Jazz 9th Chords

[Luciana]

Noticethat the function of a chord is also about the chord progression, so it is not just about the notes in the chord. That is also why you can find examples of Am7 being a subdominant chord in C major as well as other places where it is tonic,

When a song is in a major key then the great thing about that is that you have all the diatonic chords that I just showed you but you can also use the chords from the minor key with the same root, so in C major you can also use the chords from C minor.

This is not entirely coming from scales and is essentially more about voice-leading, but starting with a scale is a great way to get some things to work with, and then you can expand on that to get to some of the great sounds, but I will get to that later in the video.

The Fm7 chord is more often used as a way of getting from a subdominant chord to a tonic chord, so not as a part of a II V I. Often you will in fact see it as an Fm6 or FmMaj7, but I will get to that in a bit. Here it is moving coming from Dm7:

What I am talking about in this video, is also sometimes referred to as modal interchange, but that concept is, as far as I know, a lot wider, where this is much more specific to the key and more of a description of the type of harmony you come across in Jazz standards.

As I mentioned earlier then the minor subdominants are more a result of voice-leading than of chords from a scale, and in fact, it is mostly about one note that is moving, in C major that would be A moving down to Ab to G, which if you start with an F chord gives you:

The way to understand it is really just to think of it as a IVm triad, so in C major that is an F minor triad, with an added 6th but in this case, it is a b6 since that is a stronger leading note to take us down to the root, C. And In Jazz, we turn that into a Dbmaj7 chord and have progressions like this:

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for topics then, please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.

Improvising chord-playing musicians who omit the root and fifth are given the option to play other notes. For example, if a seventh chord, such as G7, appears in a lead sheet or fake book, many chord-playing performers add the ninth, thirteenth or other notes to the chord, even though the lead sheet does not specify these additional notes. Jazz players can add these additional, upper notes because they can create an important part of the jazz sound. Lead sheets and fake books often do not detail how to voice the chord because a lead sheet or fake book is only intended to provide basic guide to the harmony. An experienced comping performer playing electric guitar or piano may add or remove notes as chosen according to the style and desired sound of that musician, but must do so in a way that still emphasizes the correct musical context for other musicians and listeners.[5]

Compound intervals are intervals larger than an octave; they can also be described as an octave plus a simple interval. Note that this is not a complete list of compound intervals, only those that are commonly used in jazz chords.

Chords are described here in terms of intervals relative to the root of the chord, arranged from smaller intervals to larger. This is a standard method used when describing jazz chords as it shows them hierarchically: Lower intervals (third, fifth and seventh) are more important in defining the function of the chord than the upper intervals or extensions (9th, 11th, 13th), which add color. Although it is possible to play the chords as described here literally, it is possible to use different orderings of the same notes, known as a voicings, or even by omitting certain notes.

The Lydian chord has a strange quirk, where if the root is put both above and below the augmented eleventh it creates an unpleasant dissonance of a tritone. This is not usually a problem in a jazz context, as chord-playing musicians often omit the root.

The interval of the sixth is used, even though it is described after other compound intervals and perhaps should also be a compound interval (i.e., 13th). However, a convention in jazz dictates that when describing the major sixth, generally use the simple interval, i.e., 6 is often used instead of the compound interval, i.e., 13. This helps avoid confusion with the dominant thirteenth chord.

The term basic can be used to describe dominant chords based on the major scale.[citation needed] In many instances, dominant chords written as basic chords (e.g., C13) can substitute for more complex chords, as long as they remain part of the same group (i.e., dominant chords) and do not clash with the melody notes.

After the set, the leader brought him aside and informed him that he was consistently playing an incorrect chord throughout the tune. Surprised, he went back to the recording and found that sure enough, he had learned that wrong chord from the real book. By actually hearing the progression instead of reading it, the correct chord became painfully obvious. Mulgrew stressed that the answers are all there in the recording, you just have to have the drive to get them.

The great thing about being a jazz musician in the information age, is having access to nearly every standard at your fingertips. Go to youtube and type in the name of a standard and see how many versions come up. This is a invaluable resource in learning standards. Not only do you have access to hundreds of tunes, but also multiple versions and instrumentation of each tune. To make sure you are getting the correct progression, compare as many versions as you can.

When you are learning a tune for the first time though, be sure to look for the clearest and simplest version. Getting a Brad Mehldau record, where the standard you are trying to learn is reharmonized and in 7 is not going to help you here. Instead, look for a version where the rhythm section is clearly defining the chord progressions; a recording with a vocalist is usually a good bet.

If you are having some difficulty hearing or singing the roots of the chords, this is a sign that you need to concentrate on some ear training exercises during your practice. One exercise is to play a triad or chord at the piano and try to sing the root of each chord. Focus on how the root sounds in relation to the other pitches and how it feels to sing that pitch. Every chord tone has a unique characteristic and the root is no exception.

At the same time that you are listening for the root movement, focus on the quality of each chord. Is it major, minor, half-diminished, dominant, diminished, etc.? Determining the quality will give you a big clue to the function of the chord and where the progression is headed.

If you find yourself stuck on a progression or baffled trying to figure out the quality of a chord, fast forward to the solo section. The bass player may not be playing the root and the pianist may not be comping clearly, but it is likely that the soloist will be outlining the changes in their lines.

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In some chords, it is necessary to omit some of the notes in order to reduce dissonance within the chord. For instance, the 11th often clashes with the 3rd in 13th chords, so the 11th is generally omitted.

The chord books I have generally only remove one or two notes from a chord. But I want to know if there are any "rules" around what combinations of notes can or cannot be removed from a chord. What if we take this concept to it's logical extreme:

In classical theory, the necessity or lack thereof of a particular chord member is generally determined by the note's tendency to lead to another note. That tendency comes most often from the interval of an augmented fourth or diminished fifth. Enharmonically, those intervals are the same, but in context, they are not, and they resolve differently. In a "dominant seventh" sonority, the third and seventh of the chord form a diminished fifth if the third is below the seventh, or an augmented fourth if the third is above the seventh. In the diminished fifth, the upper note resolves down by step, and the lower note resolves up by step. In the augmented fourth, the upper note resolves up by step, and the lower note resolves down by step. What this means for the dominant seventh is that scale degree seven, the "leading tone," resolves up to tonic, and the chordal seventh, scale degree four, resolves down to scale degree three. Scale degrees one and three strongly imply the tonic chord of the key, so there is a feeling of resolution. In other seventh chords, the seventh still resolves down by step. It is possible in the dominant seventh to omit the root without changing the function of the chord. Often, then, what would have been the lowered ninth is added, providing another diminished fifth or augmented fourth (against the fifth of the chord). If I had a convenient way to draw all this out on a staff right now, I would.

In jazz, we don't always resolve chordal sevenths. However, we still hear the tendencies toward resolution as defining of chordal quality. Further, there are dissonances within chords that we do not necessarily want to sound, as you have pointed out. In those cases, we will keep the note that is more responsible for defining the chord quality (usually). So, in your examples:

Note that your assertion of two notes being insufficient to represent a chord is inaccurate. Two-voice baroque counterpoint has clear harmonic progression throughout. The same rules apply when the chords are simpler than those you list. For example, in a major or minor triad, the fifth is not necessary. In a dominant seventh sonority, the third and seventh are necessary (as the tendency tones), while the root and fifth can be omitted.

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