• Main Directory
• Creating Lessons
• Search Lessons
• Top 10 Lessons
• Learning Tracks
• Riff Search Engine
|
|
|
Lessons: Lesson #201: Using the 7(9,13) Chord |
|
Pages: 1 2 3
Suggested Tempo: 180 |
|
7th chords in general have a lot of versatility in Western music. They can be used statically where they are at the center of the piece (like in blues) or they can be used in a dominant role, where they want to move to the chord a 5th below it (i.e. a V-I cadence). The 7(9,13) chord can easily be used in both ways. The scale most commonly used to construct a 7(9,13) chord is the mixolydian scale, which is a mode of the major. The scale degrees for mixolydian are:
What do the numbers in parentheses mean? When you play a 7th chord composed of 1, 3, 5, and b7, and you include the 2nd, 4th, or 6th scale degree above it, it becomes a tension. - Mixolydian: 1 · 2 (9) · 3 · 4 (11) · 5 · 6 (13) · b7
Thus, in the case of mixolydian, scale degree 2 becomes the 9th, 4 becomes the 11th, and 6 becomes the 13th. For a 7(9,13) chord, we can construct it by using 1, 3, 5, b7, and then stacking the 9th and the 13th on top of it.
In this lesson, we'll specifically look at the Bb7(9,13) chord. This chord can come from Bb mixolydian, and the notes are:
- Bb Mixolydian: Bb · C (9) · D · Eb · F · G (13) · Ab
where the tensions we'll use for our Bb7(9,13) chord are in parentheses.
You may notice that the chord voicing for our Bb7(9,13) chord in the examples (D, Ab, C, G) doesn't include either the Bb (the root) or the F (the 5th). This is because these notes are optional. The most important part of a 7th chord is the 3rd (D) and the b7th (Ab), so if we take these two notes and stack the 9th (C) and the 13th (G) on top, we get the voicing shown in the examples for this lesson.
Here's our featured voicing in a funk setting. Try playing the Bb blues scale over the top of it. |
|
