19a Lesson - Extended Tertian Harmonies and Non-chord Tones

Class discussion

Extended Tertian Harmony and Non-chord tones

Extended harmony is anything beyond the seventh in a triadic chord. This includes 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. Labeled G9, G11, and G13 (for dominant chords).

• G9 is G,B,D,F,A
• G11 is G,B,D,F,A,C
• G13 is G,B,D,F,A,C,E

If a non-chord tone doesn’t fit within our given possibilities, it’s most likely an extention. Your options for non-chord tones are:

• passing tone
• neighbor tone
• escape tone
• appogiatura
• suspension
• retardation
• pedal tone (pedal point)
• anticipation

If you have what looks like a G7, and you see an A, but it doesn’t fit into any of these non-chord tone motion options, you have a G9.

Dominant Ninth Chords

What are the differences between these chords?

1. V9
   • when you have just a 9 next to the V, it includes all the triadic tones up to the ninth.
   • in C, spelled G,B,D,F,A.
2. Vadd9
   • “add” means to add a note to the triadic harmony, in this case, you’re adding the 9th.
   • in C, spelled G,B,D,A.
   • also often grouped like G,A,B,D.
   • this is not the same as sub.
   • sub means to substitute a chord tone with the given note.
3. V9 65
   • still spelled like a V9 but in first inversion (of seventh chord inversions).
   • if the ninth is on the bottom, it’s probably not a ninth, but a pedal tone.
4. Vsub13
   • sub effects a chord tone, while add doesn’t.
   • though spelled the same as a iii6, it functions as the dominant so it is labelled Vsub13 (or Vsub6).
   • in C, spelled G,B,E.

A V9 chord is the combination of a V7 and a G#%7. In A, the lower 4 notes are E,G#,B,D (V7). The upper 4 notes are G#,B,D,F#.

• when spelling dominant extentions use the diatonic scale degrees in the key of the tonic.

ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, the ninth chord is a last resort. It is rare in the type of music that this system of tonal analysis was created to analyze. Extentions are used mainly for jazz, which is far out of our fixed system of analysis.

Whether you analyze a tone as an extention or non-chord tone is up to how you hear it. Just make sure you label the tone to match what your analysis says.

In the case of a b9, (in A minor) the chord symbol would be a E7(b9). In the roman numeral analysis you would write V9, because the b9 is naturally occuring in the key. It is altered in the parallel major (how we label dominant extentions) so it is labelled as E7(b9) in chord symbols.