An altered chord is a chord that replaces one or more notes from the

diatonic scale In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole st ...

with a neighboring pitch from the

chromatic scale The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce th ...

. By the broadest definition, any chord with a non-diatonic chord tone is an altered chord. The simplest example of altered chords is the use of borrowed chords, chords borrowed from the

parallel key In music theory, a major scale and a minor scale that have the same tonic note are called parallel keys and are said to be in a parallel relationship. Forte, Allen (1979). ''Tonal Harmony'', p.9. 3rd edition. Holt, Rinehart, and Wilson. . "When ...

, and the most common is the use of

secondary dominant A secondary chord is an analytical label for a specific harmonic device that is prevalent in the tonal idiom of Western music beginning in the common practice period: the use of diatonic functions for tonicization. Secondary chords are a t ...

s. As Alfred Blatter explains, "An altered chord occurs when one of the standard, functional chords is given another quality by the modification of one or more components of the chord." For example, altered notes may be used as

leading tone In music theory, a leading-tone (also called a subsemitone, and a leading-note in the UK) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. Typically, ''the ...

s to emphasize their diatonic neighbors. Contrast this with chord extensions: In jazz harmony, chromatic alteration is either the addition of notes not in the scale or expansion of a

hord Hord is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Brian Hord (1934–2015), British surveyor and politician *Chad Hord (born 1976), American racing driver *Donal Hord (1902–1966), American sculptor *Oscar B. Hord (1829–1888), Americ ...

progression by adding extra non-diatonic chords.Arkin, Eddie (2004). ''Creative Chord Substitution for Jazz Guitar'', p. 42. . For example, "A C major scale with an added D note, for instance, is a chromatically altered scale" while, "one bar of C^maj7 moving to F^maj7 in the next bar can be chromatically altered by adding the ii and V of F^maj7 on the second two beats of bar" one. Techniques include the ii–V–I turnaround, as well as movement by half-step or minor third.Arkin (2004), p. 43. : Altered_chord_progression_jazz

The five most common types of altered dominants are: V, V⁵ (both with raised fifths), V, V⁵ (both with lowered fifths), and V (with lowered fifth and third, the latter enharmonic to a raised ninth).

Background

"Borrowing" of this type appears in music from the

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century '' ars nova'', the T ...

era and the

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transit ...

era (1600–1750)—such as with the use of the

Picardy third A Picardy third, (; french: tierce picarde) also known as a Picardy cadence or Tierce de Picardie, is a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal or in a minor key. This is achieved by raising the third of the ...

, in which a piece in a minor key has a final or intermediate cadence in the tonic major chord. "Borrowing" is also common in 20th century

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

and

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

. For example, in music in a major key, such as C major, composers and songwriters may use a B major chord, that they "borrow" from the key of C minor (where it is the VII chord). Similarly, in music in a minor key, composers and songwriters often "borrow" chords from the tonic major. For example, pieces in C minor often use F major and G major (IV and V chords), which they "borrow" from C major. More advanced types of altered chords were used by

Romantic music Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—th ...

era composers in the 19th century, such as Chopin, and by

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 ...

composers and improvisers in the 20th and 21st century. For example, the

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

on the left uses four unaltered chords, while the progression on the right uses an altered IV chord and is an alteration of the previous progression: Erickson, Robert (1957). ''The Structure of Music: A Listener's Guide'', p. 86. New York: Noonday Press. (1977 edition). : The A in the altered chord serves as a

to G, which is the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...

of the next chord. According to one definition, "when a chord is chromatically altered, and the thirds remain large ajoror small inor and is not used in

modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...

, it is an altered chord." According to another, "all chords... having a major third, i.e., either triads, sevenths, or ninths, with the fifth chromatically raised or chromatically lowered, are altered chords," while triads with a single altered note are considered, "changes of form

quality Quality may refer to: Concepts *Quality (business), the ''non-inferiority'' or ''superiority'' of something *Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property *Quality (physics), in response theory * Energy quality, used in various science discipl ...

]," rather than alteration. According to composer Percy Goetschius, "Altered... chords contain one or more tones written with accidental (music), accidentals (, , or ) and therefore foreign to the scale in which they appear, but nevertheless, from their connections and their effect, obviously belonging to the principal key of their

phrase In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

." Goetschius, Percy (1889).
The Material Used in Musical Composition
', pp. 123–124. G. Schirmer. Richard Franko Goldman argues that, once one accepts, "the variability of the scale," the concept of altered chords becomes unnecessary: "In reality, there is nothing 'altered' about them; they are entirely natural elements of a single key system," and it is, "not necessary," to use the term as each 'altered chord' is, "simply one of the possibilities regularly existing and employed."

Dan Haerle Dan Haerle (born July 23, 1937) is a jazz pianist, composer, author and teacher, based in Denton, Texas. He is professor emeritus of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas.UNT Counterpoint, Spring 2002 Early life and education Dan Haerl ...

argues that only fifths and ninths may be altered, as all other alterations may be interpreted as an unaltered chord tone or, enharmonically, as an altered fifth or ninth (for example, 1 = 9 and 4 = 3).Alfred Music (2013). ''Mini Music Guides: Piano Chord Dictionary'', pp. 22–23. Alfred Music.

Altered seventh chord

An altered seventh chord is a

seventh chord A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" usually means a dominant seventh chord: a major triad together with a mi ...

with one, or all,Davis, Kenneth (2006). ''The Piano Professor Easy Piano Study'', p. 78. . of its factors raised or lowered by a semitone (altered), for example, the augmented seventh chord (7+ or 7+5) featuring a raised fifth (C⁷⁺⁵: C–E–G–B). The factors most likely to be altered are the fifth, then the ninth, then the thirteenth. All

s are altered chords. In classical music, the raised fifth is more common than the lowered fifth, which in a dominant chord adds Phrygian flavor through the introduction of . Aldwell, Edward; Schachter, Carl; and Cadwallader, Allen (2010). ''Harmony & Voice Leading'', p. 601. .

Altered dominant chord

An altered dominant chord is, "a dominant triad of a 7th chord that contains a raised or lowered fifth and sometimes a lowered 3rd."Benward, Bruce; Saker, Marilyn (2009). "Glossary", ''Music in Theory and Practice'', Vol. II, p. 355. According to Dan Haerle, "Generally, altered dominants can be divided into three main groups: altered 5th, altered 9th, and altered 5th and 9th." Haerle, Dan (1983). ''Jazz Improvisation for Keyboard Players'', Book two, p. 2.19. Alfred Music. This definition allows three to five options, including the original: Alfred Music gives nine options for altered dominants, the last four of which contain two alterations each:Baerman (1998), p. 74. Pianist Noah Baerman writes that "The point of having an altered note in a dominant chord is to build more tension (leading to a correspondingly more powerful resolution)." Baerman, Noah (2000). ''Jazz Keyboard Harmony'', p. 40. Alfred Music.

Alt chord

In jazz, the term ''altered chord'', notated generally as a root, followed by ''7alt'' (e.g. G^7alt), refers to a dominant chord that fits entirely into the

altered scale In jazz, the altered scale, altered dominant scale, Palamidian Scale, or Super Locrian scale is a seven-note scale that is a dominant scale where all non-essential tones have been altered. This means that it comprises the three irreducibly ess ...

of the root. This means that the chord has the root, major third, minor seventh, and one or more altered tones, but does not have the natural fifth, ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth. An altered chord typically contains both an altered fifth and an altered ninth. To alter a tone is simply to raise or lower it by a

semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

. Altered chords may include ''both'' a flattened and sharpened form of the altered fifth or ninth, e.g. G⁷⁽⁵⁵⁹⁾; however, it is more common to use only one such alteration per tone, e.g. G⁷⁽⁵⁹⁾, G⁷⁽⁵⁹⁾, G⁷⁽⁵⁹⁾, or G⁷⁽⁵⁹⁾. : The raised fifteenth is only used when the ninth in a chord is natural. It functions as 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 ...

, creating a

major seventh In music from Western culture, a seventh is a musical interval encompassing seven staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major seventh is one of two commonly occurring sevenths. It is qualified as ''major'' because it i ...

interval with the natural ninth, assuming that the chord is in root position. The notation of a raised fifteenth is a fairly modern addition to Western harmony, and they have been popularized by contemporary musicians like

Jacob Collier Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reha ...

. Natural

fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

s are never notated as alterations or extensions, as they are enharmonically equivalent to the root. For example, a chord that includes a raised fifteenth could look something like G^maj13(1115), or if it were written as a polychord, . In practice, many fake books do not specify all the alterations; the chord is typically just labelled as G^7alt, and the alteration of ninths, elevenths, thirteenths, and fifteenths is left to the artistic discretion of the comping musician. The use of chords labeled G^7alt can create challenges in jazz ensembles where more than one chordal instrument are playing chords (e.g., a large band with an electric guitar, piano, vibes, and/or a

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

), because the guitarist might interpret a G^7alt chord as containing a 9 and 11, whereas the organ player may interpret the same chord as containing a 9 and a 13, resulting in every tone from the altered scale at once, likely a far denser and more dissonant harmonic cluster than the composer intended. To deal with this issue, bands with more than one chordal instrument may work out the alt chord

voicings ''Voicings'' was the last recording by the Minneapolis jazz vocal group Rio Nido. The album was one of the early recordings to feature live "direct to digital" recording techniques. Track listing # "Northern Lights" (D. Karr, L. Ball) # "I'm ...

beforehand or alternate playing of choruses. The choice of

inversion Inversion or inversions may refer to: Arts * , a French gay magazine (1924/1925) * ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas * Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory * ...

, or the omission of certain tones within the chord (e.g. omitting the root, common in jazz harmony and chord voicings), can lead to many different possible colorings, substitutions, and enharmonic equivalents. Altered chords are ambiguous harmonically, and may play a variety of roles, depending on such factors as voicing,

, and

voice leading Voice leading (or part writing) is the linear progression of individual melodic lines ( voices or parts) and their interaction with one another to create harmonies, typically in accordance with the principles of common-practice harmony and counte ...

. The altered chord's harmony is built on the

(C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C), which includes all the alterations shown in the chord elements above:Brown, Buck; and Dziuba, Mark (2012). ''The Ultimate Guitar Chord & Scale Bible'', p. 197. Alfred Music. "In a dominant 7 context, this scale contains the root, 3rd, and 7 of the dominant chord and includes all of the available tensions: 9, 9, 11, and 13. * root *9 (= 2) *9 (= 2 or 3) * major third (enharmonically, as 4) *11 (= 4 or 5) *13 (= 5) *7 Because they do not have natural fifths, altered dominant (7alt) chords support tritone substitution (5 substitution). Thus, the 7alt chord on a given root can be substituted with the 1311 chord on the root a

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, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adj ...

away (e.g., G^7alt is the same as D¹³¹¹). :

Background

Altered seventh chord

Altered dominant chord

Alt chord

See also

References

Further reading