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a peculiar piano chord

#21
Most basic theory books describe chords in root position, then the inversions of that. These chords are neither in root position nor are they strictly an inversion.

For the first chord, Fmaj9, this is how you would see it described in a music text:

Root position: F A C E G

First inversion (starts on the 3rd) A C E F G

Second inversion (starts on the 5th) C E F G A

But what you played is F C E G A...same chord but voiced differently. Try playing all four: root position, first inversion, second inversion, your chord voicing. They are the same chord, but each has a different sound.
 
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#22
Are you pressing the damper when you played these chords. Maybe that's why it's melancholic sounding

Nothin peculiar about those chords. Used in pop music a lot. Even if you Put a Bb in there. It is still not peculiar. You can do a C6 arpeggio and descend the bass c - Bb - A - G# ( but change arpeggio to Cm9su4 ) to G with C9 and then drop the F to Fmaj9 or C6/F). You have heard this many times before. The tonal center is always C unless you let it go.

Listen to Nils Frahm and Arnaulds Olafur where these simple motifs can be expansive.
 
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#23
The "name" of the chord is C/F. The function of the chord is that of a FMaj7-9. The brain hears the missing A, and the fact that there's no A is what makes it sound more abstract, open or as have been said, cavernous.
But in every aspect it works as an FMaj7-9.
This is not an opinion, is common knowledge if you arrive to an intermediate theory level. Go to "slash chords" in any theory/harmony book.
 
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#24
brianrost said:
Most basic theory books describe chords in root position, then the inversions of that. These chords are neither in root position nor are they strictly an inversion.

For the first chord, Fmaj9, this is how you would see it described in a music text:

Root position: F A C E G

First inversion (starts on the 3rd) A C E F G

Second inversion (starts on the 5th) C E F G A

But what you played is F C E G A...same chord but voiced differently. Try playing all four: root position, first inversion, second inversion, your chord voicing. They are the same chord, but each has a different sound.
Click to expand...
To quibble a bit, F C E G A isn't something different from root position, it IS an example of root position. There's no rule that says the chord tones have to be voiced in ascending order from the lowest tone. F C E G A is as much root position as F A C E G is. It's just the lowest note that defines the inversion; above that, you can have closed or open voicings, and doubled or nondoubled chord tones.
 
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#26
By itself, you’re playing a C Major chord with a 4 or an 11 in the bass. It’s really all relative, though. It’s hard to identify exactly what a chord is without knowing the preceding or following chords or the melody line and the key or mode that they’re harmonizing over.
 
#28
Although it is a slash chord C/F - the A or 6 really pulls this toward F root. But if that was C minor, the F is not as strong - Try it. At this point you have a "Strange Things" going on - because you will be likely hitting an Ab although A is cool too. But chords by themselves do not exist in a vacuum - Like someone said above, we have to know where you are coming from or intend to go. The 4 bass is kind of abstract in this sense . Something like a D bass on a C - is more definitive and the tension is stronger. The D (2) is a cool pedal anchor as well for every chord on the C major chord.
 
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#29
As a bassist, it's a good exercise to play random triads with your right hand and see what the different notes sound like against it. It helps you get a sense of what you can get away with when you're writing bass lines. Playing the fourth is a cool one you can throw in, especially in the middle of a line where you are doing lots of root-fifth stuff. You can do that kind of thing exactly twice on a gig without getting fired.
 
#30
One last thing is that you can just think of this as an F with a lydian scale or F aug4 tonality and that's probably what you are hearing. In fact that's what I am hearing. Mr Beato talks about this and sometimes he comes across as if he invented it LOL. It's a cool chord and scale and a lot of yearning melancholic without the binding that minor chords often do.

Hit the B and feel that tension. Buy Beato's book (I am being sarcastic)

I play monophonic instruments as well - Saxophone and flute, so the movement of a chord is important to me. Arpeggios can change a chord character rather quickly
 
#31
The above reminds me of a similar discussion recently posted on YouTube which neatly shows how standard theory and music nomenclature sometimes breaks down when confronted by a chord that shouldn't be there - but is.



When a couple of heavy duty music theory wonks like Adam Neely and Rick Beato have trouble coming up with a name for a chord we've all heard and probably never much thought about, you know it's a tricky challenge.
 
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#32
40Hz said:
The above reminds me of a similar discussion recently posted on YouTube which neatly shows how standard theory and music nomenclature sometimes breaks down when confronted by a chord that shouldn't be there - but is.



When a couple of heavy duty music theory wonks like Adam Neely and Rick Beato have trouble coming up with a name for a chord we've all heard and probably never much thought about, you know it's a tricky challenge.
Click to expand...

Wow. I never knew an Am9#7 was so controversial.
 
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#33
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