Roman Numeral Analysis

4. Variations

Roman numeral analysis was invented over 200 years ago. Through long history, some variations were devised. The famous one is to use lowercase letters for minor chords.

It excels at tidiness. Or there’s an even more casual style, where Arabic numerals are used instead of Roman numerals.

All the way simplicity first. Yes, yes, who on the earth is more familiar with Roman numerals than Arabic? In particular, it make great sense to use this style in informal plain text communication like SNS.

In this text I’m gonna sometimes use these casual styles for better readability.

5. Degrees in Minor Key

So far the story is based on major key environment. What about minor key? In A minor key, for example, A_m chord will wear the “uniform” No.1 as a matter of course.

Common style in Classical theory

Or Jazz theory, typically the one spread from Berklee College of Music, proposes a slightly different style.

Common style in Jazz theory

♭ symbol is added to III, VI and VII for some reasons. I suppose this system is prevailing in general “popular music theory” too.

Monism or Dualism

So in traditional music theories, you must distinguish major/minor keys because the degrees assigned to chords differs according to it.

Which uniforms will they wear?

But this “dualistic” system brings about serious problems; as there are cases where you cannot tell the key of a song.

A_mCFC

This is a typical instance. Which do you think it is, major key or minor key?—The answer may vary.

It ends with C and large portion of the chord progression is made up with major chords. C appears as twice frequently as Am. In terms of mood, I see a brightly illuminated DJ fest. This is in C major key. 6-1-4-1 prgoression.

No. It starts with Am and melody lines emphasize A note repeatedly. In terms of mood, I see a dark underground club. It’s in A minor key. 1-3-6-3 progression.

Oh you need to summon jury for the verdict😌
This can quite easily happen because, as mentioned in the article “Monism in Tonality”, it is common today that artists make songs in between major key and minor key.

Realistically, there’s no objective way to judge major/minor key in those new music.

Either analysis could be right

Six-Based Minor

Considering this, LMT abolishes minor key degree system and simply reuse major key degrees. A_m is still labeled VI_m in A minor key, as well as C major key.

Roughly speaking, major key and minor key share the same uniforms. Between relative keys, the only difference is who wears the captain’s armband.

Relative keys share the same degree system

You know, the captain does not necessarily have to wear the uniform No.1😉
By thinking this way, you can avoid the meaningless quarrels regarding degrees.

I think it’s major key. 6-1-4-1 progression.

Well I think it’s minor key……but anyway 6-1-4-1 progression. I agree.

Degrees are consistent in either case

And another big advantage is; the labor of learning Roman numeral system is simply halved! Such methods are seriously discussed in the academic filed too, under the name of Six-Based Minor.

LMT adopts six-based minor system to keep better compatibility with 21^st century’s popular music. As to the traditional RNA system, it will be fully explained in Chapter II & VII.

Summary

• To discuss chords without sticking to a specific key as example, we have to relativize chords.
• So we use Roman numerals, which is called the degrees of chords.
• In LMT, the two “relative” major/minor keys shares the same numbering.

Continue