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Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  2/19/06; 9:23:55 AM Topic:  Is there an "ultimate" fake chord? Msg#:  4744 (in response to 4741) Prev/Next:  4743/4745 Reads:  943

There's not an ultimate chord, but the altered chord cuts a pretty wide harmonic swath which allows it to be played beneath most melody notes without appreciably increasing the amount of clash that already is built into the chord. An altered chord that uses all of the permissible pitches is a dominant 7th chord (root, Major 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th) with b9, #9, #11and b13 added above.

In performance, musicians usually choose two of the extended notes (either b9 or #9) (either #11 or b13) and play those leaving two of the others out of their chord voicing. Any combination of three extension pitches or all four at once are also permissible but produce a progressively denser sound.

This example performs all the pitches from a C to the C an octave higher. The pitches that don't sound like they fit as well are the perfect 4th (fifth note of the example), major 6th (10th note of the example) and major 7th (12th note of the example). They don't produce an intense enough clash, though, to be declared to be "avoid" notes.

Any particular 7Alt chord is part of a family of seven chords that can be interchanged with one another. The chord notes are all drawn from the notes of a lydian dominant scale and the chords are built on the notes of this scale. Using a C Lydian Dominant scale (C, D, E, F#, G, A, Bb), all of the notes of that scale can be played above C7#11, Db13, Emi9(b5), F#7Alt, Gmi(MA7), A7(#9b9b13), BbMA7(#5). None of the scale pitches cause avoid notes above those chords. Each of these chords contribute a disturbed, minorish feeling to the sound, which they share with their relatives.

This example wanders across these chords using the pitches of C Lydian Dominant.

In the example, the Emi9(b5) is listed as an Emi7(b5). I've added the MA9 interval necaary to realize this chord by hand. Similarly the A7(#9b9b13) is notated as a A7(#9b13). I've added the b9 by hand.

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