@@bernardthedisappointedowl6938 Music moves on. Like nobody can stand music from 80 years ago. I guess you, the older crowd, can still abide this horrendous Beatles garbage. But I say it's as passé as Mozart of and classical garbage trash. Music should ONLY be of the now. And anything from recordings, well, that should all be illegal, and consigned to the garbage bin of history.
@@guff9567 Well you're comment made me chuckle anyway - slightly fascinated to know what this 'music of now' is of which you speak? Has it somehow sidestepped the fundamental 'old' building blocks of pitch, harmony, melody, rhythm and bass? ^oo^
When you were describing how Sir Paul plays the Bb11 chord I said to myself, “that’s how I do it” and I didn’t even know that’s what I was doing. I learn so much from your videos David. Thank you
Ive studied music theory to some extent for years but chord names/voicings always seem to go a bit over my head past the basic triads and seventh extensions. I cant explain how much of an "aha" moment these videos really are. Everything really does click in place
Exactly bro, I've been playing guitar for like 14 years and I always thought Cadd9 and C9 were 2 ways of describing the same chord. Now I see the difference and it makes big sense.
Great video, but worth pointing out that a lot of the '11' chords in the video, particularly the slash chords, would be better described as 7sus or 9sus chords, as the voicings don't contain the 3rd. A true 11 chord is super rare in most music, as it has a minor 9th interval between the third and 11th. This also goes for the maj11 chord! What is more common is actually a maj7#11, which is one of my favourite chords 😍 you can also use a #11 on a dominant chord to get rid of that pesky minor 9th clash, sounds spicy 🌶 and with both of these #11 chords, you can totally add the 13 on top 👌
@@RorxorProductions I guess, I think that misses the point, though. I think he is trying to simplify the way the chords are written out so that its easier to understand (especially for beginners). while it may not be technically correct labeling, it is much easier to understand and they serve similar functions in the music. Not trying to hate on people that know music theory super well or anything, its great that yall understand it well, but I think being so overly anal about chord names doesnt really serve much purpose.
As an artist, I love watching your content not only to gain more understanding of what I’m doing and expanding my horizons, but also to strengthen my love and ever growing appreciation for the music that’s defined our generations! Thanks for being awesome David! 🎸🤘🏼
I've just started delving into Neo-Soul in my piano learning, and the 'secret' seems to be the m9 chord. It uses them a lot, along with M9 and dim chords to a lesser extent.
As always your Beatles references give excellent context for the lesson. I often wonder about Paul McCartney’s writing on the piano. I believe that, as a bass player, he was often thinking about how the bass aspects of his piano compositions would ‘move’ behind the primary chords (rather than thinking of the chord in its technical entirety).
While the Beatles knew some music theory, it was informal and somewhat scattershot. David has an excellent video titled "how much music theory did the Beatles know?"
Just wanted to say thanks for the video. As a long time guitarist who started playing piano a couple of years ago, videos like this are now making much more sense to me than they did before. As much as I love guitar, I always felt limited by which chords it was actually possible for me to finger. Learning piano has made music theory so much more understandable to me.
One of the most informative lessons I've watched so far. And I was instantly mesmerized by that piano jam at the end. That was so cool and inspiring. Thanks.
Thank you, this was terrific! It also makes me feel better - I frequently find myself re-writing complex chords as slash chords, and this showed me it’s not just a shortcut, but a truly legitimate (and sensible) way to look at them. It doesn’t just have to be extended chords either. The gorgeous A#m7b5 in the bar before the chorus of “God Only Knows” can be re-written as C#m/A#, which perfectly matches what the left and right hands are actually doing.
Haha nice- that’s my all time favorite use of a half dim chord. (Probably not a shocker; God only knows isn’t quite an ordinary composition after all.) Thinking of chords in “slash” format has helped me in the same ways, and just makes one a stronger musician.
I've played guitar in the pit for a few musicals, where you'll quite often get sheet music with slash chords marked that seem weirdly written (F#/Ab for example). Can't begin to put into words how much easier the process is when you can think of it as just playing the high notes of an F# chord (let the bassist/pianist take care of the Ab) instead of trying to figure out how to play an Ab11 chord that doesn't sound muddy make everyone give you a funny look
Yeah, I was just going to say this! Leaving out the 3rd seems really odd to me, because it makes it major or minor, while not as much information is lost when leaving out the fifth, or possibly even the root.
@@MartijnFrazer my jazz guitar teacher has always told me that in jazz the most important notes of a chord are the 3d and 7th (guide tones) that you'll never ommit. Even the tonic can be ommited or substituted. The 5ths brings little information except if it's flattened (eg Cm7b5) so if your fingers allow you to play only 4 notes, 3 and 7 are always in the list, 1 is most of the time present and it leaves space for one more note that can be either the fiths or an extension note.
I disagree with idea that musicians would prefer to see the slash chord notation. As a bass player, I prefer to see the original notation as it gives me an indication of what the intended root concept is and the available tonal colors I might want to highlight as I improvise a line. The slash notation to me would suggest I should focus on reinforcing that tone under the slash as the root. Maybe I've misconceptualized this, but that's been the approach I was taught and I've adhered to. Maybe this is just a bass player issue...and no one can hear us anyway and so no one cares :D
Both notations are telling the bass player to use the same tonic. When the chord has no third, it needs to be notated accordingly. See the omited third as a not available tonal color, which is also a vibe. Similar to the sus chords bra
I smiled about your comment. Slashchords are a typical keyboardist songwriting trick which can add warmth and weight..or pomp - I certainly overused (you guessed it, I am a keyboardist). In more than one situation, I asked my bassplayer friend, specifically not to improvise and fill out space for a slashchord. Just the bassnote-as-written-please! This resonates with what you say, in a funny way. I need to think about it. In jazzcontext, I think you are definitely right.
I learned a lot about Complex chords from Berklee books a friend gave me copies of. I think the naming conventions used in those books is super useful for being super specific about the sound you are looking for as a composer, arranger or director. If memory serves me well, they called chords with an extension on the bass 'Hybrid Chords', and use Extended Chords whenever you want a fuller sound. And then there's Polychords or "Upper Structure Chords", which is basically the same as Extended Chords, but you wanna be ultra specific with the voicings.
Even though I have years of music theory spinning around my head, your videos are either a good reminder, teach me something I didn't know, or make me realise I misunderstood something! Thank you for your content, David 👍
This was an extraordinarily useful vid. I understood stacked vs add chords but I didn’t understand the relationship between extended chords and slash chords. Now I have to learn to do the translating and play them on guitar. Thank you. Top 5 theory vid in the last 12 months.
The first time I saw that clip of Rick Wright Talking about using the D7#9 I said that it was a perfect example of why it's so important to keep an open mind, and to why having diverse taste of music is so important for artist's to do.
I wish the internet existed when I was in high school jazz band when no one felt like telling me what all these things meant. Thanks, glad I finally got around to learning this.
There are great channels our there but Dave Bennett rises to the top. He reinforces everything I have learned, provides new insight and best of all provides numerous practical pop music examples.
Labeling a Bb11 as Ab/Bb is not precisely the “same chord”…Bb11 implies (but doesn’t necessitate) the INCLUSION of the 3rd and 5th. But a slash chord (Ab/Bb) would NOT have the notes D and F
@@gabrielmahutasoit8953 Agreed! What he said is basically true, but a slash chord is made up of ONLY the notes indicated, whereas in the case of an 11 chord those notes are often left out (depending on the voicing)
You are correct. There are times when the 11th and the 3rd can be used together, if they're spaced out by a major seventh, like for example, the voicing (1-11-b7-b9-3) is a 7add4b9 chord -- but I would use add4 instead of 11 in this case. :)
@@marcsullivan7987 It goes one way more easily than the other - if you see something notated Bb11 you can pretty much always get away with just playing Ab/Bb, but if you see something notated Ab/Bb it might not be appropriate to play a fully-voiced Bb11. E.g. if you were in the key of Db major, that could cause a disaster.
I disagree: In practice, you really never are supposed to play the third in major 11 chords. None of the examples in the video have the third. As Rexen said, if both are included it would be best to mark it as some kind of add4 chord. The inclusion of the fifth is pretty trivial, since it doesn't really add any color, and should be left to the musicians. Bb11 Bbsus7 Fm7/Bb Ab/Bb In practice, all these chords are the same. If you want specific voicings, It's best to put the notes on the staff, and the generic chord symbol of choice on the top. Experienced musicians will use the voicings they see fit.
I always thought only the fifth can be omitted, but the third must be played, and also that on a 13 chord the 11th is generally left out, because it clashes too much with the third.
I thought the same, about the 3rd needing to be played. I've not heard of omitting the 11th in a 13 chord. Someone gave me a tip though, for avoiding the 11th & the 3rd clashing; if the 3rd is major, sharpen the 11th, if the 3rd is minor, use the natural 11th.
@ghost mall Yeah, there's no reason you can't omit, add, sharpen, or flatten any notes you want. Whatever sounds good to the composer is fine to do. I think these alterations should be specified though. One thing I've come across many times before are chords like Gm/C. (So, the notes G, Bb & D, with C as the bass note). That's like a C9 chord with the 3rd missing & it sounds great.
I read a book in college called "What to Listen for in Rock: A Stylistic Analysis" by Ken Stephenson, that had a section about the V11 Chord. He described it as essentially the IV Chord played over the V in the bass.
Great video explaining things as usual. Some of your examples are great. I call the 11th the 'Cheers' chord, as played on the TV theme tune - it has a lovely resolution down to root, e.g. F/G to C. The 6/9 chord gives a name to the up to now nameless horse ;-) And that led me onto playing around with moving one half of the chord (either the lower or upper structure) - this is really effective on the guitar just sliding a shape up the fretboard while keeping the same root note.
I really appreciate your videos man. They make chord structures and voicings so much easier to understand and recognize. Thanks for all the work you put into these!
You've done it again, David. This is the best and most usable explanation of 9ths and 11ths I've ever heard. I can use these now. Maybe not 13ths though. I'm superstitious.
This was wonderful David, I just wanted to let you know that I truly believe that you are doing a real good job. I find it inspiring and think that any musician can find benefit from checking you out.
I've seen many videos on music theory including some of yours but this is really useful, especially how you explained that higher extensions can also mean playing a chord over a different bass note, today I learned!
Now you're really digging deep into the mysteries of chordal structures. Great stuff! Plus, love that original song at the end with those dense chords that you talked about in the video. Oh my gosh, you brought out the cat! I almost missed it because I was trying to comment.
I'm learning the piano for a couple months but have been a sub of yours for years. I woiuld just like to say that not enough is said about the very high quality of each video. Merci beaucoup.
Add9 is also called Sus2 (so dominant 9th is 7 plus 2) The 11 chord is also called 7Sus4 (7 plus 4 = 11) The 13 is also called 7/6 (7 plus 6 = 13, make sense) In the Philippines, acoustic guitarists are fond of playing the 9/11 chords (ex. the intro for MYMP's version of "Especially for You" is C9/11 - notes are C, F, Bb, D, g)
Another superb video David! I have been reading and playing slash chords for years as an amateur piano/synth player. I have also seen and struggled with extended chords, but I have never appreciated the two as being one and the same. This has truly been a light bulb moment this evening and will help me moving forward! Great stuff, thank you 👍
Your clear way of explaining things makes the way I learned music theory (self-taught) seem like a ridiculous waste of time. Oh RU-vid! WHY MUST I HAVE BEEN BORN TOO SOON? Thanks for such great content!
This was extremely helpful, thanks! Trying to teach myself music over the last few years and hearing chord names and structures always sounded like Greek. Especially when chords don't include the root note in the right hand. This one helped a lot, appreciate it.
I find upper extensions particularly useful for voice leading, since it's relatively easy to just add notes to a chord and use those as a launching point for the next chord change, beyond just using them for some jazzy spice. Really useful concept.
Just the other day I was thinking about how much I love the way 11 chords sound, particularly when they are used as the dominant chord. And then boom, this video comes out. Thank you thank you thank you!!!
Great job David. Another way I conceptualize them, as a piano player, is two chords stacked, like a C major chord and a B flat major chord to make a C11, a C major with a Gm chord to make a C9, etc. My left hand will play one common triad, my right hand another, to make the extension.
Whenever I hear a dominant 7 sharp 9 chord, I immediately think of the very beginning horn section from "Spinning Wheel" by Blood Sweat Tears. Just an interesting side note.. Spinning Wheel was recorded just a year after Purple Haze was released. Makes one wonder if they might have been influenced to use that chord after listening to Jimi. But yeah, Breath by Pink Floyd is another great example as well.
…thank you mr. bennett!…totally clarifies what i have been conceptually wrestling with for years…namely chords can be visualized in so many ways…and so many of us mortal music enthusiasts…not being blessed with great aural sense…have to first depend on visualization and intellect to figure out things…as usual a great video…well-explained and concise with practical examples…
Wait a minute. Omitting the 5th is quite common since it can be redundant with the root. But omitting the 3rd? That creates an ambiguous chord. The 3rd defines the quality of the chord (major or minor).
Yet it works, and functions harmonically Try it: play an Ab/Bb in place of a Bb7 chord were Bb is the V chord. Even without the third, it will still function as a dominant chord. And it sounds great.
@@marcsullivan7987 It works and sounds great, but it does lose "something". For example, jazz players will call the chord at 06:36 a "Bb9sus4" chord instead, and I think it shows what the chord sounds like more than calling it a "Bb11": as you point out, it keeps the tension towards the tonic of a Bb7 or Bb9 chord; but it also mixes in the "airy" nature of sus chords. OTOH, jazz piano players will usually play "rootless voicings" (chords without the first, because the bass takes care of it), so they might play a Bb11 with D and C on the left hand + Eb and Ab on the right hand. That lets them keep the difference between Eb11 and Ebm11.
@@bonzinip agreed. That makes sense. I’m not a jazz player, but coming at it more from a soul and gospel (and some pop) standpoint. In those contexts, the Ab/Bb gives a nice lift to the V chord tonality. (One example: People Get Ready)
I think we should take a moment to appreciate the way he addressed the topic of 6/9 chords without making a joke. No cute comment. Didn’t even crack a smile. That’s true professionalism right there, folks. (In seriousness, you covered a lot of information here that I’d been too intimidated by to learn myself, and in a way that made it easy to understand and internalize. I really do appreciate it. You’ve got a killer channel.)
For someone who's been trying to learn more about chords, these videos are so useful, thank you! It would be really cool if you could make a follow-up to this one showing more examples of the uses of 9s, 11s and 13s, e.g. where they work well in terms of leading voices and resolving etc. Maybe also about when to sharpen/flatten the extensions - although maybe all that would take a while to explain 😅
