Article by Rick Washbrook
Guitar Lesson Newmarket Jazz Guitar Chords
In jazz music you have so many different ways of making your chords sound interesting. The jazz guitar Dominant 7th chords have an ebb and flow of creating tension and then resolution to the key center chord.
The four main types of tension you can create to a Dominant 7th chord are the #5 degree or b5, the #9 or b9. The C7 dominant chord is from the key center of F major. The C7 chord is the 5th degree up from an F key center.
When you see a C7#5 chord symbol you would sharp the 5th degree of C. The 5th degree for C7 is a G note. To make it a sharp 5 note it becomes a G# note that you add to the chord. If you make it a C7b5 chord the note you add to the C7 chord is a Gb note.
If you are adding the #9 to your C7 chord you would count up 9 degrees from the C note, and find the 9th degree is a D note. This is the note you sharpen to become a D#. Add D# to the C7 chord, and you will have C7#9.
To review what I just said the way you find the 9th degree up from the C7 chord is to count up 9 notes. Here is an example I designed for you. I will start on the C note and count up to the 9th degree, C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E. The 9th note is past the octave of the starting note C. If you add #9 to your C7 it will be a D# note. If you add a b9 note to a C7 chord it will be a Db note. You can add these altered notes to create exciting tension to the C7 dominant chord. The other way you may see the symbols that describe the altered notes are +5 b5, or +9 b9.
The C7#5 chord consists of the 1st, 3rd, #5th and b7 degrees of the major scale C, E, G# and Bb. In the other examples it is done the same way, the same principle is applied. The C7b5 chord consists of the 1st, 3rd, b5th and b7th degrees. The notes are C, E, Gb and Bb which makes a C7b5 chord.
The dominant C7 chord resolves to the F major chord. If you add an alteration note b5, #5, #9, b9 to the C7 dominant chord it strikes up an interesting tension. The tension you decide to use in the C7 chord will resolve very nicely to the F chord. When you resolve the tension not that you add to the Dominant C7 make the tension note move a half or whole step to a note found in the F major or F major 7th, chord that you resolve to. This will make a smooth transition in a beautiful manner.
By Rick WashbrookAugust 12, 2011Guitar Lesson Newmarket Jazz Guitar Chords
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Guitar Lesson Newmarket Jazz Guitar Chords