A friend pointed me to this site.
//http://www.gootar.com/piano/index.html

You can enter a set of notes and it will tell you a chord name - quite often more than one.

Example: D-F-A-C (which I would call Dm7). It also gave it the name F6 which also makes sense.

My question is how do you know when to call this chord Dm7 and when to call it F6?

It depends on your understanding of chord progressions, i.e. at a given spot in the piece, whether an F chord (or a Dm chord) fits or "owns", so to speak, that spot.

I'm barely beginning to learn about chord progressions. Could you give me an example or two?

A very typical one is I vi ii V = C Am Dm G in the key of C.
another related one is I vi IV V = C Am F G in the key of C.

But this isn't a good example of the difference between naming your D-F-A-C chord F6 or Dm. Because if your chord is found in the 3rd position of the above 2 progressions, the chord could be either considered an ii (in the first progression), or a IV in the 2nd progression. Both would be legitimate.

But let's say the chord in question is A-C-E-F, Am6. But it can also be regarded as F-A-C-E, Fmaj7.

So let's say you find this chord in the 3rd position of the progressions above. You'd consider that chord to be an Fmaj7, fitting into the 2nd progression.

If you consider the chord an Am6 chord, you would be looking at a I vi V progression, which would have a different "logic" behind it.

Hope this makes sense.

As Rosanna wrote, it's a matter of context - like words with two or more meanings. The context of the sentence gives you a clue which meaning of a word applies.
So keep a lookout what's happening right before and after this chord, harmonically.
In many cases the note in the bass gives you a clue, as it "carries" the sound or serves as a foundation. So if you have A-C-E-F with another "a" in the bass, chances are that you are looking at an Am chord.

If I am trying to put chords to a song where I just have the melody notes, would it matter what I call the chord?

In math when you have fractions, you express them in the simplest way. For example, if you see 5/15, you bring it down to 1/3. Is there a simplify principle for naming chords?

Look at the key signature. The chord names will be relative to the key signature. If the key signature is two flats, it is Bb. when a Bb triad is what goes with your melody line it is called a Bb chord, not an A#. when an F chord is appropriate it is called F, not E#. The chord's name will correspond to a note in the scale of the key signature. To know whether the chord is a Dm or an F6 you would have to analyze the music theory, the harmony, revealed in the melody. Rosanna is doing that. I guess you can say that learning music theory is like learning fractions. The lowest common denominator depends on the key and the chord progressions shown by the melody. If you are just making notes so you can remember what to play, it does not matter what you call it. If you are writing it out for someone else it will matter so that it makes musical sense. There are forums where jazz buffs go on and on about the right name for a chord. Miles Davis used to tell musicians to just play it and figure out what to call it later.

Not always true.

Ok, with some exceptions. How's things in Decatur, county seat of Wise?

Great weather! Spring is a springing.

Could you elaborate or give an example when the chord is not named based on the scale tone? (I don't see why/when that would be the case.) Thanks.

Example 1, a commonly used cadence




Example 2, a progression used in a lot of pop songs




Example 1 is Eb major in the key of F

Example 2 is C sharp dim in the key of C

Concerning the difference between an F6 and a Dm7, I've always considered the bass note of either F or D to determine the chord name. If the music calls for one of these I use the other one as well occasionally just for variety. This is kind of funny but when I was beginning piano and learning chords by book as well as just studying how inversions worked; this particular chord interchangability (is this a word?) was the first one I realized.



For me, an Am6 would be A-C-E-F# as I see the chord drawn from an A scale. This is how I learned to put chords together. An A-C-E-F to me would be an inversion of an F Maj7.

The chord Am6 would be based on the A minor scale. The sixth degree of the A minor scale is F natural, not F#.

That doesn't sound goo to my ear though. Fmaj7 sounds better voiced as F, A, C, E

Monique,

to me, it's all about progression. In the context of a tune, the answer is often more clear.
When you tell me D F A C, I think first of a BbMaj7, but that doesn't make it more right than Dm7.

However, if the preceding chord was
Eb A D
Then BbMaj7 is a good bet.

If the next chord is D F G B
Then I'd say it's a Dm7.

The tools that show you the chord based on notes really are quite useless IMHO.
Better is to understand some music theory, and also, given a chord, understand your options as far as playing them.
In other words, if I show C7, what notes to you play? Your palette of options is huge.
Just as a painter would say, "make it read". You don't have to go with the primary color.

Works the other way. When you mix blue and yellow, the result can be:
blue
green
yellow

it really depends.

I would disagree with that.
I wouldn't look at scale degree, but rather intervals. A 6th interval is a 6th interval. So Am6 would call specifically the F#. So maybe
A - F# - D
or
A - E - F# - D

I hear A - F# - D as 2nd inversion of D major.

A - E - F# - D sounds like D sus2 inverted.

I hear no hint of Am there

haha, you're right, I totally messed up.

examples of Am6:
C - F# - B
or
C - E - F# - B

I don't know what went through my head.

sorry about that.

Thanks Joe for the examples.
I guess I see those chords that you showed as "not named by the scale tones" to be chords that are not part of diatonic chords of the scale. (e.g. Em would be the 7th diatonic chord of F.) I was thinking of diatonic chords only.

So logically, any chords of that nature (e.g. the Eb chord in the 1st example) can't be named by the scale tone - although they need to still be enharmonically correct, i.e. it's more appropriate to name the chord Eb and D#.

Thanks. I thought I "missed" something, but there is actually no discrepency in my understanding.

Rosanna, in chord charts that Eb would be bVII (flat 7).

Here is another example of a non scale chord from a real song. This is the middle 8 section from "Unchained Melody" and has a flat III chord.

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