say, the "Prelude" by JS Bach, who did not give so much peace to the next generations after the composer that she was perpetuated twice: as a separate work and as one of the most beautiful versions of "Ave Maria". 150 years after writing the prelude, young Charles Gounod wrote reflections on the theme of Bach's melody. To this day, the ingenious combination between a multitude of chords among themselves is one of the most popular classical melodies.

Bonus - Cheat Sheet