The
46th Mississippi
Infantry

A complete discussion of Music Theory is outside the scope of these few pages. The intention here is to aid reenactors who wish to play period music at their Company Meetings and at events which they attend. If you are interested in a much more complete presentation of theory, I would suggest visiting another page such as:

Dan Smith's Guitar Chord Theory

Or - perhaps you should look into retaining the services of a Professional Music Instructor. 

The few pages at this site are literally just the bare bones, to help fellow reenactors learn to pick out songs to further enrich their impressions within this wonderful hobby.

Roman numerals are an easy way to notate chord progressions without being key specific. Roman numerals indicate the relationship of chords to one another and to the underlying key. They identify the root, quality, and inversion of a chord with respect to a given key. In the key of “A”, the Roman numeral “I” represents the “A” major chord, the “Bb” major chord in the key of “Bb,” the “B” major chord in the key of “B,” and so forth. Conventional chord symbols following a Roman numeral designate chord quality. The table below shows the Roman numerals used to represent different major chords in all twelve keys.

Key

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

A

A

B

C#

D

E

F#

G#

Bb/A#

Bb/A#

C

D

Eb/D#

F

G

A

B

B

C#

D#

E

F#

G#

A#

C

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

Db/C#

Db/C#

Eb/D#

F

Gb/F#

Ab/G#

Bb/A#

C

D

D

E

F#

G

A

B

C#

Eb/D#

Eb/D#

F

G

Ab/G#

Bb/A#

C

D

E

E

F#

G#

A

B

C#

D#

F

F

G

A

Bb

C

D

E

Gb/F#

Gb/F#

Ab/G#

Bb/A#

B

Db/C#

Eb/D#

F

G

G

A

B

C

D

E

F#

Ab/G#

Ab/G#

Bb/A#

C

Db/C#

Eb/D#

F

G

If a song was notated in this form, and the chords say are designated as:
I IV II V;

for the key of C these chords would be: C, F, D, G

Suppose you don't like playing an F chord, then by transposing to say the key of G, now the chords are: G, C, A, D

Chords may further be denoted as Im (minor) of V7 (seventh chord). Relative minors can also be refered to in lower case Roman numerals such as: vi which would be the same as VIm.