Piano Music Grammar - Harmonic Symbols, Part Two

1. I - IV - II - V - I
2. I - VI - IV - II - V - I
3. I - V - I - IV - V - I

Although these phrases may look mysterious, they are actually very simple to understand. Each indicates a progression of chords that make up a musical phrase. Each roman numeral represents the corresponding degree of the scale on which the chord is built, and remember, from part one of this article, that any of these phrases can be played in any key.

Let's assume that we are playing in the key of C, so that we can talk about specific notes. The C major scale is: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The first note of the scale, C, would be called "the first degree," the second note is "the second degree," etc. The first phrase above indicates the following scale degrees from the key of C:

C - F - D - G - C

This means that the chord progression consists of the triad in the key of C that has C as the root, followed by the triad that has F as the root, etc. Here are the chords in the progression:

C major - F major - D minor - G major - C major

Progressions numbered 2 and 3 are as follows:

C major - A minor - F major - D minor - G major - C major
C major - G major - C major - F major - G major - C major

Now, how would we translate a section of piano music into harmonic symbols? It can be easily done in 2 steps:

Step 1: Determine the root of each chord in the musical phrase.
Step 2: Take those roots and translate them into degrees of the key.

For instance:
- The chords of a phrase are F major - Bb major - C major - F major.
- The key signature shows that we are in the key of F major (one flat - Bb)
- The F major scale is: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F
- The chords in the phrase are built on the following notes: F, Bb, C and F, which translates to the first, fourth, fifth and first degrees of the scale. So, the harmonic symbols would be: I - IV - V - I

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