SYMBOLS THAT ARE USED

Altered/added/omitted tones may or may not be present in a chord. When present they are annotated in the parenthesis and are interpreted as a list of intervals relative to the chord root. 

ALTERED/ADDED TONES

OMITTED TONES

BASS TONES

The bass tone is annotated using the slash (/) and a note name. Often, bass tones are not annotated. In such a case, the absence of bass tones does not mean that all the chords are in the root position. However, when bass tones are annotated, a chord that is written without a bass tone is in the root position.

ANNOTATING HARMONY

When annotating harmony, keys and chords are annotated. Chords are annotated relative to the key. Certain kinds of harmonies are annotated with the special symbols.

KEYS

When annotating harmony, keys are annotated in the following way:

CHORDS

When annotating harmony, chords are annotated in the following way:

The root of a chord is annotated with the Roman numeral that shows the scale degree relative to the current key. The Roman numeral is in the upper case when the interval between the chord root and the chord third is the major third (major chords, augmented chords, dominant chords and augmented-major chords). The Roman numeral is in the lower case when the interval between the chord root and the chord third is the minor third (minor chords, diminished chords, half-diminished chords and minor-major chords). 

The chord quality is annotated in a similar way as when annotating chords, however with some minor differences. Chord inversions are annotated using the figured bass.

The following symbols are used to annotate chords in the root position.  

TRIAD CHORDS IN ROOT POSITION 

In harmony analysis of compositions from the common practice period, the eleventh and thirteenth chords occur practically never.         

INVERSIONS

The following symbols are used to annotate inversions of chords. The symbols for the root position were already given above and are repeated here for convenience.

Triad chords 

The same numerals as above are also used for annotating the positions of the other chord names. For instance, I+6 is used for the augmented triad chord in the first inversion. Non-abbreviated figured bass symbols (written above in the parenthesis) are not used. The only exception is when the same triad chord changes from an inversion to the root position and the repetition of the same Roman numeral is omitted: 

In harmony analysis of compositions from the common practice period, ninth chords appear rarely. Inversions of ninth chords (or any other chord that spans more than one octave in the root close position) are not standardized and are annotated always as they are in the root position.

ENHARMONIC EQUIVALENCE

ADDITIONAL SYMBOLS

Secondary chords

Neapolitan chord

Augmented sixth chords

Harmonic sequence

A horizontal line labeled with “SEQ” which connects all elements of the harmonic sequence

Common tone diminished seventh chord

Common tone augmented sixth chord

Common tone chromatic mediant chord

A horizontal line labeled with “CT” which connects related chords