Comment by danilafe

22 days ago

As a sibling comment said, it's a C major chord, but voiced one noted at a time. "usually" / in pop, you hear all the notes at once.

> but voiced one noted at a time

I think OP's point is that the very definition of a chord is a bunch of notes played at the same time.

  • Whereas when played separately it would be an referred to as an arpeggio. But in harmony we might still refer to it as a chord, as in saying, arpeggiate the C# minor (chord) to start moonlight sonata.

    This might better be described as arpeggiating C#m second inversion or even C#m/G# in the right over C# in the left...

    This is getting possibly-weird but you could call it an arpeggiation of G#sus4(#5)/C#

I think chords at least three notes played at once, with the exception of maybe power chords. Using your definition, every piece with two or more notes has chords :)

https://www.britannica.com/art/chord-music

  • As per my knowledge, and as per Britannica, a chord actually uses three or more notes. A two note structure is called a diad, which implies a bit of confusion in the term "power chord" (written as 5, as in G5, which == G D == 1 5).. as it is not by definition a chord but a diad.

    This may be a pedantic clarification, but that is the definition

    • TBH "definition" depends on the theory from which you're looking at the notes.

      In the eyes of the Common Practice two simultaneous notes are not chords; in rock they most definitely are; in EDM you don't even care, since timbre is all that matters; in jazz you'd say "it depends" (e.g. might even be a triad with an omitted 5th... depending on context!)

      Music theory is too post-hoc.