Polish guitar chords translated to English

♂

Dec 10, 10, 03:43 #1

Czezch, y'all!

I am an American who lived in Poland for 5 years, brought home a Polish wife and son, and miss Poland greatly!

What I need to know is how to understand the chords for Polish songs. How do you translate chords?

For instance, I just looked up Mędrcy świata....and some chords are upper-case and some lower-case. I guess the lower-case are minor chords? And what in Heaven's name is "H7"?

Is there some sort of chart that translates the chords?

Dzienki!!!!!

- Mark

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER ♀	Dec 10, 10, 03:51 #2
5 years? what does "Czezch" mean?

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Dec 10, 10, 09:36 #3
Cześć and dzięki :) Translating chords? They are as they are on an international scale, right?

alexw68

Dec 10, 10, 10:18 #4

Seanus:

They are as they are on an international scale, right?

Not quite, notation varies. A b9#13 is A aug in some people's books, Ao (superscripted o) in others. And so on, without getting started on do, re mi, fa, sol etc.

Do you have an example of one piece you can transcribe here? My Django Jazz trio here in PZ is Anglo-Greek-Polish so am getting fairly fluent at translating between the different conventions!

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Dec 10, 10, 10:21 #5
Aha, that must confuse the hell out of people! Simplicity is genius!

alexw68	Edited by: alexw68 Dec 10, 10, 10:35 #6
Seanus: Simplicity is genius! Good job I've no Indian musicians in the troupe: I.M: The melody's like this: sa re ga ma pa ti da ... Everyone else: WTF???

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂	Dec 10, 10, 10:36 #7
You'd be bald in no time through labouring on it ;)

alexw68	Dec 10, 10, 10:39 #8
That would explain a thing or two in the tonsorial department :)

smurfThreads: 46 Posts: 660 Joined: Sep 8, 09 ♂	Dec 10, 10, 11:34 #9
chords? who the hell uses chords anymore? tab!

TeffleThreads: 28 Posts: 2,105 Joined: Aug 26, 10 ♂	Dec 10, 10, 13:17 #10
smurf: tab! Different thing though. Tab is the notation of a sequence or combination of notes if the guitar line is mainly riff or solo based. Very often tablature is only supplied because there is no alternative but when chords are to be played they are usually simply noted as such e.g. Fm7, Am, Bdim etc etc although sometimes the more complex chords are tabbed too.

alexw68

Dec 10, 10, 21:16 #11

smurf:

chords? who the hell uses chords anymore?

Any competent rhythm section (ie one that knows 10 different ways to play F7) & any soloist who wants to see at a glance what scales/arpeggios they will use when improvising over it.

Anyway, We didn't answer the OP's question about H7 earlier. In so called German notation B corresponds to what is known elsewhere as B flat, while H is used for B natural or just plain B. H7, then, will be a B7 chord.

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory1.htm (see section 3 on this point)

cinekThreads: 1 Posts: 264 Joined: Nov 16, 07 ♂	Dec 13, 10, 10:26 #12
alexw68: B corresponds to what is known elsewhere as B flat To be precize: Eng. B = Pol. H Eng Bb = Pol. Bb Writing in Polish just 'B' is incorrect. It should be 'Bb' (B flat). Cinek

alexw68	Dec 13, 10, 11:34 #13
Thanks Cinek, will remember that. (goes to show how often we play in Bb ... )

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