

(http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/)

Chord Tensions (Extensions & Alterations)

7th Chords

In Jazz, rather than using triads as our basic chord, we add another note on top (either a minor 7th
or a Major 7th) to create 7th Chords. This makes the chord sound a little more harmonically
complex. The four basic types of triad can each be extended to create eight types of 7th chords.

Triad Degree & Notes

7th Chord Intervals Notation Sheet Music
Derivation from C

Major Major 7 Chord 1357 1 to 3 = Maj CΔ7

3rd CMaj7
3 to 5 = Min

CEGB 3rd
5 to 7 = Maj
3rd

Dominant 7 Chord 1 3 5 ♭7 1 to 3 = Maj C7

3rd
3 to 5 = Min

C E G B♭ 3rd
5 to 7 = Min
3rd

Minor Minor 7 Chord 1 ♭3 5 ♭7 1 to 3 = Min Cm7

3rd C-7
3 to 5 = Maj

C E♭ G B♭ 3rd
5 to 7 = Min
3rd

Minor Major 7 1 ♭3 5 7 1 to 3 = Min CmMaj7

Chord 3rd C-Δ7
3 to 5 = Maj
 Triad Degree & Notes 3rd
7th Chord Intervals Notation 
Sheet Music
Derivation from C 5 to 7 = Maj
3rd

C E♭ G B

Diminished Diminished 7 1 ♭3 ♭5 ♭♭7 1 to 3 = Min Cdim7

Chord 3rd Co
C E♭ G♭ B♭♭
3 to 5 = Min
3rd
5 to 7 = Min
3rd

Half Diminished 7 1 ♭3 ♭5 ♭7 1 to 3 = Min Cm7b5

Chord 3rd Cø
3 to 5 = Min

C E♭ G♭ B♭ 3rd
5 to 7 = Maj
3rd

Augmented Augmented 7 1 3 #5 ♭7 1 to 3 = Maj Caug7

Chord 3rd C7#5
3 to 5 = Maj C+7

C E G# B♭ 3rd
5 to 7 = Dim
3rd

Augmented Major 1 3 #5 7 1 to 3 = Maj CMaj+7

7 chord 3rd CMaj7#5
3 to 5 = Maj CΔ+7

C E G# B 3rd
5 to 7 = Min
3rd

(Notice the Augmented 7th chord uses an interval of a Diminished 3rd. This is just a attened minor 3rd
(AKA a Major 2nd). This is done because if you were to add a Major 3rd on top of the #5 you would reach
the root again.)

 
While there are eight types of 7th chords, the most important and most widely used are the:

Maj7 chord;
Dominant 7 (V7) chord; and
m7 chord.

All the other types of 7th chords are generally used as substitutes for these three main chord types
(e.g. a m7 chord can be substituted by a mMaj7 or half-dim chord; a V7 chord can be substituted by
an Aug7 chord or a half-dim chord; etc.)

Music Lessons in Ballymena - Music Lessons NI

Music lessons in Ballymena including Piano lessons, Guitar lessons and more OPEN
ballymenaschoolofmusic.co.uk

Chord Tensions (Extensions & Alterations)

The root, 3rd, 5th, or 7th of a chord (called Chord Tones) determine the type of chord that it is and
so cannot be altered:

The root establishes the chord tonality (CMaj7 vs DMaj7);

The 3rd & 7th (called Guide Tones (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-
lessons/jazz-improvisation/guide-tones/)) establish the chord quality (CMaj7 vs C7 vs
Cm7); and
The 5th establishes whether the chord is diminished or augmented (Co vs Cø vs C+7).

We can, however, extend our basic 7th chord by adding yet more notes on top of the 7th, again
building up in thirds. This gives us a 9th, 11th and 13th – these are called Chord Tensions. The
degrees are still in reference to the Major Scale. Below is the C Major Scale with all the degrees over
two octaves listed.

 
 

So:

The D is both the 2 and the 9.

The F is both the 4 and the 11.
The A is both the 6 and the 13.
The D♭ is both the ♭2 and the ♭9
The F# is both the #4 and the #11.
The A♭ is both the ♭6 and the ♭13.

In this way, we can build a chord with up to 7 notes that contains every note of the C Major Scale.
Adding another note one 3rd above the 13th will get you back to the root (A plus a minor 3rd = C).

When reading notation, you in theory should play all the notes up to and including the highest
tension listed, for example:

CMaj7 = C E G B
CMaj9 = C E G B D
CMaj11 = C E G B D F
CMaj13 = C E G B D F A

I say ‘in theory’ because in practice this is not actually the case. In practice, it is possible to omit
notes that are not important or that are ‘unavailable tensions
(http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-chords/available-tensions/)’. But we will
cover this in future lessons.
 

These natural chord tensions can also be attened or sharpened by 1 semitone to create altered
chord tensions. In this way all 12 notes can be assigned a degree in relation to the root note of the
chord. Generally, you would NOT add more than one of each tension degree to a single chord (i.e. if
you have a 9, you would usually NOT also have a ♭9 or #9).

Below is list of all 12 notes with each allocated a degree based on chord type.

Note C C#/D♭ D D#/E♭ E F F#/G♭ G G#/A♭ A A#/B♭ B

CMaj7 1 ♭9 9 #9 3 11 #11 5 ♭13 13 #13 7

C7 1 ♭9 9 #9 3 11 #11 5 ♭13 13 ♭7 7

Cm7 1 ♭9 9 ♭3 ♭11 11 #11 5 ♭13 13 ♭7 7

CmMaj7 1 ♭9 9 ♭3 ♭11 11 #11 5 ♭13 13 #13 7

So for example, a CMaj7 could be extended in the following way:

And again, we play all the notes up to and including the highest tension listed taking any alterations
into account:

CMaj9#11 = C E G B D F#
CMaj13#11 = C E G B D F# A
CMaj7#9 = C E G B D#
 
Music Lessons in Ballymena - Music Lessons NI
Music lessons in Ballymena including Piano lessons, Guitar lessons and more OPEN
ballymenaschoolofmusic.co.uk

Other Chords

There are also other chords which don’t exactly follow this ‘stacked thirds’ idea. These are discussed
below.

The 6th is the same note as the 13th, but it is played an octave lower and without playing
the 9th or 11th. The 6th is usually used to replace to 7th in a chord.
C6 = C E G A (This is a substitute for a CMaj7 chord)
C69 = C E G A D (This is a substitute for a CMaj7 chord)
Cm6 = C E♭ G A (This is a substitute for a Cm7 chord)
Cm69 = C E♭ G A D (This is a substitute for a Cm7 chord)
A suspended chord (or Sus chord) is a chord where the 3rd is replaced by either the 2nd
or the 4th. A sus4 chord (where the 4th replaces the 3rd) is much more common than a
sus2 chord. As such, you can drop the 4 in the notation as it in implied.
C7sus2 = C D G B♭
C7sus4 = C7sus = C F G B♭ (This is a substitute for a C7 chord)
Sus chords can also be extended like any other chord. A speci c type of sus chord is
called a Phrygian Chord (because it is derived from the Phrygian mode). The Phrygian
Chord is simply a:
C7sus♭9 = C F G B♭ D♭

We will be discussing Sus chords (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-

chords/suspended-chords/) and Phrygian chords (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-
lessons/jazz-chords/phrygian-chords/) later in this module

Keys

We covered how keys (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/jazz-piano-lessons/the-basics/keys/) work in

the previous module. Nevertheless, it’s worth explicitly stating that keys work the same way with 7th
chords as they do with triads. A triad is considered to be in a particular key if it only uses notes from
that key/scale. Similarly, a 7th chord is considered to be in a particular key if it only uses notes from
that key/scale, there is just one more note to account for. Otherwise, there is no di erence.

 
 Chords in the key of C I ii iii IV V vi vii 
Triads C Dm Em F G Am Bo

7th Chords CMaj7 Dm7 Em7 FMaj7 G7 Am Bm7♭5

In Practice

So that’s the basics of Jazz Chords. If you’ve understood all that, you’re well on your way to playing
Jazz already. So in conclusion:

In Jazz we use the 7th chord as our basic chord;

We can extend and alter the 7th chord by adding tensions (9ths, 11ths and 13ths).

When you’re playing from a lead sheet and you see the chord CMaj7, you would rarely just play a
CMaj7 chord (as this sounds a bit boring). Instead you could play a CMaj9 or a CMaj13 or a
CMaj13#11 or a C69 to make the chord a little bit more harmonically interesting.

However, while all tensions exist in theory, not all of them are used in practice (for example, you
would never (rarely) nd a CMaj7♭9♭13 chord in practice). To understand why, we need to discuss
something called ‘available tensions’ which is the subject of the next lesson.

Free Guitar Chords

Includes over 3000 of the most commonly used guitar chords. guitaristsreference.com
 Jazz Piano Tutorial - Chord Extensions & Alterations 

>> NEXT LESSON >> (/jazz-piano-lessons/jazz-chords/available-tensions)

Free Guitar Chords

Includes over 3000 of the most commonly used guitar chords. guitaristsreference.com

Search The Jazz Piano Site

Search …

Donate

While all my lessons are free, if you nd them useful please consider donating to help keep them
coming.

(https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?
cmd=_donations&business=DUZ6VARAK7VAE&lc=AU&item_name=Walk%20That%20Bass&currency_c
ode=AUD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted)
 

Home (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com) Donate (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/donate/)

Resources (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/resources/)
Privacy Policy (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/privacy-policy/)
Sitemap (http://www.thejazzpianosite.com/sitemap/)
Theme by Tesseract (https://tesseracttheme.com)   (https://tesseracttheme.com)
