Q. That sharpened 4th (C#) makes A LOT of difference. Can someone explain to me why that is. Whenever I play g major scale over the gmaj7 chord I always avoid that c, unless I sharpen it. Odd since the 4th step usually sounds nice over the I chord. But when you add the F# (7th) in the chord then it sounds TERRIBLE. F# and C don't go along well in this context it seems even though it's IN key. F# has c as it's b5 interval, you'd think they'd would be pleasing to the ear and not dissonant.
A. If you look at the triads involved, forgetting about the major 7th for the moment,
C is a sus4 against a G root.
For example
Gsus = GCD
The sus4 wants to resolve down to the major third (B.) For example,
Gsus resolves to Gmaj = GBD
To hear this, play the following chord progression on a piano.
Gmaj Cmai Dmaj Gsus
Notice how you feel like the G sus leaves you hanging, waiting for resolution? That's because the sus4 is a mild dissonance; it adds tension, does not resolve.
To hear the resolution, play the following chord progression on a piano.
Gmaj Cmai Dmaj Gsus Gmaj
Ahhh... the C resolves down to B , no dissonance, no tension, complete resolution.
This is true whether you add the major 7th (F#) or not.
For example, here's the same two things with major 7ths added:
Gmaj7 Cmai7 D7 Gâsus // feels incomplete, waiting for resolution
Gmaj7 Cmai7 D7 Gâsus Gâ // sus4 resolves to third of the G chord
BTW the triangle notation (â) is short for "major 7th" ; i.e. Gâ = Gmaj7. So Gâsus has a sus 4 (C) instead of a third, and it also has a major 7th (F#).
Now lets listen to what happens when you use a #11 instead of a sus 4. Firstly a sus chord ****HAS NO THIRD****. This is ***IMPORTANT*** to understand. There isn't a clash between B and C in a REAL G sus chord because there IS NO B.
Now, an 11 chord is a different beast. First off, the fact that you name a tone "11" instead of "sus 4" means two things:
- there's a seventh of some sort. Its NOT a triad. By definition, the eleventh scale degree appears above the seventh, so the presence of an 11th implies the presence of the seventh. Your voicing of the chord can in fact place the eleventh below the seventh, or leave out the seventh entirely, but the FUNCTION of the chord implies that seventh. The function of the chord is defined by the context in which it appears. In other words, if you play just a handful of notes in the right way, you can cause the listener to hear a much bigger harmony.
- because its an 11 and not a sus 4, you CAN have a third. But you don't have to. Again, context in which the chord sounds will determine what harmony the listener hears.
Now that we know the difference between an 11 and a sus4, we can talk about what a major7sharp11 is. The proof is in the hearing. Returning to our piano, play the following example again:
Gmaj7 Cmai7 D7 Gâsus // feels incomplete, waiting for resolution
Now lets swap a #11 in for the sus4:
Gmaj7 Cmai7 D7 Gâ#11 // resolves! In a nice, jazzy, ethereal, loose sort of way...
This is sort of the long way to get to the point that although diatonic harmony considers the tritone to be an unstable, dissonant interval that demands resolution, 20th century harmony considers the #11 to be just another harmonic color, rather than actual dissonance. Part of this is because the major second interval between the third of the chord and the #4 (which is a #11 voiced down an octave) is less dissonant than the minor second interval that would occur between a sus4 and a major third (which never happens because a sus4 HAS NO THIRD!!!)
The way you voice the chord can make a huge difference as to whether you hear clashing dissonance or interesting colors. Try the following Gâ#11 voicings, bottom to top, as written:
G F# B C# (for example, there's a major 7th between the root and the next note up)
G C# F# B (here the #11 is actually voiced below the 7th but you hear a #11, not a sus, and the third is a m7 up from the #11 so you don't hear a M2 clash)
This nice-sounding use of a major 7 sharp 11 as a point of resolution comes from Lydian modal harmony. In Lydian mode, the I chord is a â9#11. For example, if you use the key of C major to generate chords in F Lydian mode, you get the following F chord:
F A C E G B = Fâ9#11
Our IV chord isn't really where we expect it to be, but we can still do a lot of "normal" Ionian chord progressions that wind up on Iâ#11, so we can in fact see that this major 7 sharp 11 is a fully-functional tonic chord in Lydian mode.
So that's why you can get away with swapping in a â#11 in place of pretty much any â chord ... you're temporarily substituting the Lydian tonic chord for a garden-variety â chord. Note that you are NOT playing modally or playing in Lydian mode. You're just doing a fancy (and cool) substitution of a chord that you've borrowed from another key.
OK, i've probably gone on too long :-) Hope this helps.
Dominant Chords - Piano?
Q. Could someone help me here? What is a Dominant + Major chord in the key of C? And also, what is a Dominant + Minor chord in the same key of C? The instrument, by the way, is a Piano.
Thanks!
A. OOOH! ANOTHER PERSON WHO PLAYS THE PIANO!! lol
Anyways, when you have a Dominant chord, its just a chord that is built on the 5th note of the scale. Therefore the dominant chord in the key of C major is
G(5th note) B and D
and if you need a Dominant 7th chord, it would be
G B D and F
The minor Dominant chord would to just build a chord on the 5th note of the minor scale. Therefore G Bb D
Dominant 7th
G Bb D F
hope i helped!
How to practice piano chords?
Q. Piano
A. (assuming you are very new)
well major and minor chords are really simple and piano is really simple
play a major C you play C,E, and G, from C count to the keys to E it is 4 half steps, then 3 half to G this is the same for every major chord, you have the root(C) then 4h/s(E) then 3h/s(G), minor chords are the same but you have the root(C) then 3h/s(Eb) then 4h/s(G) now you know how to construct every major minor chord just by counting half steps, then you just have to practise until you memorize each, I suggest you play start by just by learning these basics and understand that no mater what the chord your thumb and pinky are alway static you do not move them when switching chords you'll find that almost every chord has these finger the same distance apart, except Bm/B and Bbm/Bb this is the odd chord where you'll have to think about possitioning your pinky if you play a B and count 7 half steps you'll find that you're pinky is on a black key and your thumb on a white while with all other major/minor chords its white white or black black
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Title : G lydian scale instead of G major scale over a Gmaj7 chord?
Description : Q. That sharpened 4th (C#) makes A LOT of difference. Can someone explain to me why that is. Whenever I play g major scale over the gmaj7 c...