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Roman Numerals and Chords
(C) 2005 by Charlie Read
You
may have run across some sheet music or transcriptions that use
Roman numerals instead of chord names. Even if you haven’t yet, you’ll
be sure to encounter them when you become a rich and famous studio
musician in Atlanta, L.A. or Nashville!
You
know that every song is in a certain key such as C or G. The key gives us
the “tonal center” of a song, which is the chord to which the song
naturally seems to resolve. Most songs in the key of C, for instance, will
start and end with a C chord (there are exceptions of course). This tonal
center, C, is known as the tonic chord, and is labeled with the Roman
numeral I. The second step chord, D, is II; the third step, E, is III; the
fourth, F, is IV and so on. However, in a chord progression built upon a
harmonized major scale, not every chord will be major. Therefore lower
case numerals (i, ii, iii, iv….) are used to designate minor chords.
This
system allows the musician to establish the best key for, say, a vocalist.
The chords keep the same intervals relative to the tonic.
Confusing? Say I’m
in the key of C, and my first two chords are C and Dm. The singer says,
“That’s just a bit too low for me to sing comfortably. Could we raise
the key a bit?” If I played
the “I” chord as C, and the “ii” chord as Dm, I can mentally move
up one step (that’s the interval
I just mentioned) . . . now the “I” chord becomes D, and the “ii”
chord becomes Em.
The
progression I / vi / ii / V7, in the key of C, would give the chords
C / Am / Dm / G7. What
would the chords be in the key of G?