Cool Chord #5 - Dominant 9th Sharp 11 - 9(#11)

[DaNatiMaestro]

the Dominant 9th Sharp 11 chord. 

Now we've talked about the Dominant 13th Sharp 11 chord that was Cool Chord #3.  This chord is a bit toned down.  It's still crazy dissonant but don't have the 13th in there to cluster with the b7 to muddle stuff up.. LOL

I came to this chord while doing some reading of some songbooks that I have.  Take a look at my Build a Musical Vocabulary post to see why it's a great idea to use songbooks for your practice.

You hear this chord in the song Stand by Donnie McClurkin.  I'll explain exactly where a lil later.

This chord could be used as a passing chord.  This is an altered chord because we've altered the 11th by sharping it.

Let's look at this chord:

D9#11  LH/RH = DF#A/CEG#

Chord breakdown wise: in the LH you have the Root, 3, 5, in the RH you have the b7,9,#11

Another way to look at how to form this chord is to think..
Major Triad off the Root in the LH and Augmented Triad off the b7 in the RH i.e. D Major Triad / C Augmented Triad

How would you use this chord?

As a passing chord to get to the 4.  We're gonna be in the key of Ab and we're gonna use Stand by Donnie McClurkin as an exmaple:

In the chorus you have:
LH/RH                Chord Name        Song Lyrics
F/CFA                         F                  Well
G/DFGBb                   Gm7                you
A/EbFAC                    F7/A               just
BbFAb/DbEbFAbDb      Bbm7            stand
AbFAb/DbEbFAbDb     Bbm/Ab        when there's
GbF/FAbBbDb          Gbmaj9            nothing left to do
GF/BbEbFBb              Eb/G             You just
AbEbAb/EbAbC         Ab(add2)         stand.....
DF#A/CEG#             D9#11           watch the  <---- the chord is used here
DbAbC/EbFAbC          Dbmaj7             Lord

We're in the key of Ab, we're using that 9#11 chord as a passing chord from the 1 to the 4.. here is just the 1-P-4 progression from the example above:
(I)  AbEbAb/EbAbC         Ab(add2)         stand.....
(P)  DF#A/CEG#             D9#11           watch the  <---- the chord is used here
(IV) DbAbC/EbFAbC          Dbmaj7             Lord

Why is D9#11 used as the passing chord to Db Maj 7?  Remember in a previous cool chord post that I said you could approach any chord from a dominant 7th chord a 5th away?  Well if you apply that here then we should have used some sort of Ab dominant chord before we went to the Db major 7th chord. Well here is another rule that you can apply.  It's called tritone substitution basically every note has a "tritone substitute".  The "tritone substitue" note is the interval of a #4 so for Ab the tritone sub would be D.  So in this progression instead of using the Ab dominant chord to go to the Db major chord we're using the tritone sub and using a D dominant chord.  This is the short explanation.  I've talked about this in another one of the cool chord posts.

Homework Assignment for this Post:

1. Write out the 9#11 chord in every key chromatically from C.  I've done the D9#11 for you.

C9#11
Db9#11
D9#11         DF#A/CEG#
Eb9#11   
E9#11     
F9#11     
Gb9#11   
G9#11     
Ab9#11   
A9#11
Bb9#11
B9#11

2.  Write out the 1-P-4 (1 chord to passing chord (9#11) to 4 chord) progression in every key around the circle of 4th.
Key of Ab
(I)  AbEbAb/EbAbC          Ab(add2)         
(P)  DF#A/CEG#              D9#11           
(IV) DbAbC/EbFAbC          Dbmaj7         

Key of Db
(I)  DbAbDb/AbDbF           Db(add2)
(P)  GBD/FAC#                G9#11
(IV) GbDbF/AbBbDbF         Gbmaj7

Key of Gb

Key of B

Key of E

Key of A

Key of D

Key of G

Key of C

Key of F

Key of Bb

Key of Eb

3. Practice this chord by adding to progressions before the 4.

Another tool for your toolbelt.

[B3Wannabe]

And there you have it!


Whooee! Boyeee!

I keep telling people all you need is triads or 7th chords, but they don't want to believe me!

[T-Block]

And there you have it!


Whooee! Boyeee!

I keep telling people all you need is triads or 7th chords, but they don't want to believe me!

You?  I been saying that since forever, LOL.

[w42879]

This is some very helpful information Danatimaestro. My question is: When you say flat something or sharp something, does sharp me up a key and does flat mean down a key? I guess that I am just asking you to explain things like b5, b7, b11 and #5, #7, and #11 etc. Thank you and be encouraged.

[T-Block]

This is some very helpful information Danatimaestro. My question is: When you say flat something or sharp something, does sharp me up a key and does flat mean down a key? I guess that I am just asking you to explain things like b5, b7, b11 and #5, #7, and #11 etc. Thank you and be encouraged.

Flats (b) and Sharps (#)

Whenever you flat (b) a note, it means to lower that note 1/2 step.  No matter how many flats (b) you see, for each one you lower the note 1/2 step.  Here are some examples:

Bb = B lowered 1/2 step
Bbb = B lowered two 1/2 steps
Bbbb = B lowered three 1/2 steps
etc.

Whenever you sharp (#) a note, it means to raise that note 1/2 step.  No matter how many sharps (#) you see, for each one you raise the note 1/2 step.  Here are some examples:

B# = B raised 1/2 step
B## = B raisedtwo 1/2 steps
B### = B raised three 1/2 steps
etc.

Then, of course the number part of things like b5 or #5 mean scale degrees.  So, b5 means the 5th scale degree lowered 1/2 step.

And just in case you don't know what a 1/2 step is:

Movement on the keyboard

The first movement is a half step (HS or 1/2 step).  A half step is from one key to the very next key, regardless of color or direction.  Here are some examples:  F to F#,  F# to F,  B to C,  C to B,  D to Eb,  Eb to D,  etc. 

The second movement is a whole step (WS or 1 step).  A whole step is from one key to the very next key w/one in between, regardless of color of direction. Here are some examples:  F to G,  G to F,  B to C#,  C# to B,  Db to Eb,  Eb to Db, etc.

[w42879]

Flats (b) and Sharps (#)

Whenever you flat (b) a note, it means to lower that note 1/2 step.  No matter how many flats (b) you see, for each one you lower the note 1/2 step.  Here are some examples:

Bb = B lowered 1/2 step
Bbb = B lowered two 1/2 steps
Bbbb = B lowered three 1/2 steps
etc.

Whenever you sharp (#) a note, it means to raise that note 1/2 step.  No matter how many sharps (#) you see, for each one you raise the note 1/2 step.  Here are some examples:

B# = B raised 1/2 step
B## = B raisedtwo 1/2 steps
B### = B raised three 1/2 steps
etc.

Then, of course the number part of things like b5 or #5 mean scale degrees.  So, b5 means the 5th scale degree lowered 1/2 step.

And just in case you don't know what a 1/2 step is:

Movement on the keyboard

The first movement is a half step (HS or 1/2 step).  A half step is from one key to the very next key, regardless of color or direction.  Here are some examples:  F to F#,  F# to F,  B to C,  C to B,  D to Eb,  Eb to D,  etc. 

The second movement is a whole step (WS or 1 step).  A whole step is from one key to the very next key w/one in between, regardless of color of direction. Here are some examples:  F to G,  G to F,  B to C#,  C# to B,  Db to Eb,  Eb to Db, etc.

This is exactly what I needed to know. Thank you T-block and be blessed.

[Muziqmann]

the Dominant 9th Sharp 11 chord. 

Now we've talked about the Dominant 13th Sharp 11 chord that was Cool Chord #3.  This chord is a bit toned down.  It's still crazy dissonant but don't have the 13th in there to cluster with the b7 to muddle stuff up.. LOL

I came to this chord while doing some reading of some songbooks that I have.  Take a look at my Build a Musical Vocabulary post to see why it's a great idea to use songbooks for your practice.

You hear this chord in the song Stand by Donnie McClurkin.  I'll explain exactly where a lil later.

This chord could be used as a passing chord.  This is an altered chord because we've altered the 11th by sharping it.

Let's look at this chord:

D9#11  LH/RH = DF#A/CEG#

I were to play this chord I a D7 (D, F#, A, C) in my left hand and an E (E, G#, B) triad in my right.

[MemphisKeys]

Hey DaNatiMaestro Help me understand how did you get the left hand chords for the them I wanna know so I can learn how to do it...can you help a bruh out...

[MemphisKeys]

Hey Here's the 9#11 chords in every key....

C9#11          CEG/BbDF
Db9#11         DbFAb/CbEbG
D9#11           DFA/CEG#
Eb9#11         EbGBb/DbFA
E9#11           EG#B/DF#A#
F9#11           FAC/EbGB
F#9#11         F#A#C#/EG#B#
G9#11           GBD/FAC#
Ab9#11          AbCEb/GbBbD
A9#11           AC#E/GBD#
Bb9#11          BbDF/AbCE
B9#11           BD#F#/AC#E#