A quick question on the way a chord is spelled.

[No name]

I'm having trouble understand certain names of chords, right now I'm looking through the minor chord progressions, and I continually come across such a chord: #vii0. I know that it means vii diminished, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to do when I see the sharp in front of it like in my example. Am I supposed to raise the root by a semitone, or what?

So let us assume I am in the Harmonic minor, and I am in D minor. The keys for D harmonic minor are:
D-E-F-G-A-A#-C#

So the chords would be:
D-F-A
E-G-A#
F-A-C#
G-A#-C#
A-C#-E
A#-D-F

But the last chord I cannot seem to figure out, I mean, I'm sure it is C#-E-G, and if it is then I can't seem to figure out how we got there! I am gonna guess and say that perhaps the sharp in front of the vii0 means that, instead of jumping one whole note, you should jump 1 1/2 whole notes.

[MaliceX]

Chords used would generally be:

eg: C Major
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim, C

C natural minor
Cm. Ddim, D#/Eb, Fm, Gm, G#/Ab, A#/Bb

If you remove the ABCDEFG letters, you got yourself an order of chords used in awhatever scale. ARen't there like tables for this type of thing?

Oh, and #vii basically means, you sharpen the base note of chord VII.

eg: C natural minor, chord VII would be:
Bb, D, F

#vii would then read:
B, D, F (which equates to Bdim, the same VII chord combination used in C Major)

Hope this helps.

[No name]

I see, thanks a lot.

[nuffink]

I'm having trouble understand certain names of chords, right now I'm looking through the minor chord progressions, and I continually come across such a chord: #vii0. I know that it means vii diminished, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to do when I see the sharp in front of it like in my example. Am I supposed to raise the root by a semitone, or what?

So let us assume I am in the Harmonic minor, and I am in D minor. The keys for D harmonic minor are:
D-E-F-G-A-A#-C#

So the chords would be:
D-F-A
E-G-A#
F-A-C#
G-A#-C#
A-C#-E
A#-D-F

But the last chord I cannot seem to figure out, I mean, I'm sure it is C#-E-G, and if it is then I can't seem to figure out how we got there! I am gonna guess and say that perhaps the sharp in front of the vii0 means that, instead of jumping one whole note, you should jump 1 1/2 whole notes.

Why are you confused? You seem to have understood how to construct the D Harmonic Minor scale (tone semitone tone tone semitone tone-and-a-half semitone).
The only slight error I can see is in the naming of the notes. The idea is to try and avoid two notes with the same name in the scale so you'd normally use Bb instead of A# since there's already an A. C# is correct since there's no C but there is a (D ruling out Db).

So the whole scale looks like D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C# but this really is nitpicking. Especially since it's also considered bad form, if you can avoid it, to mix sharps and flats in a scale.

[Toxikator]

The chords are

D-F-A
E-G-Bb
F-A-C#
G-Bb-D
A-C#-E
Bb-D-F
C#-E-G
D-F-A

[No name]

See, here is my problem...and I just think I haven't wrapped my mind around it enough. Right now I am using the melodic minor, and I am in the key of F#/Gb. So the chords are...

Gb-A-C#
G#-B-D#
A-C#-F
B-D#-Gb
C#-F-G#
And then I get to:
#vii0

Then it doesn't make much sense to me, If I started on the next note of the scale (which would be D#) then it would have only moved a whole tone, but if I sharpen that then I am out of key (I would land on E). So perhaps I am being blind, but I just don't get it. If I sharpen the root of that chord then I have gone out of key.

I also hope I got the spelling of the chords right by using Gb instead of F#, as nuffink mentioned it would be best not to use the same note name twice.

[JumpingJackFlash]

I'm having trouble understand certain names of chords, right now I'm looking through the minor chord progressions, and I continually come across such a chord: #vii0. I know that it means vii diminished, but I don't understand what I'm supposed to do when I see the sharp in front of it like in my example. Am I supposed to raise the root by a semitone, or what?

So let us assume I am in the Harmonic minor, and I am in D minor. The keys for D harmonic minor are:
D-E-F-G-A-A#-C#

So the chords would be:
D-F-A
E-G-A#
F-A-C#
G-A#-C#
A-C#-E
A#-D-F

But the last chord I cannot seem to figure out, I mean, I'm sure it is C#-E-G, and if it is then I can't seem to figure out how we got there! I am gonna guess and say that perhaps the sharp in front of the vii0 means that, instead of jumping one whole note, you should jump 1 1/2 whole notes.

Others have already said most of this, but just to reiterate;
The key signature of D minor has one flat. - That's B-flat. Enharmonically, it is the same sound as A#, but the spelling is important.
Each scale (and therefore each key) has one version of each note, and only one. That means, a key must have either A, A#, or Ab, but it cannot have more than one of these.

So, according to key signature ONLY (i.e., the natural minor), we have:
D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C, D

However, as you know, in the harmonic minor, the seventh note is raised by one semitone. - In this case, C becomes C-sharp. Therefore, the notes of D harmonic minor are:
D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C#, D

A triad, can be built from any note of the scale. Triads consist of two lots of thirds. - All the notes of the triad are normally diatonic unless indicated otherwise. - That is, they all belong to the overall key signature (D minor in this case).

So, a triad built on the seventh note of D minor would be:
C#, E, G. - All three notes belong to the key of D harmonic minor.

Notice that C#, E, G is a diminished triad. - That means, it consists of two minor thirds.

Now, possibly one major problem here is that there are different systems of notation.

One possibility (which I think is most likely here), is that the numerals are notated, not according to the diatonic harmonic minor, but according to the natural minor. Thus in #vii°, the # means that the root note (C) is sharpened. The ° means the triad is diminished. - This, in turn, tells you the other notes of the triad. - Without that, it could possibly mean a minor chord on that note (C#, E, G# for example). So, #vii° is just a complicated way of saying a diminished triad, built on the seventh degree of the natural minor scale, with sharpened root.

Another possibility would have the numerals notated 'relative' to the major scale on the same key-note. Thus the chords of the harmonic minor would be notated: i II° bIII+ iv V bVI vii° In this systems, the sharp would still mean to raise the root note by a semitone, thus #vii° would be a diminished chord build on C-double sharp. (Cx, E#, G#).

There are other possibilities too, but one of these triads is always the likely outcome.

[JumpingJackFlash]

See, here is my problem...and I just think I haven't wrapped my mind around it enough. Right now I am using the melodic minor, and I am in the key of F#/Gb. So the chords are...

Gb-A-C#
G#-B-D#
A-C#-F
B-D#-Gb
C#-F-G#
And then I get to:
#vii0

Then it doesn't make much sense to me, If I started on the next note of the scale (which would be D#) then it would have only moved a whole tone, but if I sharpen that then I am out of key (I would land on E). So perhaps I am being blind, but I just don't get it. If I sharpen the root of that chord then I have gone out of key.

I also hope I got the spelling of the chords right by using Gb instead of F#, as nuffink mentioned it would be best not to use the same note name twice.

Please remember key signatures. - All scales/keys have a key signature consisting of flats OR sharps (but not both). - Any raised 6th and 7th though are NOT part of the key signature, and may be sharpened in flat keys. My post here tells you how to work out key signatures. Also, there is a list of the notes in every key here.

You are using F# minor. The notes of the natural minor on F# are:
F#, G#, A, B, C#, D, E

Note, there is not really such a thing as Gb minor, since the key signature would have to contain Bbb and Ebb. Since key signatures cannot contain double-flats, this key is a practical impossibility.

In the ascending melodic minor, the 6th and 7th notes are raised by one semitone each. Therefore, the notes become:
F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E#
(Descending, it is the same as above).

Triads are again possible on any note. On the ascending melodic minor:
F#, A, C# - F# minor.
G#, B, D# - G# minor.
A, C# E# - A augmented.
B, D#, F# - B major.
C#, E#, G# - C# major.
D#, F#, A - D# diminished.
E# G# B - E# diminished.

On the descending melodic minor:
F# A C# - F# minor.
G# B D - G# diminished.
A C# E - A major.
B D F# - B minor.
C# E G# - C# minor.
D F# A - D major.
E G# B - E major.

There's nothing wrong with going out of key, often chromatic chords are used (especially diminished sevenths), for a particular effect. - It depends on exactly what system of notation you are using as to what #vii° actually means. - It might be purely diatonic, then again it might be completely chromatic (see my earlier post).