|What chord is formed by d, e, and g?| Question: What chord is
formed by d, e, and g? -B.B. Answer: The thing to do is to
arrange the mystery notes so that they could form a stack of
thirds, positioned as close as possible: If you do that you'll
find that E is the lowest tone in the stack, with G next, B is
missing, and D makes the top note. So this is a reasonable
voicing of the E minor 7th chord, missing its fifth. If one is
going to leave out a note in a seventh chord, the fifth is the
preferred victim. Update: Songworks 3 provides a shortcut if
I've gone fishing: play those notes when in the "chord layer" of
Songworks and it will tell you the following. Notice that the
chord is described as being in "third inversion." That means
that the note a seventh above the root has been moved to the
bass position: Return to Q&A Index