Hold on... Nobody's talking about that. We're not comparing an inverted Cadd9 with a non-inverted Cadd9. We're comparing a third inversion C add9 with C major (inverted or not) over the non chord tone D.
That was a response to:
Also, as in the example I put above,
A - A/G# - A/F# - A/E,
you're forced into making up the rather artificial sounding chords:
A - Amaj7/G# - A6/F# - A/E
The second and third chords will sound nothing like maj7 and 6 chords and notating them as such is needless pedantry.
Maybe I misread him (probably, even) but how I read it it seems he says that such an inverted maj7 chord sounds so different from a regularly voiced maj7 chord that it cannot be one itself. Which I disagree with: the whole point of inverting a chord is to get a different sound and feel.
But if you write the chord in your song as Cadd9/D then I must treat the D as a chord tone of Cadd9 because your chord notation is telling me to. Similarly, if I write a song with C/D then I expect you to treat D as a non-chord tone.
Okay, so if you do not hear the piece the original composer gets to decide what it is, and if you hear it you might, if you want, interpretate it differently. If I get that right I agree with you (and agree that my first post was downright wrong for the reasons you give above). Apologies if I was sounding like a rhino who just got his frontal lobotomy, been an enlightening topic for me anyway. :D
No apologies necessary, Arjen. It's been a great and very useful discussion. :D
