In
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
theory, an avoid note is a
scale degree which is considered especially
dissonant
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive Sound, sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness ...
relative to the
harmony implied by the
root chord, and is thus better avoided.
In
major-key tonality the avoid
note
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
is the fourth diatonic
scale step
In Schenkerian theory, a scale-step (german: Stufe) is a triad (based on one of the diatonic scale degrees) that is perceived as an organizing force for a passage of music (in accordance with the principle of composing-out). In ''Harmony'', ...
, or 11th, which is a
minor ninth
In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second.
Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, its ...
above the 3rd of the chord, and thus very harsh.
[ In melody it is usually avoided, treated as a "scale approach note"][ or passing note,][ or sharpened. It is not available in harmony. The available tensions for a dominant seventh chord are 9, 11, and 13.][
In minor harmony the sixth scale step is usually avoided, and the 13th is not regarded as an available tension.]
In modal terms, the available scale steps of the mode (or available tensions for the chords) of the diatonic scale steps are those a whole step above the chord tones, and the avoid notes are those that are not. The only exception is the Dorian mode of the second scale degree, where the sixth is avoided although it is a whole step above the fifth; this is because the tritone between this and the third scale step would give an unwanted dominant quality.[ Taking C major as an example, the avoid notes are:][
In his modal approach to minor harmony Haerle][ does not use the term ''avoid note'', but discusses "intolerably dissonant" notes and how they should be resolved. For the ]melodic minor
In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns â the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) â rather than just two as with the major scale, which al ...
scale he gives these:
See also
*Eleventh chord
In music theory, an eleventh chord is a chord that contains the tertian extension of the eleventh. Typically found in jazz, an eleventh chord also usually includes the seventh and ninth, and elements of the basic triad structure. Variants inc ...
*Thirteenth chord
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...
*Tritone
In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, FâB) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adj ...
*Chord-scale system
The chord-scale system is a method of matching, from a list of possible chords, a list of possible scales.Mervyn Cooke, David Horn (2003). '' The Cambridge companion to jazz'', p.266. . The system has been widely used since the 1970s and is "gen ...
References
{{Jazz theory
Consonance and dissonance
Jazz techniques
Jazz terminology