When I was in college I had a really good music theory teacher that taught me so much. I really enjoyed his classically oriented classes. One day we learned about Neapolitan Chords. We’d write them out on the blackboard and play them on the piano. Once we did it successfully then we’d have some Neapolitan ice cream. LOL.
So what is a Neapolitan Chord? It’s a major chord built on the flattened second degree of a scale. Let’s review what a C Major scale looks like on the treble staff…
And now on the piano keyboard…
If you notice the second degree of the C major scale is D. If you lower that by a half step it would be D flat. Therefore the Neapolitan chord would be D flat major. Let’s construct a D flat major triad in root position. D flat, F, A flat.
In classical music the Neapolitan chord is often expressed in first inversion. That means the root of the chord would be F, followed by the A flat, followed by the D flat. Let’s see what that looks like…
Probably the most famous example of the use of a Neapolitan chord in piano music is Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The song is in C# minor. The Neapolitan chord is in the 3rd measure about 10 seconds into the piece where the chord moves into D major on the 3rd and 4th beats….
Until next time practice building Neapolitan chords!
Thank you so much for posting this!! My employment keeps me extremely busy, making it difficult for me to check my email on a daily basis, sometimes I don’t even check it on a weekly basis but I do want to say this was extremely informational. I am trying to teach myself (whenever possible) to play a few notes on the piano which have been unsuccessful, BUT this helps, so THANK YOU! A little motivation never hurt anyone 🙂