What in the world is an "E-" chord?

[RLetson]

Also: these notation conventions are not necessarily symmetrical or systematic. While, say, G- means G minor, G+ means G augmented, and G-with-a-superscripted-circle means G diminished. Then there are the triangles, slashed-circles, upper/lower-case M's, slash chords. . . .

[mr. beaumont]

Right, unfortunately there's no standard.

I do think, on a chord chart, the "minus" for minor, "delta" for maj7, "circle" for diminshed, "circle with a slash through it" for half diminished is very clean and easy to read. I wish it was standardized.

I played a gig once with a guy who handed us all handwritten charts...he used capital M's for major chords, and lowercase m's for minor, and all of his M's had rounded tops.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

I've played a zillion years and never knew that. I guess we learn something new every day!

Yes, E- = Em is new to me. I guess I have not hung out with enough jazz players!

It's good to learn something new!

- Glenn

[jtreagan]

Thanks, everyone. I tried both the Edim and Em and Em seems to work the best. Thanks for all the replies!

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by jazzereh

Very normal way to write a minor chord. See it all the time in jazz charts and likely in many other forms of music as well. So, Emin or E- is the same thing.

Yes, everything I learned about lead sheets came from the 'original' Real Book.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

…I played a gig once with a guy who handed us all handwritten charts...he used capital M's for major chords, and lowercase m's for minor, and all of his M's had rounded tops.

HI Jeff…

So some of those chords were extra jazzy?

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

HI Jeff…

So some of those chords were extra jazzy?

Avant Garde is the preferred term, I think.

[Brent Hahn]

Some of it has to do with how much space you have. Jazz & some Standards have a lot of chord changes, and a lot of those are seriously altered, so you have to save space. Also, Fake Books tend to jam the most songs into the least pages, so you'll get the chord shorthand plus lots of repeats, multiple numbered endings, DS's, signs, codas etc.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

Some of it has to do with how much space you have.

Hi Brent…
Or the skill level of the musicians you are playing with. People who play together often develop their own short-hand, and make a lot of musical assumptions.

Some people I play with need full scores for everything, and others need 8 bars of hen scratch and they’re good to go.

I agree with Jeff that there is no unified system that everyone understands. I was teaching guitar on a trip to Mexico at an orphanage to teen beginners, and they use Solfège (fixed DO), and Europeans us Sliding DO. It was a really fun day, but I was scrambling when we were playing in the key of SO (G). I was thankful for 5 yrs of Spanish so I could say major-minor-seven-etc combined with chord names.

I also know Nashville numbers, and Figured Bass (classical) and several other guitar languages…and I can write scores from my head. My main use for all of them is to be able to understand and be up-to-speed quickly so we can make music.

It’s like being multi-lingual.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Right, unfortunately there's no standard.

Actually there is, in the sense that there is a common convention, or two or three couple of common conventions, consistent enough within themselves. Otherwise no one would be able follow charts...

But of course, there are amateurs and mavericks who don't follow those...
[QUOTE=mr. beaumont;6879464]
I do think, on a chord chart, the "minus" for minor, "delta" for maj7, "circle" for diminshed, "circle with a slash through it" for half diminished is very clean and easy to read. I wish it was standardized.[/qoute]It is in all the jazz charts I've ever used, although they're often combined with the other non-symbol convention. I.e.,

maj7 or Δ = major 7th. More rarely "M7", or "^7".

m7 or -7 = minor 7th.

dim7, °7 or ° = diminished 7th (the triad is never used, so ° gets used on its own)

m7b5, ø7 or ø = half-diminished (the "7" is superfluous, but some still use it)

aug, or + = #5

All those are clear enough, not easily confused with the wrong chord type (except "M7" as you point out...). but jazz chart writers do sometimes get stupidly lazy and use - and + to mean flat and sharp, as in "C-7-5" (Cm7b5) or "C7+9" (C7#9, not C9#5).

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

I played a gig once with a guy who handed us all handwritten charts...he used capital M's for major chords, and lowercase m's for minor, and all of his M's had rounded tops.

Right! There's no accounting for outliers like that. Likewise, the illiterates who write "C+9" to mean C9#5 (or do they mean C7#9?? ), when "C9+" is much less ambiguous. And of course C9#5 is clearer still.

IOW, there is certainly leeway for getting the conventions wrong, but that's only like people spelling words wrong. It doesn't mean there are "no standards".
"Color" is spelled "Colour" if you're British, but it's only spelled "Kuller" if you're an idiot.