In the key of F major, what is the name of this chord? Help??

Question

Soprano F
Alto B flat
Tenor D
Bass A

In order I would have Bb, d, f, a. It appears that the 7th is in the bass. I maybe wrong. What chord is this?

No the a is not sharped.

Answer 1

Well... if you're in F major, that would be a IV4/2 (where IV7 has the root in the bass, IV6/5 has the 3rd in the bass, and IV4/3 has the 5th in the bass).

Now this is an odd chord to have for F major. I'm not sure in what context you're looking at this, but I'm assuming you're doing a Roman numeral analysis? Try looking ahead a few chords, and see if you have modulated to a different key (you'll notice some accidentals).

Also, perhaps one of these notes is a non-chord tone. Look at the chords around it, maybe it's a passing note (a note approached by step and left by step in the opposite direction, so you'd have something like A in the chord before, B-flat in the chord of, and then C in the chord after), or a suspension (a note held over from the previous chord), or an anticipation (a note that actually belongs to the 2nd chord).

If you ever get stuck on 1 chord, move ahead to where the phrase ends and work backwards. Sometimes it's a lot easier that way because you can see where you need to end up.

Answer 2

Sounds augmented. An A sharp?