page_title: Abbreviation (music)
section_title: Chord abbreviations used in music theory
hierarchical_section_title: Abbreviation (music) / Chord abbreviations used in music theory
caption_attribution_description: Scale degree roman numerals (C major scale).
context_page_description: Abbreviations in music are of two kinds, namely, abbreviations of terms related to musical expression, and the true musical abbreviations by the help of which certain passages, chords, etc., may be notated in a shortened form, to the greater convenience of both composer and performer. Abbreviations of the first kind are like most abbreviations in language; they consist for the most part of the initial letter or first syllable of the word employed—as for instance, p or f for the dynamic markings piano and forte, cresc. for crescendo, Ob. for oboe, Fag. for bassoon.
context_section_description: There are also abbreviations relating to music analysis, some of which are of great value. In figured bass, for instance, the various chords are expressed by figures, and the several authors in the nineteenth century invented or availed themselves of various methods of shortly expressing the different chords and intervals, particularly using Roman numeral analysis.
  Gottfried Weber represents an interval by a number with one or two dots before it to express minor or diminished, and one or two after it for major or augmented.
  Johann Anton André makes use of a right triangle to express a triad, and a square, for a seventh chord, the inversions being indicated by one, two, or three small vertical lines across their base, and the classification into major, minor, diminished, or augmented by the numbers 1, 2, 3, or 4, placed in the centre.
caption: Root position triads of the C major scale indicated using Roman numeral analysis.[1] About this soundPlay (help·info)
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