RE: name that chord

["Miles Ward" <miles932@gmail.com>]

I am simultaneously intensely impressed with the music theory mastery of 
the
folks on this list, and my own heinous lack of it.  This is what I get for
probably being the only Tuba player on the Loopers list.  Come on, I get
confused on which of my three buttons to push...
Cheers :)
-Miles 

-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Nilsson [mailto:sam@servingpeace.com] 
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 9:06 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: name that chord

Teddy wrote:
> G-A-B-D-E can be
> G6/9
> A7sus4/9
> Bm11/b6
> Dsus4 6/9
> Em11
> 
> if you put that over a C melodic minor (C-D-Eb-F-G-A-B) bass line I 
> think you'd have quite the upper extension party with the minor
> 3rd, major 3rd and major 2nd all rubbing against each other.
> 
> Basically it would be a Cminor/maj 7/6 with an added major 3rd for extra 
> oomph.
> this one doesn't fit into any conventional chord symbol since you have 3 
> half steps in row there with the D, D# and E all rubbing against each 
> other.

Exactly. That would be a cluster, not a "chord". "chords" are built in 
thirds (in traditional western theory). The only way your chord tones 
above qualify as a "chord" as built from the root in thirds (assuming no 
other notes are used) would be a G13 chord like this:

G B D A E
1 3 5 9 13

The 7 (F) and the 11 (C) are the missing steps that aren't being 
shown/played.

In the case of a Cminor bass line the Eb could be used as a passing tone 
between D and E, but would otherwise cause a conflicting sound or 
"dissonance" with its neighbors D and E. The E natural in the chord 
really puts you in CMajor instead of Cminor.

- Sam