Theory 1B / Stover

Chord Extensions, Part 1

The fundamental harmonic unit in jazz is, of course, the seventh chord, of which there are five basic types
(major seventh, minor seventh, dominant seventh, half-diminished seventh, and diminished seventh).

& www b b wwww b www b b b www b b www

w w w w
CMaj7* Cmin7** C7 C7 Co7
(aka Cm7( b5))

The fifth of the dominant seventh chord is often raised or lowered to form an "altered dominant" chord.

& b b wwww # b wwww

C7( b5) C7( #5)

Likewise, the fifth of a major seventh chord can be raised or lowered, resulting in the following chromatic
chords.

& b wwww # wwww

CMaj7( b5) CMaj7( #5)

And a major seventh can be added to both the minor and diminished triads:

& b wwww w
b b www
Cmin(Maj7) Co(Maj7)

These eleven chords comprise, then, a more exhaustive collection of seventh chord types. While I like to
think of the last six as chromatic derivations of fundamental structures, it is not necessary that you do so.

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* Or, of course C7, or CMa7, or possibly CM7, although I discourage this last spelling because it can be unclear at times whether
an upper- or lower-case "M" is intended.
** Or C-7, Cmi7, or Cm7; again the last is discouraged.

2013
Chord extensions involve adding additional thirds above the fundamental root-third-fifth-seventh structure. The
chords that result are referred to as "ninth," "eleventh," and "thirteenth" chords. The 13th chord contains seven
notes, which as you well know can also be arranged as a scale. In other words, 13th chords and scales can often
map onto one another. In the following illustration, for example, the C minor thirteenth chord (Cmin13) maps
onto the Dorian scale.

ww
& b b wwwww b wwww b ww b
b ww b www b

Cmin9 Cmin11 Cmin13 C Dorian

Note that the designator "13" suggests that a 9th and an 11th are also present, or at least have the potential for
being so.
All of the notes of Cmin13 / C Dorian are diatonic, especially when we consider the chord and/or the scale as
outlining a II chord in the key of B b major. The major thirteenth is slightly more complicated, since common
jazz practice has led to a privileging of #11 rather than a diatonic 11th. The reason for this is that the minor ninth
between n11 and the third has been considered too dissonant for most contexts (there are certainly exceptions!).
So CMaj13 includes a diatonic 9th and a raised 11, which maps onto the Lydian scale.

# ww # www
& wwww www www
#
w w w
CMaj9 CMaj7( #11) * CMaj13 C Lydian

Dominant chords start to get considerably more complicated, only because there are so many possibilities
(extensions of dominant chords can be mixed and matched in dozens of ways, which is part of their beauty
and expressive power). We can begin with two basic models, however. I like to refer to these as the "unaltered"
and "altered" dominant families respectively (understanding that these are severe oversimplifications though).

The unaltered dominant family consists of the basic root-3rd-5th-7th structure with a diatonic ninth, raised 11th
(see major above - the 11th is raised for the exact same reason), and diatonic 13th. The resulting seven-note
chord maps onto a scale that is often referred to the "Lydian dominant" scale, which can be construed as the
fourth mode of melodic minor.

#w # www
& b wwww b wwww b www b
w w w #
C9 C7( #11) * C13 "C Lydian Dominant"

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that CMaj7( #11) and CMaj9( #11) are more or less synonymous, since the #11 suggests that a 9th at least has the potential to be present.
*This notation is inconsistent, but for a variety of (not necessarily defensible) reasons the more practicable CMaj11never stuck. Note
The issue of parentheses will be brought up below.
The altered dominant family is a different kind of entity altogether. It takes as its fundamental structure a three-
note seventh chord (root, third, and seventh - the three notes that are required to give a chord its identity) and
then some combination of raised and/or lowered fifths and ninths.
The resulting scale looks rather strange when we notate it with serious consideration for how its constituent
6th! Instead there are two seconds ( b2 and #2) and two fifths ( b5 and #5). This is the proper spelling of the scale.
notes function (that is, without enharmonic respellings for "ease of reading"). Note that there is no 4th and no
It is often referred to as the "altered dominant" scale, or the "diminished/whole-tone" scale (since it begins
as a H/W diminished structure, which gives way to a whole-tone construction halfway), and can be construed
as the seventh mode of melodic minor.

& b b b wwwww b # # www

ww
b b # www
ww
b # b www
ww b # b # b
b # #
C7( b9 ) C7( #9 ) C7( 9 ) C7( #b9 )
5 5 b5 5
"C altered dominant"

ought to respell D # as E b and G # as A b in order to reflect its D b-major derivation.

Note that if we do think of the C altered dominant scale as the seventh mode of melodic minor, then we

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(An aside on lead sheet notation:)
Arguments about lead sheet notation have been going for as long as the notation itself has been around, and
have only been exacerbated as chords have gotten more complex and composers have gotten more specific
about what sounds they want players to play. A couple of rules of thumb that you should live by:
1) Put all alterations to a fundamental chordal structure in parentheses. That is, F7( #9) rather than F7 #9. This
is in the interest of maximum clarity, and in a few cases alleviates some real potential confusion.
2) Get in the habit of using # and b for chord tone alterations, rather than + and -. Again, this clears up a
potential source of confusion, since, for example, + is frequently used to designate an augmented triad.
3) Try to stay away from notation that asks the player to avoid this or that note (as in, C13( #11, no 3rd)). In
just about all cases there is a better, more intuitive way to spell the chord.
4) As I mentioned, I'm on a Quixotic quest to convince the world that refers to a major triad*, and that if
you like that notation and want to indicated a major seventh chord, you should write 7. Again, this is
in the interest of notational consistency and logic, and I don't think anyone can make a real convincing
case for why it should be otherwise. Try me!

* It does, although many very good musicians will tell you otherwise. They are wrong ;) But it does bring up a very interesting
question about group structure and notational felicity. "CMaj triad" or sim. is clunky and takes up too much space. And "C"
unfairly priveleges the major triad over other triad types - we have symbols for minor, diminished, and augmented, so why
not be consistent and logical with our taxonomy? And since we have universally accepted C7 (with no mediating grapheme)
to stand for a dominant seventh chord, then with only the most rudimentary 9th grade algebra,
(C7) - 7 = C (C7) - 7 = C

, we can prove that, if C = a C major seventh chord, then C must = a dominant seventh chord!
________________________________________________________________________________________
Now, where dominant chords get confusing is when they don't fall neatly into either the unaltered or
altered camp. Here are a few examples:

bw w
& b b wwwww # b wwwww b b wwwww b # www
ww
b b www
ww
b wwww
w
b wwww
b
w
b
C7( b9) C9( #5) C9( b5) C7( #9) C7( b13
9) C9sus* C13sus( b9)

As an improviser, one has to take each of these of these on a case-by-case basis if one is to be sensitive
to the needs of the music and the desires of its composer. For example, C7( b9) is not an altered dominant
dominant scale would be inappropriate. Likewise, C7( b13, b9) is different from C7( #5, b9) for the same
chord in the sense described above, since it has a perfect fifth above the bass, and so playing the altered
reason - the presence of the fifth. In this case playing an altered dominant scale would not be wrong, but
it would be an impoverished choice since it leaves out a fundamental note (and, since the composer took

a salient part of the improvisation fabric, yes?). In a similar sense, C7( b5) and C7( #11) are subtly different
care to notate it thus, one would think that that was because she or he wanted the sound of the fifth to be

entities (as are CMaj7( b5) and CMaj7( #11)), and so on.
This, by the way, is as good an argument as any for why we should be at least a little bit suspicious of
theories of chord / scale isomorphism. We can construct a scale that maps onto every one of these, and
many more, but doesn't the parable of Occam's razor tell us that maybe there is a more elegant (and richer)
solution?

One more thought w/r/t chord extensions, which is the idea of upper structure harmony - a vocabulary
word that you should be aware of. This refers to the fact that the upper structure of an extended chord
can often be construed as a chord itself, and it is often very useful to think of it as such. The resulting
complex is often called a polychord. So, referring to our first few examples, we could think of Cmin13
as a D minor triad over a C minor seventh chord, and likewise CMaj13 as a D major triad over a C major
seventh chord. And there are many more similar constructs that you can explore and take advantage of
compositionally and improvisationally.

Much more about polychords in 2A and 2B!

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* We haven't yet talked about "sus" chords, which involve the displacement of a fundamental chord (usually the third,
but sometimes the root or fifth). Until fairly recently, suspensions were thought of as expressive non-chord tones
(dissonances that required resolution), but in modern jazz they have become self-standing syntactic objects.