Harmony for the compleat idiot (10)

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MINOR SEVENTH CHORDS:

Chord Symbol	Notes in Chord
Cmin7	C Eb G Bb
Fmin7	F Ab C Eb
Bbmin7	Bb Db F Ab
Ebmin7	Eb Gb Bb Db
Abmin7	Ab Cb Eb Gb
Dbmin7	Db Fb Ab Cb (also called C#7 - C# E G# B)
Gbmin7	Gb Bbb Db Cb (also called F#7 - F# A C# E)
Bmin7	B D F# A
Emin7	E G B D
Amin7	A C E G
Dmin7	D F A C
Gmin7	G Bb D F

We've included a couple of the alternative names and chord notes - for example, Dbmin7 is really the same as C#min7. Although all chords, like all notes, can have a number of different names depending on the circumstances, the actual pitches will remain the same.

Here are all 12 seventh chords in musical notation (with the alternative note names in brackets):

Progressions

Another part of your homework was to work out all 12 of "II-V7-I" progressions. Construct this progression by choosing three chords whose root notes are in cyclical order. The first is a minor seventh chord, the second a seventh (also called dominant seventh) and the third a major chord. The key of the progression is determined by the last chord. Here they are:

See my previous comment on alternative names.

The Major Seventh Chord

Here is a new chord that uses the term "major". In chord symbol notation this term is only ever used to describe the seventh note of the scale. Yes I know we have used it to describe a major chord (1, 3, 5 of the major scale) but you didn't see it in the symbol did you? The major chord is symbolised by only the root note name (eg: C, Bb F# etc.)

Many people who approach chord symbol notation after a background in traditional harmony get very confused by the use of this term. For their sake, let's make an ironclad rule about the use of the term "major" in chord symbol notation.:

MAJOR MEANS MAJOR SEVEN
IT DOES NOT REFER TO ANYTHING ELSE…EVER!!!!!

(Note that this is for chord symbol notation only. The term has lots of uses in other musical environments, describing intervals for example. But not in chord symbol notation!!!)

OK, now that we have cleared that up, how do we represent the word major? There are two accepted symbols for the word:

1. The abbreviation "maj"
2. A triangle

These are the only two. Some of you may have come across capital letters as opposed to lower case to make the distinction. FORGET IT!!! THIS IS NOT USED IN CHORD SYMBOL NOTATION!!! (see above)

Since the term "major" only applies to the seventh note of the scale in chord symbol notation (are you beginning to understand that this is something that cannot be stated too many times?) then we must have that note in the chord… and we do.

The major seventh chord is made up of the first, third, fifth and seventh notes of the scale. In the chord Cmaj7 , for example, this would be C, E, G and B. C, E and G are represented, as always, by the letter C. The seventh is represented by "maj7" or:

This is necessary since, as you will no doubt remember, "7" always means "flattened 7" in chord symbol notation. So if we don't want a flattened 7, we have to specify it somehow. This we do by using "maj7" or:

Here it is in music notation:

Remember that this chord can also be indicated by:

Let's do another one just to make sure we all understand the construction process.

Dmaj7

The letter "D" tells us that the chord needs the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the D major scale. Using the cycle and our knowledge of major scale construction (see earlier installments of "Harmony for the Compleat Idiot") we can work out that the key of D major has two sharps and that these two sharps are F# and C#. So the D major scale looks like this:

D E F# G A B C# D

The first note of this scale is D, the third is F# and the fifth is A. So the first three notes of our chord are: D F# A.

The "7" tells us that we need a flattened seventh note of the scale but the "maj" (or the if that was what was used) tells us not to flatten it so we need the unaltered seventh note of the scale which is: C#.

So, the notes in Dmaj7 are: D F# A C#

Here it is in musical notation:

(Remember that this chord can also be indicated by:

Now go ahead and work out all 12 major seventh chords, answers next time.

Chord families

Now we need to start on a new topic: chord families. Although there are numerous chords, each is really one of six types. The major seventh chord we just looked at, for example, is part of the "Tonic Major" family. Any chord in that family has the same function but each may have a different flavour.

Function means how a chord behaves in a harmonic sense.
Flavour means how the chord actually sounds.

Play a C chord. Listen to the sound. The chord doesn't seem to need to move to another chord to give a feeling of completeness. This is one of the functions of the tonic major family of chords. Listen to the sound again… it doesn't have a dark mysterious sound like a minor chord, it could be described as "happy" or, perhaps more accurately, "neutral". This is the other function of tonic major chords, they give (not surprisingly) a major sound rather than the dark, mysterious minor sound. So any chord that is happy to be the end of a piece of music and sounds "majory" rather than "minory" is a tonic major chord.

Now play a Cmaj7 chord. This chord is also complete in itself; it could easily be the last chord in a piece of music without leaving the listener "hanging". It also has that "majory" sound and is definitely not "minory". So the major seventh chord is a member of the tonic major family.

On the other hand no one could confuse these two chords. The bland neutral major chord is very different from the sweet, wistful major seventh chord. Here lies the distinction between function and flavour.

One of the really interesting things about harmony is that we can substitute one chord from a particular chord family for another chord from the same family without interfering with the function of the progression but providing a different flavour.

Try playing a II - V7 - I progression with a major chord as the I (eg: Dm7 - G7 - C). Now play the same progression substituting a major seventh chord for the I (eg:Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7). Listen to the difference. Hear how both progressions move insistently to a satisfying finishing point but each has its own flavour. Function and flavour… there it is!

I strongly suggest you experiment with this concept so you start to get the idea. As we proceed we will encounter lots of new chords. From now on we will also talk about which family each chord belongs to.

Good luck with the homework and contact me at musosunion@aol.com if you have any questions.

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CD REVIEWS

Smaltz Waltz
Jazz for the Domestic Cave
Toadstool CD002001-1
$22

This latest studio recording from the flugelist Castor O’Hanrahan-led quintet is a celebration of the places we inhabit; that is, the rooms of the house.
Thus, the pieces take their titles accordingly: Hypnos’ Arbor and Grappling with Eros are evocations of the bedroom and its customary uses; Smoke on the Griller is a jazzy take on the old Deep Purple number; Baby, You Can Wash my Car needs no explanation; nor does Garage Band, a playful evocation of the thrash genre. Time to Ablute, Out, Damn Spots and Chow Down Hoe Down are equally self explanatory.
The stand-out tracks on this laudable album are those dedicated to the lounge room and the home office: Crash Potato and Blue and Gloom in that Room. These two titles were penned by the outfit’s drummer, Dangerous Joe “the lunatic” Townsend, and are perfect vehicles for the composer’s power drumming as for O’Hanrahan’s fluid stop-start lines on flugelhorn. Bassist Pollux O’Hanrahan (strangely, no relation) lays down some of the grooviest lines this side of Motown and shows that, for a bassist to be in the pocket, he doesn’t need always to play the pocket. In fact, he plays the entire album unplugged; which, while making it difficult to know when he’s actually playing, makes the rest of the band stand out in high relief. Not the only relief, I might add.
Carter Brown, author of the Carter Brown detective series, was not available for comment, what, with being dead and all. But, Mal Waldon did concede, in an impromptu interview outside the Ten studios: “No, I don’t make public comments.”
Five earplugs, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould et al.
The Evolutionary Cosmologists' Songbook
Big Bang CD3000000000000000000
$pi

Well, after all the hoo-haa, here it is, the most-awaited album of the year, if not of the age of the earth (put at somewhere between 39 years and five billion years). Was it worth the wait, as Adam said to his hairy dad? A balanced and considered answer must be, yes and no. As yet another foray by the scientific community into fields in which their ignorance competes for mastery with their hubris, it is a triumph; as a valuable contribution to musical history, it is eye-poppingly and ear-destroyingly appalling.
What blind, deaf and dumb record maker put Richard Dawkins to droning the lyrics of My Funny Valentine through a megaphone to the accompaniment of a lawnmower? Which amoebic ancestor of Stephen Jay Gould came up with the idea of getting him to lisp his way through an a capella rendition of Charles Mingus’ Epithecanthropus Erectus? And need I elaborate on the mental image conjured up by Stephen Hawking’s voicebox and bandoneon on I Can’t Get Started?
But the nadir of the set is the barbershop quartet arrangement of Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, on which Carl Sagan reproduces — if that is the correct term for such a destructive activity — on the comb Miles’ opening solo.
Whatever may be their strengths in their several specialist fields, here is indisputable evidence that these guys should stick to their knitting. Hopefully, there will be no Evolutionary Cosmologists’ Songbook II: let’s pray they soon evolve beyond the need for music.
“Bah, humbug,” said Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
Minus five earplugs and a writ.

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