I don't understand why Neapolitan chords have a flattened 5th, say I'm constructing an F Neapolitan chord (first inversion) I would expect B D Gb, but instead from what I've been seeing with the Cmaj examples it would be B Db Gb? ..also, in this case, would the chord tend to resolve to the dominant of F or Gb? what types of music are these of found in and are any other 'odder' chords usually found with them?
sorry for all the questions :P, i've gotta learn somehow
Maybe this will help
http://musictheoryresources.com/members/FA_neapltn.htm
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
Neapolitan sixth chords are simple major triads built on the b2 of a scale. If you're in the key of F, the b2 is Gb, and the bII triad is Gb major: Gb-Bb-Db; in C, it would be Db-F-Ab. Although they're usually seen in first inversion (and almost always illustrated that way in theory books), they can actually occur in any inversion... it's still analyzed as N6.
What's confusing you is the fact that the N6 is usually used in minor keys, and a lot of writers do a poor job of explaining the N6 in major keys by saying "lowered fifth" - the fifth isn't really lowered.
Let's say you're in C minor... the N6 chord is Db-F-Ab. Both F and Ab are naturally found in C minor, so you can look at this as an altered iv chord (iv = F-Ab-C, raise the fifth to Db and you have N6). You've built the chord using all scale tones, except for the root... the chord contains b2 (the root of N5), 4 (the third of N6), and 6 (the 5th of N6) from the natural or harmonic minor scale.
Now consider the key of C major. You've got that pesky Ab to deal with - it doesn't lie in the key of C. If you follow the same logic as the minor key, using b2-4-6 from the diatonic scale, you don't get N6 - in order to get the N6 chord, you need to use b6 from the major scale. And since that's the fifth of the chord, some writers say "lowered fifth".
They're not really talking about lowering the fifth - you still need a major triad to have N6. They're talking about lowering the tone in relation to the major scale. In C, that means lowering the natural A (the fifth of a chord built on II) to Ab. When you add to that awkward language the fact that illustrations will be shown in first inversion, it can be really tough to sort out what they meant.
Greybeard's link is a good synopsis. For more detail on the usage, you might try this one.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
