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Sharpening or flattening one note of a chord to change its character

1 Here’s our regular opener, the C major scale. All the white notes on the piano keyboard, played from C to C, giving us C, D,E, F, G, A, B and C once again, an octave higher than the root note. This time though, we’re going higher than the octave, extending the range of notes available to two octaves, so that we can build some extended chords. 2 If we number each note, or ‘degree’ of the scale from 1 to 15, it gives us a way of naming chords that can be built from these notes. For example, we can build a dominant C7 chord by playing a C major triad consisting of 1(C), 3(E), 5(G) and

Bb). adding a flattened 7( We can turn this into a C9 chord by adding the ninth degree of the extended major scale – D. 3 There are certain notes that are common candidates for alteration in a chord like this: the 5th (G in this case) and the 9th (D in this case). The way this is done is to sharpen or flatten just one of these notes by one semitone. Let’s forget the 9th for a minute, and start by looking at a dominant C7 chord. Check out the 5th of the chord – the note G. 4 If we move this note down in pitch by a semitone, we’re flattening it to a Gb. This creates a really tense-sounding C7b5 Gb-Bb). chord (C-E- This tension is Gb due to the dissonance of the – which doesn’t belong in the parent C major scale – begging to resolve back to the G a semitone above it. 5 On the other hand, if you raise the 5th of a dominant 7th chord – altering G# G to in the case of C7 – you get what’s C7# known as a 5, or a Caug7. This is because the raised 5th creates an interval of an augmented fifth between it and the root note. 6 OK, now it’s time to look once again at the regular dominant 9th chord we Bb made earlier – C9, made up of CE G and Db, D. By flattening the 9th (D) to a we C7b9 Bb-Db. create a chord – C-E-G-

7 On the other hand, if we sharpen the D#, 9th, by raising the D to a we get a C7# Bb-D#). 9 (C-E-G- Note that, because we’ve added a sharpened 9th to a dominant 7th chord, the resulting chord C7# is called a 9. This avoids confusion with C# C# a 9, which is a 9th chord with a root C#- G#- D#, – F- B- a totally different animal!

10 Altered chords also work well in nondiatonic progressions. In this F minor track, the progression in bars 1-8 is Fm7

Ab- Eb), Abm7 Ab- Eb-Gb). Abm7 (F- C- ( B- The is non-diatonic – it doesn’t belong to the key of F minor. In bars 9-17, I’ve altered it by

Eb) flattening the 5th ( to a D, producing an Abm7b5 Ab- Gb).

chord ( B-D- That D adds a more dramatic and foreboding flavour.

8 So when do we use these altered chords? Alterations work just as well on minor and major sevenths as they do on dominant chords. (Check out 226’s

Easy Guide for more on how to construct minor and major seventh chords). So let’s look at a simple progression that alternates from im7 to III7 and back again.

11 Another really useful example of an altered chord is the augmented (# V 5) chord with a sharpened 9th. Vaug7# ( 9). One of my personal favourites, this one is full of tension and drama, great for resolving back to a im7 chord. Let’s start with a standard dominant 9th – we’ll use the V of Cm, G, as our root, giving us G-B-D-F-A.

9 Here we’re in the key of C minor. The Eb7 Eb III7 chord in this key, (because is the third degree of the C minor scale), is already pulling back to the im7 chord (Cm7) but we can increase this feeling of III7b5 tension by altering the III7 chord to a Eb7b5. chord to produce an This is done by Bb flattening the 5th – in this scenario – by one semitone, down to A natural.

12 If we follow this with a Cm7 chord for a V9 - im7 resolution, it works… but it doesn’t exactly smack us between the

Gaug7# eyes. To get our 9, we need to take our G9 chord and raise the 5th (D) to D# A#.

and the 9th (A) to Bam! Suddenly we’re standing on the top of a cliff, desperate to leap off and land on the Cm7 that follows.