The Chord That Should Not Be - 7#9 aka "Jimi Hendrix Chord" [MUSIC THEORY - MIXED THIRDS] 

CLARIFICATIONS AND CORRECTIONS! 🔴When playing a 7(#9) chord, it's common to remove the 5th in the chord. Why? Because it really doesn't add any "important flavors" to the chord. Also, the nature of the guitar makes it difficult or sometimes impossible to play afull 7(#9) chord. 🔴As mentioned at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="430">07:10</a>, you'll rarely hear the 3 and b3 played side-by-side on a single instrument. But across different instruments, you can expect that the two will compete against one another in a blues or rock setting. For example, a blues pianist might play A7 with a major 3rd of C#, and in that same octave, a lead player might play a C natural. 🔴There is some VERY UGLY NOTATION at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="653">10:53</a>, during the David Gilmour lick. I wrote this tablature in MuseScore and forgot to check all the staff notes :( 🔴At the end of this video, when I say my videos have "no ads," I meant promotions or in-video advertisement. I don't have ads in my lessons because 1) i hate ads and 2) they completely destroy the flow of an educational lesson. But I do monetize this channel, meaning you probably see some ads before clicking on one of my videos. This collects enough money to pay a few bills, but it's really my patreon supporters who enable me to make straightforward lessons without spamming you with VPN ads, razors, or one of the other hundred other companies bugging me to do ad-reads!

The cigarette and whisky graphic were hilarious.

I am so happy to see more of your videos Jake. Please keep them coming!!!

Please never stop making these as you give hope to guitarists who are trying really hard

YEAHHHHH! ANOTHER LESSON! Thank you, Mr. Lizzio!!!

WELCOME BACK BABY! I'm not even a guitarist and I know music theory but I still love your videos and I still can learn something from them.

Dude, I remember watching a ton of your videos when I first started studying music theory, it’s so cool to see you upload again!

Jake! Long time no see, bud! Glad to see you're still at it. I don't know that I would've made the progress that I made without your channel. Thanks for all of the hard work!

Another awesome thing you can do is V7#9 - V7b9 - i . Or, speaking of stealing from Pink Floyd, D7#9 - D7b9 - Em

New Signals Music Studio video HYPE! I'm so pumped

Great to see you making content again man. I love the channel and your work ethics. I learned a lot from your channel. Massive respect.

Great to see you back with new videos! ✨

One of the best lessons I've seen on RU-vid, I'd rate it 7#9/5.

min3 half-sharp is also very useful in blues, especially with slide players. So in key E, halfway between G and G#.

So glad to see you back at it making great educational videos again !!! Thank you !!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="630">10:30</a> Beautiful. So glad to have you back, Jake! You're like my favorite music RU-vid channel!

One thing to note is that minor 9th intervals sound very dissonant and won't sound right in most contexts. A 3 above a b3 creates a minor 9th interval, while a #9 above a 3 creates a major 7th interval. This would explain why it sounds better in major. However, that doesn't explain why the #9 sounds good in the bass (this creates a minor 9th). It probably works because it gives the major chord a dominant sound, which is all about tension.

Nice to see you again Jake, your videos are so insightful

Dude i love your videos. I'm so glad that you're back.

Another fantastic video, great enthusiasm and wonderful music!

Great lesson, and the graphics around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="285">4:45</a> had me lol'ing

your content and lessons are among most fun and informative across whole youtube

Thank you for this lesson. Incredibly well presented as usual.

Welcome back jake. Have learned much from you and look forward to learning a lot more.

this thought me a LOT Jake! stellar work yet again

Holy crap this is a big moment for me, i waited patiently for two years and only on your third video back does RU-vid deem it appropriate to let me know! 😅 Welcome back man we've missed ya

I ALWAYS wonder about this. Love the hendrix chord since the first time I heard it. This was top notch as usual, you spoiled us! Thank you

I only discovered this channel recently and, seriously, where have you been all my life!

jake I love you please never stop making videos

You're a great, great teacher and this video is gold. Great didactics without under or overestimating the audience. On point! Thanks!

great explanation, mate! keep up the great work, much love

The Chord Progression Codex is amazing. Thank you for putting that together.

This was an amazing video! It's so necessary for us as musicians to come at topics like this major/minor rub from new perspectives and with a different focus. Yes, I can see why this video could be confusing to a newer musician. But the good news is: it's all confusing until it's not. Food for thought is way more important than knowing every ingredient.

You're finally back!!!

Absolutely LOVE your videos! 🎉

2023 will forever be known as the signals-less year. Love watching these videos again.

Finally ! I used this 7#9 Hendrix chord in one of my recordings and didn't know what it was, but it suited the track. Now I know ! Thank Jake 👍

Great stuff!

Hey, that was really useful and presented clearly. Instant subscribe. I'm gonna hit up your back catalog.

Best videos on RU-vid period

E7#9 is also the first chord in Sunny Day Real Estate's song "Killed By An Angel". First time I ever played that chord was when I figured out that song when I was 14 or 15 years old. I'm almost positive (despite my fuzzy memory of how to even play the song) that the guitar line in the verse resolves into dancing with accidentals around an arpeggiated A Maj chord. Interesting in light of what you were saying about the interplay of E7#9 and A Maj It was fun to hear your analysis of this. I had always felt like this chord shape was dissonant and a bit strange, yet powerful as hell when utilized properly; and I hadn't really thought about it much in the last 25 years since then.

Great channel. Love the work you do.

So great brotha, as a guitar teacher myself I'm always dreaming of ways to explain this exact conundrum. Cheers to you for putting it all together and sharing this info! Man, if I'd had this youtube channel when I was a teenager. Amazing

most appreciated. Thanks for making more lessons! :)

The solo section around 10 minutes in is great! That weird modal mixture sound where just one note shifts a half step has become one of my favorite musical "toys" - that little shift really stands out to the ear and creates these little moments of interest. I think I actually first started exploring this as a result of your video where you demo'ed that Emaj7 - Am progression, but another great example is the jam sections from The Grateful Dead's song Eyes of the World. It goes from an Emaj7 to a Bm, and there's this shift from E major to E mixolydian. In that case the note that "shifts" is the 7th - you play the natural seven over the Emaj, then use the flat 7 in the mixolydian portion. Every time I land that little shift as the chord changes, there's a special little moment of interest and satisfaction. There are so many cool progressions that use a trick like that, it's a very cool thing to explore. Thanks for your vids!

Omg the best guitar teacher is back, and it’s a video on jimi hendrix at that !!! let’s go

Great video Jake. Thanks. I learned a lot.

Awesome lesson!!👍🙏

I'm halfway through the Chord Progression Codex and it's great!

love to see someone who knows what theyre talking about and explains it well

man, I'm just happy to be subscribed to this channel, those videos are really great Trying to slowly but surely learn (guitar) music theory (I am a drummer). You explain and show it on a level that resonates with me very well :)

Excellent presentation of an obscure topic, bonus points for the callout to Adam Neely. #FeedTheAlgorithm

Love that chord, it's like a joker in music theory; breaks all rules but it works!

Youre such a great music educator!

The Codex is amazing ❤ First time I actually enjoy reading a music theory book from cover to cover

Welcome back!!!

Great video. I was listening while driving, looking forward to rewatching with a guitar in the evening.

Another goated upload by our goated teacher 🎉

The whole blues major minor things took me forever to wrap my head around when 1st learning music theory, this video gonna help a lot of people to get them on the right track. Good see ya back :)

This is the best vídeo in the Internet

Your voice is fenomenal!

I bought a used 6505MH awhile ago and I agree it’s an amazing amp head from raw metal tones to Heavy Blues tones .. ..just WOW every time I hit power on‼️. Onto Peavey cabs next 👍

A couple of years ago I was improvising a song on piano, and I happened to do that minor third over a major chord, and it's so good. My tune feels completely wrong if it's not there. I just checked, and I do not play the fifth, but a minor seventh. I might change that to a major seventh in a later verse, but it's actually almost too spicy in the context of the tune.

Fantastic video that’s very helpful with composition. Also the mutually exclusive thirds jam absolutely sounds like a million 80s and 90s power ballads. A lot of songs use that tonality all over the place.

As soon as you played THE chord, I instantly heard purple haze.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="537">8:57</a> - The main riff to "Have a Drink on Me" by AC/DC has that "corrected" third.

Your videos are the best on youtube.

Hell yeah !!!He posted!!!

Cool man, I’ve been thinking about and messing with this very concept, and was just thinking minor third is happy in major context but not the opposite. You elaborated on it nicely, appreciated.

i consider myself to be decently versed at understanding the concepts of music theory. even if something like this is considered review for me, I still love it. because there's always an opportunity to learn more

Another great video and a badass shirt!

I love this channel!!!

AMAZING !

When your book is available in the UK i will buy it for sure. I really want to support your work and say thank you for all these amazing lessons.

Thanks again!

Amazing video

great video, thank you

Thank you!

WELCOME BACK JAKE ! I truly hope you'll post more regularly now. I LOVE your channel and enjoy your videos very much.

🥰 I missed these inspiring videos. I feel like playing with adding the major and minor 3eds to different cords now. Try it as the base note, or add it an octave o two higher than the root note. I might try that later today. Thanks for the inspiration. 😍

Wonderful topic. I remember a G7#9 used for the piano fill stabs, in between the phrases in the chorus of "Maybe I'm Amazed," for the reasons you mention. I think this chord was favored by jazz keyboardists, since they can't play "in-between" the keys to hit that blue note, the way a guitar / voice / clarinet / harmonica can bend in to it.

Good explaining. I love the sound, love JH. I heard the same sound in string quartets by Mozart, too.

Important detail is that the minor third is often played sharp (with a bend) where possible (e.g., in lead).

A maior dificuldade que eu tive no estudo da harmonia foi esse "olha como soa estranho as terças maior e menor tocadas ao mesmo tempo", aí eu ouço o som e acho lindo. Foi um caminho longo e árduo pra entender a harmonia tradicional e como ignorar ela solenemente na hora de compôr, pra não limitar a arte a uma convenção, uma vez que a convenção jamais se aplica a expressão de maneira eficaz.

Incredible

Wonderful ❤

babe wake up !!!!

Very cool!

Tie Your Mother Down by Queen is another example of playing the minor 3th followed by the major 3th. It's in the very well known rythmic guitar riff created by Brian May that plays a natural C followed by a C# on an A chord. There's also a C chord later, where the minor third appears and the major third goes out.

One of the most intriguing applications of this “wrong but right” clashing thirds thing, is in the song “Drive my car” by the Beatles, specifically in the “you can do something in between” bit. The twist is that the perceived dissonance isn’t between major and minor thirds that are actually played, but between the minor third that we ACTUALLY hear, and a major third that, while in reality it is entirely absent, is so clearly IMPLIED by the context in which the chord appears that our brains sort of supply the major/minor dissonance that isn’t really there. The weird thing is that, in the context of the song, it sounds really crunchy and dissonant, and is often erroneously transcribed as an A7 #5 #9 chord, a pretty dissonant chord. But if you actually analyse what notes are being played/sung, in isolation, it’s not particularly dissonant at all. It’s just a major triad in first inversion, with an added major 2nd above the root. Specifically, it’s just an F add 9 with the third in the bass. Now, if you just play an F add 9 over an A bass, in isolation, it is NOT going to sound like that chord from “Drive my Car”. Out of context, it entirely lacks the distinctive dissonant “crunch” associated with that moment in the song. But… in the song it appears in the context of the key of D major, exactly at the point where we expect to hear a classic dominant 7 chord built on the fifth degree, which would be an A7. Also, the lowest note is an A. So the context primes us to experience the chord, not as an F chord, but as some kind of A7, even though it’s missing the major third required to make it that chord. If it’s any kind of A chord, you would think it would be an A minor, as it DOES have the minor third. But we simply don’t experience it that way. We experience it as a major chord, and we experience the minor third that in reality is an integral part of the chord as a dissonant blue note over it.

I see Signals, I watch immediately!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="761">12:41</a> Though one example does come from a very successful song from the late '60s: Light My Fire, where the verse progression goes from Am to F#m. Of course, that 'haunting' quality is there too (I remember feeling really uncomfortable with that progression when I first heard it).

Thanks!

As a new viewer, that face reveal of talking while playing was something else haha. I was thinking "Oh that's cool, he must've pre-recorded the script and then played to it to keep the notes in line with what he's describing." But no, you were playing and casually reciting your script at the same time like a savage! Love it!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="247">4:07</a> - I know that chord as the chord that comes in on beat two of the chorus of "Thinderkiss '65“ by White Zombie.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="213">3:33</a> yes, and no. The chord that uses both the minor and the major thirds both of which function like thirds and not ninths is often cslled the "split-third chord" or "mixed third chord"

Thank you patrons! I think I finally get 7#9

I tbink the 'rule' then is you can have major and minor 3rds at the same time, but they can't be only a semitone apart without sounding clashy.

Thanks man.

HE'S BACK!!!