## Chord Symbol

A chord symbol is the letter name printed above the staff — C, Am, G7 — naming the harmony so you can play it your own way rather than note for note.

It is a different kind of instruction from notation: the staff says exactly what to play, a chord symbol says what will fit. Lead sheets and songbooks use them because an accompaniment is a choice, not a transcription.


## How To Spot Chord Symbol

Capital letters above the top staff, often with small suffixes: m for minor, 7 for a dominant seventh, maj7, sus4.


## Find It In Thirty Seconds

Find a chord symbol, play the chord in the right hand and its root in the left, and keep time with the melody. That is an accompaniment, and it is a genuinely useful two-minute skill.

Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.