So I played around with the idea of adding notes to chords on the train ride home. I started with something simple in C major - Em, Dm, C, then voiced it:
E-2 G-2 B-2
F-2 A-2 D-3
C-2 G-2 E-3
Then added some extra notes according to some rules that sounded nice:
E-2 G-2 B-2 D-3
F-2 A-2 C-3 D-3
C-2 G-2 D-3 E-3
I know the first and second are just sevenths, but what do you call the third one? In semitone intervals it's 0, 4, 7, 14 or (rearranging) 0, 2, 5, 10.
I know the first and second are just sevenths, but what do you call the third one?
The third one is a very nice voicing of C(add9).
The notes from lowest to highest are: C-G->D-E The lowest note will always be your root, so you know right away this is gonna be a C chord. The G is the fifth, the D is the ninth and the E is the third(placed an octave higher). Since the ninth is the highest degree, it's what names the chord.
It's considered "add9" in this case because this is what you call a regular major or minor triad with a ninth degree added onto it and nothing else. This differs from a
Cmaj9: C-E-G-B->D (notice there's a major seventh chord in there with the ninth on top)
or
C9: C-E-G-Bb>D (also called dominant 9, notice there's a dominant 7 chord in there with a ninth on top)
But what's more important to note here is not the proper nomenclature, but the nice voicing used. Notice that C, G and D are all perfect fifths apart. This is touching on a concept know as quintal harmony. I won't get into that now in order to avoid writing another novel, but voicings that spread notes out in successive fifths or fourths(quartal harmony)tend have a certain wandering and ambiguous quality to them.
I just checked out the wiki page on quartal and quintal harmony, it has some decent info I guess. There's a small section there on how it was used in jazz. Check out Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" and Davis' "So What". These were the first noted jazz tunes that used this type of harmony. You can hear it in "Blue in Green" too. Bill Evans(the guy on piano in the Davis tunes) always did some beautifully innovative stuff while he was alive.
edit: Just wanted to add, this is my favorite type of harmony to play with. There's something so mysterious, emotional and almost ancient about it. It's the type of harmony used in Zelda games and a lot of other fantasy JRPGs. It's the type of harmony that was explored and cultivated in France in during the 1800's Impressionist movement, with composers like Debussy, Ravel and Satie. It arms with the freedom to do a lot of visual things with music. It's also the reason why this sounds so badass.
I think I jumped ahead of myself. "The lowest note will always be your root" would apply to the voicings you want to identify which aren't immediately obvious, like a place to go to when you're not exactly sure what you're looking at. I'm already used to seeing triads, diminished, augmented, and all their seventh counterparts in all their inversions and recognizing them right away. But I notice myself going back to focusing on the root and working my way up from there when I'm dealing with trying to identify voicings that have 6,9,11,13 or chunks of stuff missing from them.
I wish I didn't have to go to work and continue working on this! Well I used one of Gyms example, and tried to take it a new direction. Not my style at all, but this is fun!
Please feel free to not give a fuck about this edit lol.
I had this song in my head all day at work. So many ideas came to mind, yet I didn't write any of them, instead I got carried away with this...This song is so kool! But where the hell did I go!?
I certainly hope not, I respect and admire Gyms. He's been the most interesting read on the forum for a while now. Although there are many more other amazing members, I think we would suffer a great loss if he were to leave.
But he's only been gone 1 day, isn't it a bit premature to think he's sausaged on us? Although the avatar is a bit unusual for him.
On a side note, I really DO hope he's still around, i'd love to hear what he would add to this FTM. I LOVE the riff he wrote for it!
That is an awful idea for those that need to edit posts for legitimate reasons.
That said, it is indeed awful that gyms has gone and sausaged on us. Lot of talent and it'll go down the drain. Guess this thread is going to get locked before it turns to shit?
