Hello, again. We’re back looking at the “Dangerous” dominant 7, flat 9. This is a chord you see a lot of before going to a minor key, and that’s one of the reasons it sounds dangerous when we hear it. The flat 9 of the dom 7 b9 chord turns into the b6 of the tonic chord we expect to come next. A tonic chord is the central, most important chord of a key center, whether major or minor. Major key centers, most times, do not use scales with flat or minor 6s, preferring the major 6s instead. For example, note A in C major is a major 6 up from C. But minor key centers commonly DO use scales that DO have minor 6s in them, such as A harmonic minor or A natural minor.

Whew! That’s a roundabout way of explaining why we anticipate a minor key center when we hear that flat 9 in a dominant 7 chord, such as the F note in E7b9. And a side note but an important one, as I look at this bunch of text used to try to explain the dom 7b9. If you don’t understand the stuff written here or in the last issue, do not despair. Your musical ear know perfectly well what’s going on; and words often get in the way of trying to explain these so called theory topics. Keep playing and asking questions like “Okay, the F note over the E7 chord makes the E7 sound dangerous. Why? Let me track that F into the next chord and see where it fits in the next chord or key center.” Persist, and you will get it.

Okay, enough pep talk. Let’s look at one more reason why the dom 7 flat 9, such as the E7 b9, sounds dangerous. Yes, that F note is telling us “something wicked this way comes,” in the form of an A minor key center. But that’s not the only reason that F sounds dangerous. Think about what the F note is to the root of the E7 chord: yes, it’s a flat nine. That’s dissonant. Check it out by playing the E note on string 4 and the F note on string 1. In comparison, play that E note with the G# on string 1 (fret 4). Much sweeter, isn’t it?

We did that little exercise to show that dom 7 b9 chords sound dangerous partly because the flat 9 is claustrophobically close to the root of the chord.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - July 1, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Ninth Chord Series

• Ninth Chords
• The Major Nine - Part Two
• The Dominant 9
• The Dangerous Dom7 b9
• The dom 7 sharp 9

Here’s a dangerous sound for us to try out. Get our your guitar, and play this with open position chords.

Dm, G7, C, Dm, E7b9, Am

Play the E7b9 like this:

|-1----|
|-0----|
|-1----|
|-0----|
|-2----|
|-0----|

That’s the dangerous sound of the dominant seven, flat 9. We used an E7b9 specifically. Here are the notes: E, G#, B, D, F. The b9 is the F in this case.

What is a flat nine? Do you remember how we come up with the assignment of the numbers to the notes of a chord? For our E7b9, the root, third, fifth, and seventh correspond to E, G#, B, D. And going to the next letter name after D, we’d get another E. E would be the 8th note, since D is the seventh, correct? So go one more note: E is 8, F is 9.

The F note is a flat 9, because, thinking in terms of an E major scale, an F# would be the natural nine. Knock that down a half step to F, and you have a flat 9.

What makes this E7b9 sound so dangerous? What is it about that one little note, the b9, that makes us know we’re going into a minor key? Think about what the b9, the note F, is in terms of the key center we’re going to. And then you will begin to understand why the F sounds scary.

Most of the time, when we hear any kind of E7, we expect to hear some kind of A chord right after it. Let’s think about what our scary note, F, is in relation to that “some kind of A chord.”

The F is the b6 of two very common minor scales: the A Natural Minor scale and the A Harmonic Minor scale. A major scale does not have a b6. Therefore, when we hear the F in the E7b9 chord, our ears say “whoa: minor key center coming up.” That’s one reason why the E7b9 sounds dangerous: it’s giving us a sneak preview into the somber sound of the A minor key center coming up.

Digest that point for bit. Then try this progression.

Dm, G7, C, Dm, E79, Am

Same progression as before, except for the E natural 9. Play it here:

|-2----|
|-0----|
|-1----|
|-0----|
|-2----|
|-0----|

That was an E9 with a natural nine to it. When we hear that E9, it doesn’t sound as dangerous as the E7b9. The reason is that the natural nine will become the major 6 of the next chord: F# over a chord whose root is A; and our ears are more accustomed to associating the major scale, not minor, with the natural 6. So when we hear that F# in the E7, we think, “Hey, we could be going to a major key center next.”

More on the dom7b9 next time.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - June 15, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Ninth Chord Series

• Ninth Chords
• The Major Nine - Part Two
• The Dominant 9
• More on the dom7b9
• The dom 7 sharp 9

We’ve been adding some tasty new flavors to our usual major, minor and dominant 7 chords. We started with the major 9 in a previous installment, and now we’re going to look at the dominant 9.

Here’s a common shape for the dominant 9 sound to get us started:

-5-
-5-
-5-
-4-
-5-
---

It’s a pretty sound. Used a lot in jazz, but other genres, too. The dominant 7 chord has 3 possible kinds of 9s: a flat 9, an unaltered 9, and a sharp 9. We’re going to look at the unaltered 9 now.

Notice the notes in the pattern above: D, F#, C, E. See what’s missing? Yes, the A. We don’t need it. Remember that it’s common to omit notes in chords played on the guitar, and still be able to get to the essential sound.

What scales can you play over D9 and where can you use the chord? A dom 9 shows up in a couple of different common scales, so you can naturally use those scales to solo over it.

Our first scale is a major scale: G major. We can also use A melodic minor and G melodic minor if we’re feeling a bit more exotic. Use those scales for improvising over the D9. Also, try the D minor/F major pentatonic for blues improvising.

Let’s do an abbreviated blues using the D9 and some other dom 9 shapes:

|--5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-5-3-5-3-5-3-5-3----|
|--7-7-5-5-7-7-5-5-|-6-3-6-3-6-3-6-3----|
|--5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4----|
|--7-7-4-4-7-7-4-4-|-5-3-5-3-5-3-5-3----|
|--5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|--------------------|
|------------------|--------------------|

|-7-5-7-5-7-6-5-5-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5----|
|-8-5-8-5-8-7-6-6-|-7-7-5-5-7-7-5----|
|-6-6-6-6-6-5-4-4-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5----|
|-7-5-7-5-7-6-5-5-|-7-7-4-4-7-7-4----|
|-----------------|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5----|
|-----------------|------------------|

We alternate between straight dom 7 and dom 9 in this mini blues.

Next time we’ll look at a “dangerous” alteration to the dom 7 chord: the dom 7 flat 9.

Thanks for reading.

Darrin Koltow

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - June 1, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Ninth Chord Series

• Ninth Chords
• The Major Nine - Part Two
• The Dangerous Dom7 b9
• More on the dom7b9
• The dom 7 sharp 9

We’ve been exploring a special “addition” to the plain major chord: the Major 9. In the scale of C major, you can have two different major nines:

C major 9: C, E, G, B, D — listed in order of ascending pitch. And F major 9: F, A, C, E, G

(You can also have a G major, add 9.)

Here’s a point about how this works in reality on the guitar. Sometimes, we don’t play the natural seventh. That’s the B in C major 9. In that case, the chord is named as follows: C major, add 9.

We’ll take a look at a couple of different places you can play the major 9 on the fretboard and then go into some applications for this form.

Here’s one pattern: the D major 6/9. Notes: D, F#, B, E. Notice the seven and five are missing. That’s fine: we don’t need them to get the basic major 9 sound.

---
-5-
-4-
-4-
-5-
---

And here’s one with the top note falling on string 1, F major, add 9

-3-
-1-
-2-
-3-
---
---

Play this one with your fingers instead of a pick.

|------|-----|-----|-----|------|
|-7-7--|-----|-6-6-|-7-7-|-5----|
|-7-7--|-7-7-|-7-7-|-6-6-|-4----|
|-7-7--|-7-7-|-6-6-|-5-5-|-4----|
|-5-5--|-----|-----|-----|-5----|
|------|-7-7-|-6-6-|-5-5-|------|

Now here’s an excerpt from an actual tune that uses a major 9 chord.

  Q    Q     Q    Q      Q     E     Q.    Q
|-3----0----0---------|-3----0-----0----------|
|-1----1----1----3----|-1----1-----1-----3----|
|-2----2----2----2----|-2----2-----2-----2----|
|-3-------------------|-3----3-----3----------|
|---------------------|-----------------------|
|---------------------|-----------------------|

  Q  Q   Q  Q    Q  E  Q.  Q
|-3-----------|-3--------------
|-5--5--5--3--|-5--5--5---3----|
|-4--4--4--4--|-4--4--4---4----|
|-3-----------|-3--------------|
|-------------|----------------|
|-3-----------|-3--------------|

The E means eighth note, Q is quarter note, and “Q.” is dotted quarter note.

That’s the Girl from Ipanema.

Also, listen to the intro to Dust in the Wind for a Major, add 9 happening in open position. Very pretty.

When do you use the major 9 and related chords? If you’re accompanying yourself singing, and reading chords to strum from chord charts or other notation, try a major 9 when you see a plain major chord called for.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - May 15, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Ninth Chord Series

• Ninth Chords
• The Dominant 9
• The Dangerous Dom7 b9
• More on the dom7b9
• The dom 7 sharp 9

This tip is about the major 9, major add 9, and 6/9 chords. We’re going into this because it’s nice to know there’s other stuff you can do with a major chord to keep it from sounding like the same old 3-note sound.

Just what does this 9 refer to, in C major 9? First, take the plain C major chord: C, E, G. This can be built on the C major scale (among other scales). Here’s that scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B and again C. Keep going now, one more note: D again, right? Let’s bring in the numbers, just assigning them to the scale:

Notice the number under the D, 9. We don’t assign 2 to the D, because we’re building this chord from lowest pitch to highest: C is in the bass, then comes E higher up, then, G, maybe B, and then D as the top note, higher than all the others. If we were to say “C major 2″ instead of C major 9, we’d first get some funny looks from more experienced fellow musicians. Then, we’d see our mistake by spelling out the “C major 2:”

C in the bass, then D is the next note, just two steps higher, then E two steps higher than D, and on up. If you think this *looks* okay, think about how you’d try to play, C, D, and E on your guitar like this:

--
--
--
-2-
-5-
-8-

In other words, C on string 6, fret 8, D on string 5, fret 5 and E on string 4, fret 2. Besides ripping the webbing between your fingers in just attempting this, if you do manage to sound all three notes at once, you’ll hear it sounds pretty muddy.

This is getting a bit long, so let’s break this topic onto the next installment, where we’ll go into some specific shapes for playing the major 9 and related chords.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - May 1, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Ninth Chord Series

• The Major Nine - Part Two
• The Dominant 9
• The Dangerous Dom7 b9
• More on the dom7b9
• The dom 7 sharp 9

We continue exploring approach notes in this tip. In the previous installments we worked out with notes that were below the note we really wanted to hit, and we did this for dominant 7ths and major arpeggios. Now we’re going to use notes that approach the target note from above. We could attempt to go into how this sounds, compared to the approaches tones of the previous installment. But it’s better to dive in and listen. Here’s the exercise:

|-------------------|-6-5--------------|
|---------------8-6-|------8-6---------|
|----------7-5------|----------7-5-----|
|-5----8-7----------|--------------8-7-|
|---8---------------|------------------|
|-------------------|------------------|

-----------------|--------|
-----------------|--------|
-----------------|--------|
-5-------------5-|----5---|
---8-5-------7---|-8----8-|
-------8-6-5-----|--------|

Play these as eighth notes. It might be a bit tricky when you first try this exercise, because it uses finger rolls, including finger rolls for the pinky. So you can look at this exercise as a way to build pinky chops and dexterity, and not just as a way to learn about approach tones.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - April 15, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

We’re continuing our work with approach tones this time. Remember that all we’re doing is putting a little delay note before the real note we want to hit. This builds a little suspense and gives your melodic playing more color, whether you’re improvising or not. We continue using an approach that comes from a 1/2 step below our target note.

We did approach tones for a major arpeggio last time. Let’s do a Dominant arpeggio with approach tones a 1/2-step below. Here we go:

|---|-----------------|-----------5-6-7--|
|---|-----------------|-----5-7-8--------|
|---|---------------4-|-5-8--------------|
|---|-------4-5-7-8---|------------------|
|---|---6-7-----------|------------------|
|-7-|-8---------------|------------------|

|-8-5-6-----------|----------------------|
|-------7-8---5---|----------------------|
|-----------8-----|-5--------------------|
|---------------9-|---7-8-4-5------------|
|-----------------|-----------6-7--------|
|-----------------|---------------7-8----|

These are all eighth notes. The very first one should be started on an up beat, so you come down in measure two on a strong beat.

I know that descent gets a bit tricky when you first try this. You’re going to give your pinky a workout, which may be like a jump into a cold shower on a snowy day if you don’t even use your pinky now. But first, you don’t have to use this fingering, and second, this exercise gets easier (and sounds better) the more you do it. But you probably already know that.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - April 1, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Here’s a pattern that introduces us to approach tones. Approach tones are those notes used for melodic embellishment that happen before the note you actually want to play. For example, if you’re going to play a C, E, G (C major arpeggio) you could dress it up by instead playing B, C, Eb, E, Gb, G. This is just one example of approach tones. There are many different ways of using this type of melodic embellishment.

Let’s work with the F major arpeggio:

|------------------4-5-|-7-8-4-5--------------------|
|--------------5-6-----|---------5-6----------------|
|----------4-5---------|-------------4-5------------|
|------6-7-------------|-----------------6-7--------|
|--7-8-----------------|---------------------7-8----|
|----------------------|----------------------------|

This pattern can go equally well over a Dm7 chord. Try to play this by first stressing the first note in each 2-note group. Then, play again but stress the 2nd note.

If you like working with this exercise, you’ll probably want to create other patterns based on the common open position chords as follows: a major arpeggio pattern with root on string 5, under finger 2. Then, major arps whose roots fall here:

string 6, finger 4
string 6, finger 2
string 4, finger 1.

We’ll learn a dominant 7 pattern for approach tones next time.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2008 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - March 15, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Let’s look at a simple but pleasing pattern to break up the monotony of the standard scale pattern. We can call this the Stardust pattern. These are all eighth notes.

|-8-5-6---5-------|-----------------|
|-------8---6-8-5-|-6---5-----------|
|-----------------|---7---5-7---5---|
|-----------------|-----------8---7-|
|-----------------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------------|

-----------------|-------------|
-----------------|-------------|
-----------------|-------------|
-8-5-7---5-------|-------------|
-------8---7-8-5-|-7---5-------|
-----------------|---8---6-8-5-|

|-----------------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------5---7-|
|---------------5-|---7-5-8-7---8---|
|---5---7-5-8-7---|-8---------------|
|-6---8-----------|-----------------|

---------------5-|---6-5-8----|
---5---6-5-8-6---|-8----------|
-5---7-----------|------------|
-----------------|------------|
-----------------|------------|
-----------------|------------|

If you want to continue working with this pattern, you might try these additional exercises: transpose to another major scale pattern; start on a different note; jump by a perfect fourth instead of a third.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - March 1, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Let’s explore a tip that has a lot to do with music — no matter what instrument you play. We’re talking about singing. What do we guitarists need to know about singing? Maybe we should scrap the whole topic and let vocalists pick this up. But maybe we should investigate a bit.

What’s the point of singing? What do we sing to help us play guitar better? First, a fact: Singing helps you memorize and understand music better (than if you didn’t sing.). We’re not going to slog through all of the academic, scholarly research done to prove this. Instead we’ll get practical, so you can prove the usefulness of singing to yourself.

Pick any two tunes from your favorite artist. Pick two tunes that you don’t know how to play yet and that sound fairly similar to each other. Some possible artists to start with: Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel. We’re going for catchy, simple melodies. We’re not going to work with chords in this tip.

Learn the melodies of both tunes completely by ear. For the first one, don’t sing it all. Just dive right in, and pick out the major scale pattern you are most comfortable with, and try to pick out the tune’s notes within that pattern.

For the second tune, don’t touch the guitar yet. Sing the tune, and keep singing it, repeatedly, until you are confident you know the melody without any backup harmony. Only then, work it out on your guitar. Use the same major scale pattern you used on the first melody, if you can.

Now for the moment of truth: which tune was easier to learn? I bet it was the one you sang.

Keep this in mind: Your first instrument, and with many people their most musically accurate instrument, is your voice.

Thanks for reading.

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News - February 15, 2006 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.