Help: guitar chords auf Deutsch

Subject: guitar chords auf Deutsch
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 May 01 - 09:32 PM

Next week our band is getting together to do early music, and as it's May, we are doing a 16th-Century tune called Tanzlied im Mai.

We are getting acquainted with how chords are noted in German music (small letters mean a minor chord, H is our B, B is our B-flat.) But now we want to seem even more worldly. Now we want to know the following:

How do you say "flat" as in A-flat?
How do you say "sharp" as in F sharp?
How do you say "major" and "minor"?

I figured out that fis is F#minor, but "is" doesn't look like a German word to me. Is it short for something else? And how is it pronounced?

Danke sehr.

Subject: RE: Help: guitar chords auf Deutsch
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 May 01 - 02:34 AM

Hopefully, Wolfgang or one of the others in Germany will see this tomorrow morning and answer you, but in the meantime, these might help a little bit:

Deutsche Tabs

About the German H chord

Subject: RE: Help: guitar chords auf Deutsch
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 07 May 01 - 04:23 AM

Hi, you two,

I'm German and I hope I can help you.

Major = Dur (from Latin durus, hard) Minor = Moll (from Latin mollis, soft)

Flat = name of chord + es (for example, G flat would be ges, the "es" is pronounced like what comes after the g in "guess"), E flat would be Es (pronounced like the English letter S) and so on.

Sharp = name of chord + is: F sharp is fis (the "is" syllable is pronounced with a short i, as in "fish"), C sharp is Cis (pron. tsiss) and so on.

I don't think these are abbreviations, just a way of denoting sharp or flat. Don't know exactly, though - maybe someone else can help here.

Hope I could help you.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

Subject: RE: Help: guitar chords auf Deutsch
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 May 01 - 09:06 AM

Thanks to both of you.

Subject: RE: Help: guitar chords auf Deutsch
From: Wolfgang
Date: 07 May 01 - 09:49 AM

Mad Maudlin has perfectly stated the rules, so here are the exceptions:

If the name of the chord is a vowel, then for 'flat' you do not add 'es' but just 's', so Aflat becomes 'As' and Eflat 'Es'. Pronounciation guide for Ais and Eis: pronounce the vowels separately.

H (which is termed B for you) in the flat mode does not become Hes, but B. So your B is our H and your Bflat is our B. Easy, eh?

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help: guitar chords auf Deutsch
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 07 May 01 - 12:45 PM

Oh yeah, Wolfgang, I forgot that. thanks!