From: Brian Candler <b.candler@...>
Date: 2010-03-02T22:49:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Music Theory (#229)

Rick Denatale wrote:
> So you're saying that to a Jazz player Cmajor has a note from  Cmajor7 ?

Yes. I had to unlearn a lot of stuff :-)

As Evan said, it's the 3rd and 7th which define the nature of the chord, 
so there are four basic shells (minor or major 3rd, together with minor 
or major 7th). You can put them either way up, which allows for smooth 
progressions [1]

And apart from a couple of rules [2], you can add any other notes of the 
scale to make a fuller chord. The fact that harmony comes from scales 
and not triads was a big revelation to me. Another was the existence of 
lots of other scales like the Lydian.

Apologies if this is going way off-topic :-)

Cheers,

Brian.

[1] e.g. Dm -> G7 -> C could be (F+C), (F+B), (E+B)

[2] Don't play a perfect 4th with a major 3rd - it jars. And keep either 
the 3rd or 7th towards the bottom of the voicing.
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