Altered chords

Tweaking one note of an extended chord can lend a progression a

dramatic tinge — but how can we tell when to do it, and to which note?

A ltered chords are chords that have been changed by having the pitch of one or more notes in the chord sharpened
HOW-TO

or flattened by a semitone. Altering a chord in this way can have a big effect on its character and tonal color, so
substituting regular chords with altered versions in a progression can spice things up without straying too far beyond
the boundaries of functional harmony. One use may be to increase the tension when resolving from a V7 chord (a
dominant 7th chord based on the fifth degree of the scale of the current key) back to a I chord (the tonic chord of the
current key) by altering the V7 chord to, say, a V7b5. This would make for a more spectacular payoff when the
resolution finally happens.
MAGAZINE

Borrowed chords , also known as modal mixtures or substituted chords,
are chords that are borrowed from a parallel major or minor key. Typically,
these are used as 'color chords' providing a brief harmonic variation.
Borrowed chords can also be thought of as one of the simplest forms of
altered chord and can be considered transitory modulations.
Here, we're going to focus on the ‘shifting the pitch of a note by a
semitone’ kind of alteration. The most effective of these kind of alterations
are based on dominant seventh, minor seventh, dominant ninth and minor
ninth chords, so over the following couple of pages, we’ll be looking at
building these types of altered chords for use in your own productions.

Step by step Sharpening or flattening one note of a chord to change its character

1 2
Here’s the C major scale – all the white notes on
the piano keyboard, played from C to C, giving
us C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C once again, an octave
higher than the root note. This time we’re going
higher than the octave, extending the range of
notes available to two octaves, so that we can
build some extended chords.
3
Number each note, or ‘degree’ of the scale from
1 to 15, giving us a way of naming chords that
can be built from these notes. Build a dominant
C7 chord by playing a C major triad consisting
of 1(C), 3(E), 5(G) and adding a flattened 7(Bb).
Turn this into a C9 chord by adding the ninth
degree of the extended major scale — D.
There are certain notes that are common can-
didates for alteration in a chord like this: the 5th
(G in this case) and the 9th (D in this case). Do
this by sharpening or flattening one of these
notes by one semitone. Let’s forget the 9th for a
minute, and look at a dominant C7 chord. Check
out the 5th of the chord — the note G.

4 5
If we move this note down in pitch by a semi-
tone, we’re flattening it to a Gb. This creates
a really tense-sounding C7b5 chord (C-E-Gb-
Bb). This tension is due to the dissonance of
the Gb — which doesn’t belong in the parent C
major scale — begging to resolve back to the
G a semitone above it.
6
On the other hand, if you raise the 5th of a
dominant 7th chord — altering G to G# in
the case of C7 — you get what’s known as a
C7#5, or a Caug7. This is because the raised
5th creates an interval of an augmented fifth
between it and the root note.
OK, now it’s time to look once again at the
regular dominant 9th chord we made earlier
— C9, made up of C E G Bb and D. By flat-
tening the 9th (D) to a Db, we create a C7b9
chord — C-E-G-Bb-Db.

32 JA N UAR Y 2 01 9 | E MU S IC IA N . C O M
PRO TIPS RECOMMENDED LISTENING

VOICING CONCERNS THE HENDRIX CONNECTION CLEAN BANDIT,

"TEARS"
There are alterations aplenty
As with all chords, you can get some great The 7#9 (dominant 7th with sharpened 9th) in this triumph of a track from
the Bandits, who never fail
results by messing around with the voicings chord is sometimes known as the "Purple to unite sound theory with
of altered chords. Take the notes that make Haze" chord, thanks to Jimi Hendrix’s cutting-edge tunes.
up the chord and jumble them around, mix fondness for it in general, and its use in that bit.ly/CBtears
up the order they’re played in, even leave tune of his in particular. Its edgy sound
some unaltered notes out altogether, like works particularly well on guitar, but is also
the third or even the root. The root is often great when used with synths and keyboards. KENT JONES,
"DON’T MIND"
omitted by keyboard players in bands, Try it with distorted Rhodes or Hammond It may be part of a sample
where it would normally be handled by the organ sounds for some retro bite. from an old Barry White
song, but the prominent
bass player. Eb7b9 chord in this tune
still counts!

bit.ly/KJdontmind

7 8
On the other hand, if we sharpen the 9th, by rais-
ing the D to a D#, we get a C7#9 (C-E-G-Bb-D#).
Note that, because we’ve added a sharpened 9th
to a dominant 7th chord, the resulting chord is
called a C7#9. This avoids confusion with a C#9,
which is a 9th chord with a C# root —C#-F-G#-B-
D#, a totally different animal!
9
So when do we use these altered chords?
Alterations work just as well on minor and major
sevenths as they do on dominant chords. So
let’s look at a simple progression that alternates
from im7 to III7 and back again.
Here we’re in the key of C minor. The III7 chord in
this key, Eb7 (because Eb is the third degree of
the C minor scale), is already pulling back to the
im7 chord (Cm7) but we can increase the ten-
sion by altering the III7 chord to a III7b5 chord to
produce an Eb7b5. This is done by flattening the
5th — Bb — by one semitone, down to A natural.

10
Altered chords also work well in non-diatonic
progressions. In this F minor track, the pro-
gression in bars 1-8 is Fm7 (F-Ab-C-Eb), Abm7
(Ab-B-Eb-Gb). The Abm7 is non-diatonic — it
doesn’t belong to the key of F minor. In bars
9-17, I’ve altered it by flattening the 5th (Eb) to
a D, producing an Abm7b5 chord (Ab-B-D-Gb).
That D adds a dramatic and foreboding flavor.
11
Another really useful example of an altered
chord is the augmented V (#5) chord with
a sharpened 9th. (Vaug7#9). One of my
personal favourites, this one is full of tension
and drama, great for resolving back to a im7
chord. Let’s start with a standard dominant
9th — we’ll use the V of Cm, G, as our root,
giving us G-B-D-F-A.
12
If we follow this with a Cm7 chord for
a V9 - im7 resolution, it works… but it doesn’t
exactly smack us between the eyes. To get
our Gaug7#9, we need to take our G9 chord
and raise the 5th (D) to D# and the 9th (A) to
A#. Bam! Suddenly we’re standing on the top
of a cliff, desperate to leap off and land on the
Cm7 that follows.

JA NUA RY 201 9 | EMU SICIAN .COM 33

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