# Chord names, numerals or functions

In scales and progressions, choose how the app asks for each chord: by its name, as a Roman or Arabic numeral, or by its function in the key.

## One chord, five ways to ask for it

In a scale or a progression, every chord has a place in the key, so the app can ask for it by that place instead of by its letters. The **Question label style** setting decides which. For the second chord of C major:

- **Chord name**: Dm (the default)
- **Roman numeral**: ii
- **Roman + quality**: ii, where capitals mean major, lower case minor, ° diminished and + augmented
- **Arabic numeral**: 2
- **Function**: supertonic

What you play does not change. Only the question does.

![The practice screen on the C major scale in triads: the question reads “ii”, with the chart C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C above it and D F A shown on the keyboard.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/question-label/roman.webp)

> The [chord chart](https://pianokitty.com/features/chart) above the question and the [hints](https://pianokitty.com/features/hints) below it still name the notes. To really read the numerals, turn them off.

## Why think in numbers

A numeral names the chord’s role in the key, not its letters, so ii–V–I is the same three steps in every key. Once you can play it from the numerals, a new key is only a new starting note. That is also how many musicians write chord charts: the Nashville number system uses plain Arabic numerals, and harmony lessons use the function names.

![The question “2” in root position, with nothing else on the screen to give the chord away.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/question-label/arabic.webp)

![The question “supertonic” in root position.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/question-label/function.webp)

## Where to set it

The setting is on the Scales and Progressions tabs of [Preferences](https://pianokitty.com/preferences). Chords and songs always ask by chord name. Roman + quality needs a scale in triads or seventh chords; for progressions, single notes, intervals and non-diatonic scales it shows plain Roman numerals.

It can also go in a [link](https://pianokitty.com/features/links): **qls=roman**, **romanQuality**, **arabic** or **function**.

![The Question label style setting in Preferences, set to Roman + quality (ii V vii°).](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/question-label/settings.webp)

## Ask it differently

- Try it: [ii–V–I in numerals](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=progressions&prog=ii,V,I&key=C&seq=inOrder&qls=roman): Roman numerals, key of C.
- Try it: [ii–V–I by function](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=progressions&prog=ii,V,I&key=C&seq=inOrder&qls=function): Supertonic, dominant, tonic.
- Try it: [C major in numbers](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=scales&key=C&mode=major&voicing=triads&seq=inOrder&qls=arabic): The scale in triads, 1 to 7.
- Try it: [Numerals with quality](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=scales&key=C&mode=major&voicing=triads&seq=inOrder&qls=romanQuality): I ii iii IV V vi vii°.

Related: [Chord progressions](https://pianokitty.com/features/progressions.md), [Scales, and the chords inside them](https://pianokitty.com/features/scale-practice.md), [Modes of the major scale](https://pianokitty.com/features/modes.md)

Source: https://pianokitty.com/features/question-label