Chord Notations¶

Chord Notation is the note naming convention in music.

Songbook supports several chord notations:

English - used in most countries.

Names for the 12 notes:

A, A# or Bb, B, C, C# or Db, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab

Minor chords are denoted by appending m to the main note name (eg. Em).
German (#/b) - used in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden.

Names for the 12 notes:

A, A# or B, H, C, C# or Db, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab

Minor chords are denoted by lowercase note name (eg. e is E minor).
German (is/es) - alternative German notation.

Names for the 12 notes:

A, Ais or B, H, C, Cis or Des, D, Dis or Es, E, F, Fis or Ges, G, Gis or As

Minor chords are denoted by lowercase note name.
Dutch - used in Netherlands, Indonesia.

Names for the 12 notes:

A, Ais or Bes, B, C, Cis or Des, D, Dis or Es, E, F, Fis or Ges, G, Gis or As

Minor chords are denoted by appending m to the main note name.
Japanese - used in Japan.

Names for the 12 notes:

I, Ei-i or Hen-ro, Ro, Ha, Ei-ha or Hen-ni, Ni, Ei-ni or Hen-ho, Ho, He, Ei-he or Hen-to, To, Ei-to or Hen-i

Minor chords are denoted by appending m to the main note name.
Solfege - used in Italy, France, Spain, Romania, Russia, Latin America, Greece, Israel, Turkey, Latvia.

Names for the 12 notes:

La, La# or Sib, Si, Do, Do# or Reb, Re, Re# or Mib, Mi, Fa, Fa# or Solb, Sol, Sol# or Lab

Minor chords are denoted by appending m to the main note name.

You can pick your favourite chord notation in the Settings.

Default chord notation had already been set automatically depending on your system language since some chord notations are used only in particular countries.

Note

Name B in music can denote completely different notes depending on the chord notation. According to English notation B is the note being 1 semitone lower than C, while according to German notation it's the sound that is 2 semitones lower than C (so it's English Bb). Thus, it's extremely important to specify the appropriate chord notation before interpreting chords.

Note

German chord notation changes note names to lowercase in case of a minor chord, eg. d (instead of English Dm). Songbook takes that into account too.

What's the difference between C# or Db?

Basically, it depends on the key you're working on. In music, you don't mix sharps and flats in one song. Also, you avoid using the same note letter (with different modifiers) more than once in the same scale in classical theory.

For instance, F major key consists of notes: F, G, A, Bb (or A#), C, D, E.

It makes sense to write it with flats F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, so each letter occurs only once.

If you write it with sharps F, G, A, A#, C, D, E, you end up with A occurring twice (in 2 variants) and no B at all. It seems to be more wrong.

Thus, it depends on the key context. Sometimes it's better to call it C# (eg. in D major key) and sometimes it makes more sense to call it Db (eg. in Ab / G# major key).

Songbook takes that into account when displaying chords, once it detects a key.