ODU Music Theory - Mus 221 (mod )

    1. Determine what the three or four different notes are in the chord.
    2. Consider one of the notes as the potential root of the chord. If the other notes are in the sequence (A C EG B D F A
         C E G B etc.), then that is the root.
    3. If the other notes do not fall in the sequence, then turn to another note as a possible root.
    4. Continue this process until the root is determined.
    5. Example of this process:

When analyzing this chord (F-A-C-D), we first consider the possibility that F is the root. If F were the root, the chord would be F-A-C-E according to the note sequence noted above. Obviously these are not the notes of the given chord. Next we consider the next note from the bottom (A) as the potential root. If A were the root, the chord would be A-C-E-G. Again we can see that these are not the four notes of the chord. If C were the root, we would spell the chord C-E-G-B. No match. The next possible root would be the D. If D were the root, the chord would be spelled D-F-A-C. Looking back at the given chord we can see that indeed these are the four notes represented by the chord. Therefore we can determine that this is a seventh chord rooted on D. Since the third of the chord is the lowest note, we realize that the chord is in first inversion, 6.
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MUSIC THEORY

Music 221