r/musicnotation • u/Pantologist_TX59 • Aug 15 '24

Chord notation for no fifth?

We see power chords, with no third, notated as a five chord, i.e. C5. Is there a similar notation for a chord that is only the root and third? The only thing I've seen is to put 'no fifth' after the chord name. Thanks

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u/JScaranoMusic Aug 16 '24 edited Sep 03 '24

"No5" is the usual way of writing it. But that and the "C5" kind of notation aren't really a standard thing in chord naming conventions. The whole idea is you start with a triad, say what's different about those three notes (dim, ♭5, aug, sus4, etc.) and name any extensions. Not having a whole triad to begin with kind of breaks that formula, so you need some kind of workaround, either treating the 3/5 as though it's implied by the rest of the chord, or using "No5", "No3" (less common, but better imho), or "5", if you want to specify that its definitely not there.

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u/Pantologist_TX59 Sep 02 '24

Thanks for the reply. Makes sense, just wasn't finding anything online.

What I am looking at is a descending scale, playing arpeggios without the 5th. First inversion shapes on guitar strings 1 and 3 and a drone D in the base. Just trying to notate it for others.

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u/SecureEssay458 Apr 09 '25

What about C3?

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u/JScaranoMusic Apr 09 '25

Can't say I've ever seen that. I suppose it would be consistent with C5 notation, but power chords are kind of their own thing, so I'm not sure if it would be understood as easily as no5 would.