Chords beyond the triad
What a chord symbol can carry after the letter and the quality: the tritone that moves everything, suspended and sixth chords, the extensions, altered dominants, diminished chords, and the transposition that lets you play any of them in any key.
Sign in to enrol Courses are part of the subscription.
1. The interval that moves
- Six semitones
Half the octave, the only symmetrical interval, and the reason every dominant asks to resolve.
2. No third, with a sixth
- The third that leaves
The fourth or the second in place of the third, the chord that is neither major nor minor, and the one-finger resolution.
- Rest with colour
The sixth added to the triad, the ending of bossa nova and choro, and the chord that a chord symbol confuses with the relative minor seventh.
3. Above the seventh
- Colour, not structure
The ninth, eleventh and thirteenth as the stack continued, what the numbering implies, and what to drop when you run out of fingers.
- One more semitone pointing
The flat ninth, the sharp ninth and the augmented fifth on the dominant, and why each one reinforces the resolution instead of getting in its way.
- Four names for one chord
Minor thirds stacked until the octave closes, two crossed tritones, the dominant without its bass, and choro's passing chord.
4. In any key
- The same music at another pitch
Adding the same interval to every note, taking the key signature along, and thinking by degree so that it becomes automatic.