Further Chords

11 & 13 Chords

The same logic can be applied to fourth or sixth notes of the scale, playing them in the higher octave in order to create 11 and 13 chords. They sound progressively richer and fuller as more of the intervals are added. Here’s a G minor 11:

And a G major 13, voiced as shown below:

So far we’ve stuck to intervals which fit neatly into the major and minor scales, but what happens if we break out of those intervals and include other notes? Let’s take a look…

Dominant Chords

The fifth chord of every scale is said to be the ‘dominant’ chord. For instance, if your track is in the key of C major, the dominant chord is G major. The G ‘dominant 7’ chord (notated ‘G7’) is voiced as below – a major triad, but with the minor 7^th (F, highlighted in red) rather than the major 7^th (which would be the F#, a semitone up):

It has an instantly recognisable bluesy character.

We can apply the same principles from earlier in order to create further variations on these dominant chords. A dominant 9 chord, for instance, consists of the root, major 3^rd, 5^th, minor 7^th and 9^th. In the case of G, that’s G, B, D, F, A:

A great example of a dominant 7 chord can be found in the Prodigy’s ‘Everybody In The Place’, during the sample that comes in 32 seconds into the track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKmhlA2S2KU