Chord Abbreviations

These are some of the common abbreviations I use for chords in discussing my music.

I’m not including the common ones, like Dm7 for “D minor seventh”; I’m specifying the abbreviations and symbols I use which vary from the standard or choose a particular variant within a standard.

These symbols show up fine in my browser (Firefox on Debian GNU/Linux); I hope they show up for you as well.

• ∆ — major seventh chord. Example: C∆ = C, E, G, B. I often substitute C6, C69, Cmaj9, Cmaj13 for this chord, so let’s just say ∆ stands for “major seventh sounding chord.”
• µ — melodic minor chord (jazz minor). Example: Cµ = C Eb G B. This symbol, the Greek equivalent of English “m”, represents any melodic minor sounding chord. Now, I won’t get into why, but practically anything with notes from the melodic minor scale will work, so I substitute freely on this one. Typically, I play it as CmMaj7, Cm69, or mindbenders like F9#11/C and Eb∆+/C.
• ° — diminished chord. Rare in my compositions, since I usually like to play it as the equivalent 7b9 chord; still, handy to know.
• ø — minor 7 flat 5 chord. Example: Cø = C Eb Gb Bb. Again, the version I play of this chord springs from melodic minor harmony, specifically the sixth mode of the melodic minor scale. Therefore, if you go up a minor third from the root, in this case from C to Eb, you find the melodic minor scale that fits best, in this case Ebµ. I feel free to play any combination of notes from this key, so long as they make sense; often, Cø might be played as D7alt/C, Ab9#11/C, Ebµ/C, etc.
• % — repeat chord from previous bar.
• / — slash chord.  Example: D/C = D major triad over C bass = C A D F# (which is just one possibility).