Music Theory! C, Eb and G walk into a bar...

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quadrophrenic: Feb 4, 2011; WIN MARNIE WIN

i'm just BARELY starting out with theory and i've been dicking around with modal interchange and i have a question: where do major 6th and 6/9 chords usually fit in a chord progression? my primary instrument is banjo, and the banjo has a fairly simple major 6th chord voicing and it sounds absolutely beautiful on the instrument, but there are very few cases when i'm writing a chord progression and the 6th chord just screams out to me "put me in this poo poo", which is a shame imo

like II6 - I is a neat little cadence, but i'm lookin for more examples of "classic" or "idiomatic" use cases of maj6 chords

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 17:11

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 00:17

quadrophrenic: Feb 4, 2011; WIN MARNIE WIN

i'm trying to find the name of this chord

on banjo it has the fingering

code:

d| --4
B| --5
G| --6
D| --6
g| --0

ignoring the high G on the bottom (because it is already confusing enough w/o it):

this chord is (Ab - Db - E - Gb), and it sounds extremely dissonant when sounded together but has a nice sus4 quality when arpeggiated and i lead it into a chord w/ the notes (G - C - D - Gb) - which I also don't really know what to call. on first glance I figured it was (root - 4 - aug5 - dim7) which would be Absus4... what? Or would it be better to not even call the Db a 4th interval at this point, but rather an augmented 3rd? Also the chord overall has a Db minor flavor to it, so calling Db the root would yield: (root - minor 3 - 4) over Ab and i don't even know what the gently caress that is, and that's not even considering the high G

i'm hopelessly confused, i've gotten fairly decent at knowing chord formulas for chords with a major/minor 3rd, but the 4th is throwing me off here. i clearly need to study chord construction more, if anyone can point me to some reading materials about this stuff it'd be greatly appreciated

quadrophrenic fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Jun 9, 2018

# ¿ Jun 9, 2018 10:15

quadrophrenic: Feb 4, 2011; WIN MARNIE WIN

Konsek posted:

If I ignore the G as you suggest, putting the notes together in any order, I can come up with Gb7sus2. Although I think respelling those flats as sharps would be easier to understand, making F#7sus2. We have the root (F#), no third, fifth (C#), b7th (E), and 9th (or 2nd) (G#). 7sus2 chords aren't uncommon and sound very jazzy.

The reason it's a sus2 chord is because there is no third (in this case it would be either A or A# depending on if the chord would be minor or major).

There are 2 things to bear in mind with this. Firstly, as said, it ignores the G. Although if you add that back in you'd have F#9sus(b2) which is quite cool sounding. Despite having a different name to the previously mentioned chord, it's literally the same chord, same notes, but with a b9 as well as a 9. As long as the root, b9 and 9 are spaced apart they shouldn't clash, and in your fingering they are spaced apart. So it sounds cool.

The second thing is, with your fingering the bass note is G#, so the 9 is in the bass. Not unheard of at all, but something to bear in mind when understanding the chord. Again, 9th in the bass sounds cool.

Edit: Missed the other chord. The G C D Gb chord would make D11, because the Gb is in fact an F#, so you have root (D), 3rd (F#), no fifth but that's normal, b7 (C) and 11 (or 4th) (G).

Stripping out the interesting notes, you've got a D7 and an F#7, which are chromatic mediants. It works because they share notes and the notes that do change mostly change by a semitone. I don't follow which way round you're playing those chords, but ending on a B major or G major chord might sound good.

neat!

in the doodling that i've been doing, i've been following that little vamp up with a Fm/D#, Fm7, Em7 run, that transition to which is very jarring and spooky/exotic and i haven't decided whether or not it's maybe a little TOO jarring, tho i do tend to like exotic jarring transitions in banjo compositions

also Fm/D# - Fm7 - Em7 isn't maybe the best way to describe those chords, because you always have that high G drone in various states of diatonicity. one of the neat things about composing for the banjo is that the (rarely fretted) high G can sometimes just be like an Instant Jazz Pill to otherwise traditional diatonic composition, especially if you go out of your way to compose non-idiomatically. not a lot of banjo tradition has 7th chords in it, but just adding some simple 7ths and minor 7ths can give the banjo a kind of classical feel if you employ the drone strategically

ofc, the downside is that it's tough to work banjo technique into jazz compositions, esp if you're like me and you play a clawhammer downstrokey frailing style, which works well in big boisterous folk settings and maybe not much for more delicate compositions. BTW, the idea for the F#7/D11 run came from dicking around with the practice method in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrkcGr5dIM4

ben levin has all sorts of videos like this, just nonconventional quirky ways of practicing composition that are fun when you need to take a break from ol' fashioned functional harmony

# ¿ Jun 10, 2018 06:01

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