Altered chord

In music, an altered chord, an example of alteration (see below), is a chord with one or more diatonic notes replaced by, or altered to, a neighboring pitch in the chromatic scale. The simplest use of altered chords is the use of "borrowed" chords which are "borrowed" from the tonic minor of a major key, or from the tonic major of a minor key.

Background

"Borrowing" of this type is seen in music from the Renaissance music era and the Baroque music era (1600–1750), such as with the use of the Picardy third, in which a piece in a minor key has a final or intermediate cadence in the tonic major chord. "Borrowing" is also common in 20th century popular music and rock music.

For example, in music in a major key, such as E major, composers and songwriters may use a D major chord, which is "borrowed" from the key of E minor (where it is the VII chord). Similarly, in music in a minor key, such as A minor, composers and songwriters often "borrow" chords from the tonic major. For example, pieces in B/G minor often use E/C major and F♯/D major chords (IV and V chords), which are "borrowed" from the key of B/G major.

More advanced types of altered chords were used by Romantic music era composers in the 19th century, such as Chopin and by jazz composers and improvisers in the 20th and 21st century. For example, the chord progression on the left uses four unaltered chords:^[1]

The progression on the right uses an altered IV chord and is an alteration of the previous progression.^[1] The A♭ in the altered chord serves as a leading tone to G, which is the root of the next chord.

Jazz

In jazz and jazz harmony, the term altered chord, notated as an alt chord (e.g. G^7alt Play^ⓘ), refers to a dominant chord, "in which neither the fifth nor the ninth appears unaltered"^[3] – namely, where the 5th and the 9th are raised or lowered by a single semitone, or omitted. Altered chords are thus constructed using the following notes, some of which may be omitted:

root (typically omitted by comping chord-playing instrumentalists)
3rd
♭5th and/or ♯5th (the ♭5th is often expressed as ♯11)
♭7th
♭9th and/or ♯9th
♭13th

Altered chords may include both a flattened and sharpened form of the altered fifth or ninth, e.g. G^{7(♭5♯5♭9)}; however, it is more common to use only one such alteration per tone, e.g. G^7(♭5♭9), G^7(♭5♯9), G^7(♯5♭9), or G^7(♯5♯9). in practice, many fake books do not specify all the alterations; the chord is typically just labelled as G^7alt, and the alteration of 9ths, 11ths and 13ths is left to the artistic discretion of the comping musician. The use of chords labeled "G^7alt" can create challenges in jazz ensembles where more than one chordal instrument are playing chords (e.g., a large band with an electric guitar player and a Hammond organ player), because the guitarist might interpret a G^7alt chord as containing a ♭9 and ♭13, whereas the organ player may interpret the same chord as containing a ♯9 and a ♮13; this can lead to clashing harmonies. To deal with this issue, bands with more than once chordal instrument may work out the alt chord voicings beforehand or alternate playing of choruses.

The choice of inversion, or the omission of certain tones within the chord (e.g. omitting the root, common in jazz harmony and chord voicings), can lead to many different possible colorings, substitutions, and enharmonic equivalents. Altered chords are ambiguous harmonically, and may play a variety of roles, depending on such factors as voicing, modulation, and voice leading.

The altered chord's harmony is built on the altered scale, which includes all the alterations shown in the chord elements above:

root
♭9 (=♭2)
♯9 (=♯2 or ♭3)
3
♯11 (=♯4 or ♭5)
♭13 (=♯5)
♭7

Because they do not have natural fifths, altered dominant (7alt) chords support tritone substitution (♭5 substitution). Thus the 7alt chord on a given root can be substituted with the 13♯11 chord on the root a tritone away (e.g., G^7alt is the same as D^♭13♯11 Play^ⓘ). Tritone substitution in jazz is often used to create chromatic root movement in the roots of chords. An example of a standard jazz chord progression to which tritone substitution is applied is the "ii/V/I" progression. For example, in the key of C major, this progression includes the chords D minor, G dominant seventh and C major (or Dm/G⁷/C in abbreviated jazz chord notation). A common application of tritone substitution to the ii/V/I progression is to replace the dominant seventh chord with another dominant seventh chord a tritone away. Thus Dm/G⁷/C would become Dm/D♭⁷/C. This new tritone substitution progression contains a chromatic movement of root notes.

Altered chords are commonly substituted for regular dominant V chords on the same root in ii-V-I progressions, most commonly in minor harmony leading to a i⁷ (tonic minor 7th) chord but also in ii/V/I progressions in a major key.

More generally in jazz, the terms altered chord and altered tone also refer to the family of chords that involve ♭9 and ♭5 voicing, as well as to certain other chords with related ambiguous harmony. Thus the "7♭9 chord" (e.g. G^7♭9) is used in the context of a dominant resolution to a major tonic, which is typically voiced with a ♮13 rather than the ♭13 of the alt chord. When voiced with a ♮13, jazz musicians typically play the half-step/whole-step diminished scale over the ♭9 chord (e.g. G, A♭, B♭, B, C♯, D, E, F over G^7♭9).

Note that in chord substitution and comping (accompaniment by a chordal instrumentalist, such as an electric guitarist or piano player), a 7♭9 is often used to replace a diminished chord, for which it may be the more "correct" substitution due to its incorporation of an appropriate root tone. Thus, in a progression where a diminished chord (denoted °) is written in place of a G⁷ chord, i.e. where the dominant chord is replaced by an A♭° (A♭–C♭–E = G♯–B–D), D° (D–F–A♭), B° (B–D–F), or F° (F–A♭–C♭ = F–G♯–B)), a G^7♭9 is often played instead. G^7♭9 (G–B–D–F–A♭) contains the same notes as any of these diminished chords with an added G root.

Alteration

In music, alteration, an example of chromaticism, is the use of a neighboring pitch in the chromatic scale in place of its diatonic neighbor such as in an altered chord. This should not be confused with borrowing (as in borrowed chord), in which pitches or chords from the parallel key are used in place of those of the original key. Altered notes may be used as leading tones to emphasize their diatonic neighbors. Contrast with chord extension: "Whereas chord extension generally involves adding notes that are logically implied, chord alteration involves changing some of the typical notes. This is usually done on dominant chords, and the four alterations that are commonly used are the ♭5, ♯5, ♭9 and ♯9. Using one (or more) of these notes in a resolving dominant chord greatly increases the bite in the chord and therefore the power of the resolution." "The more tension, the more powerful the resolution… we can pile that tension on to make the resolution really spectacular."^[5]

The ♭9 chord is recommended for resolution to minor chords, for example VI⁷ to ii (G^7♭9 to Cm⁷) in the I-vi-ii-V turnaround. The ♯9 chord is also known as the Purple Haze chord, is most often notated with the enharmonic equivalent ♭3, and is thus used with the blues. The 5 in a ♭5 chord is enharmonically equivalent to a ♯4 or ♯11, but the sharp eleventh chord includes the ♮5 while in the flat fifth chord it is replaced. The ♯5 chord is enharmonically equivalent to a ♭13, does not include the ♮5, and is more common than the ♭13 chord. Both the flat and sharp fifth resolve nicely to the natural ninth.^[6]

Example of an altered chord progression in jazz Play.

In jazz, chromatic alteration is either the addition of "notes which are not diatonic to the given scale" or "the expansion of any given [chord] progression by adding extra nondiatonic chords".^[7] For example, "A C major scale with an added D♯ note, for instance, is a chromatically altered scale" while, "one bar of Cmaj⁷ moving to Fmaj⁷ in the next bar can be chromatically altered by adding the ii and V of Fmaj⁷ on the second two beats of bar" one. Techniques include the ii-V-I turnaround, as well as movement by half-step or minor third.^[8]

For example, an altered dominant or V chord may be G♭–B–D♯ (♭5 and ♯9).

Altered seventh chord

An altered seventh chord is a seventh chord with one, or all,^[10] of its factors raised or lowered by a semitone (altered), for example the augmented seventh chord^{[disambiguation needed]} (7+ or 7+5) featuring a raised fifth^[11] (C⁷⁺⁵: C–E–G♯–B♭). Most likely the fifth, then the ninth, then the thirteenth.^[10]

In classical music, the raised fifth is more common than the lowered fifth, which in a dominant chord adds Phrygian flavor through the introduction of ♭.^[9] (For example, in C the dominant is G, its fifth is D, the second scale degree.)

Sources

^ ^a ^b Erickson, Robert (1957). The Structure of Music: A Listener's Guide, p.86. New York: Noonday Press. ISBN 0-8371-8519-X (1977 edition).
^ Coker, Jerry (1997). Elements of the Jazz Language for the Developing Improvisor, p.81. ISBN 1-57623-875-X.
^ Sher (ed.). The New Real Book Volume Two. Sher Music Co., 1991, ISBN 0-9614701-7-8
^ Erickson (1957), p.86. Subtitled "a study of music in terms of melody and counterpoint".
^ Baerman, Noah (1998). Complete Jazz Keyboard Method: Intermediate Jazz Keyboard, p.70. ISBN 0-88284-911-5.
^ Baerman (1998), p.71.
^ Arkin, Eddie (2004). Creative Chord Substitution for Jazz Guitar, p.42. ISBN 0-7579-2301-1.
^ Arkin (2004), p.43.
^ ^a ^b ^c Aldwell, Edward; Schachter, Carl; and Cadwallader, Allen (2010). Harmony & Voice Leading, p.601. ISBN 9780495189756.
^ ^a ^b Davis, Kenneth (2006). The Piano Professor Easy Piano Study, p.78. ISBN 9781430303343.
^ Christiansen, Mike (2004). Mel Bay's Complete Jazz Guitar Method, Volume 1, p.45. ISBN 9780786632633.