Originally Posted by rharv
No, you are not wrong, in that if the piano player intended to play a C chord (and did) it is unambiguous in the simplest sense.
But again, three (or even 4) notes does not necessarily define a chord, as a few people have pointed out (theoretically).
I didn’t think you would disagree.

OK, we’ve established that the piano, and by extension, any instrument capable of playing multiple notes simultaneously can play unambiguous chords. And clearly, they can play ambiguous ones as well, like E – G.

So now let’s move on to Context 2 where we have a pianist and a bass player.
We saw that when the guitarist plays E-G (ambiguous chord)
If the bassist plays C we get Cmajor (1-3-5), pretty straight forward.

If the bassist plays D we get Dsus2sus4
My logic train:
1. Reference scale is Dmaj: D E F# G A B C#
2. The note pile D-E-G is a 1-2-4
3. The 3rd (F#) is missing in the pile, therefore it’s a suspended chord
4. E indicates sus2
5. G indicates sus4
6. Because A (the 5th) is not specified, it is simply omitted
7. Final chord name: Dsus2sus4


If the bassist plays some other note, that too can create a different unambiguous chord from the ambiguous E-G chord.

I’ve always loved the bass, see my signature, but I’m only now gaining an appreciation of how important the bass player actually is.
I think all bass players deserve a pay raise, a personal Lear jet and maybe a summer home on the French Riviera laugh

But when you say "But again, three (or even 4) notes does not necessarily define a chord, as a few people have pointed out (theoretically)."
My understanding is that any combination of 2 or more notes does form a chord.

In Western music theory, a chord is a group of notes played together for their harmonic consonance or dissonance.
--Wikipedia

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