Throughout history, musicians have used different kinds of shorthand simply to save time. In the Baroque era the language of figured bass – where the numbers (figures) dictated the diatonic intervals to be voiced above any given bass note – allowed composers to draw upon the improvising skills of the performers to generate the sounds they needed.
In jazz, pop and other related music, the language of chord symbols fulfils the same function but there is a marked difference between the two harmonic languages: one is largely diatonic and guided by the key-signature, while the other is more chromatic and independent of key.
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