January Music Blog 2023
Chord Extensions
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Now on to our discussion on chord extensions. When I think of chords and extensions I think of any chord that is built out past the 7th of a chord. Chords that are root third and fifth or root, third, fifth and seventh are consider native to the key you are building the chords from. When I think of an extension I am thinking of 9, 11, 13th and any variation of these extensions. What I mean by variation is a flat or sharp. You could have any one of these extensions appear as a sharp or a flat. Sharp nine chords are very common as well as flat nine chords. When you build a chord such as a C chord the definition is a root, third and fifth. The C chord is spelled C-E-G. Now if we have a C add9 chord this would be an example of a chord with an extension. The C add9 chord is spelled C-E-G+D. The nine is an extension of a C chord. You may want to remember a 9=2 11=4 and 13=6 from which ever scale you are building your chords from. If we have a C9 chord this is different than a C add9. Any chord that has an extension of 9 or higher and is written with the root note and just the 9 is a dominant 7th chord with the note that is 9 away from the root of the chord added to it. C9 would be built as C-E-G-Bb+D. As you can see the C9 and C add9 chords are different. They have even a bigger difference when comparing the two chords with your ear. Another example would be a CMaj9 chord. This chords definition is R-3rd-5th-7th+9. A CMaj9 chord consists of C-E-G-B+D. Now lets look at a CMin9 chord. This chords definition is R-b3-5th-b7th. If we plugin the actual notes from C we would have C-Eb-G-Bb+D. The minor 7th chord has a flat 3rd and a flat 7th which make it different from both the C9 and CMaj9 chord.
Here are definitions for each of your 7th chords that appear native to a key.
Major 7th= R-3rd-5th-7th
Minor 7th= R-b3rd-5th-b7th
Dominant 7th= R-3rd-5th-b7th
Minor 7th b5= R-b3rd-b5th-b7th
When you see an extension 7 or higher and the root of the chord is followed by Major or minor you have to include the notes from the definition of the chord plus whatever extension there asking you for. Here are examples of each with the root being C.
CMaj9= C-E-G-B+D
CMin9= C-Eb-G-Bb+D
C9= C-E-G-Bb+D
These rules follow each chord with an extension regardless if the chord is a 9,11th or 13th. I hope this helps give you a better foundation for building chords with extensions.
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