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 major ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, the lydian chord is the major 711 chord,Juergensen, Chris (2006). ''The Infinite Guitar'', p.50. . or 11 chord, the chord built on the first

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

of the

Lydian mode The modern Lydian mode is a seven-tone musical scale formed from a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. : Because of the importance of the major scale in modern music ...

, the sharp

eleventh In music or music theory, an eleventh is the note eleven scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the eleventh. The interval can be also described as a compound fourth, spanning an octave plus a f ...

being a

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

augmented fourth Augment or augmentation may refer to: Language *Augment (Indo-European), a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages *Augment (Bantu languages), a morpheme that is prefixed to the noun class prefix of nouns i ...

. This chord, built on C, is shown below. : This is described as "beautiful" and "modern sounding." The notes that make up the Lydian chord represent five of the seven notes of the Lydian mode, and the 11 at the top of the chord is the 4 (one octave higher) that distinguishes the Lydian mode from the

major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double i ...

. Major 711 may also refer to the Lydian augmented chord, an

augmented seventh chord The augmented seventh chord, or seventh augmented fifth chord, or seventh sharp five chord is a seventh chord composed of a root, major third, augmented fifth, and minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7).Garner, Robert (2007). ''Mel Bay Presents Essential Musi ...

with augmented fourth appearing in the

Lydian augmented scale Lydian may refer to: * Lydians, an ancient people of Anatolia * Lydian language, an ancient Anatolian language * Lydian alphabet ** Lydian (Unicode block) * Lydian (typeface), a decorative typeface * Lydian dominant scale or acoustic scale, a mu ...

. : In a chord chart the notation, "Lydian" indicates a major family chord with an added augmented eleventh, including maj711, add911, and 611.

Harmonic function

Lydian chords may function as

subdominant In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...

s or substitutes for the tonic in major keys.Miller, Scott (2002). ''Mel Bay Getting Into Jazz Fusion Guitar'', p.44. . The interval of the sixth is used even though it is described after other

compound intervals In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or h ...

, and perhaps should also be a compound interval (i.e., thirteenth). The interval is considered to be the compound interval (i.e., thirteenth) when appearing with the Maj7th in the initial chord.The dominant 711 or

Lydian dominant In music, the acoustic scale, overtone scale, Lydian dominant scale, Lydian 7 scale, or the Pontikonisian Scale is a Heptatonic scale, seven-note synthetic scale, synthetic Scale (music), scale. : This differs from the major scale in having an ...

(C⁷¹¹) comprises the notes: :r, 3, (5), 7, (9), 11, (13) Basing this chord on the pitch C results in the pitches: :C, E, G, B, (D), F, (A) The same chord type may also be voiced: :C, E, B, F, A, D, F This voicing omits the perfect fifth (G) and raises the major ninth (D) by an octave. The augmented eleventh (F) is also played twice in two different registers. This is known as " doubling".

References

{{Chords Eleventh chords