color tones / spelling chords

Against the back ground of spelling the diatonic triads, we can begin to expand our chordal colors to include what some theorists term the color tones. Color tones are simply pitches added to major and minor triads to extend the potential shades of either the major or minor tonality. Numerically measured from the root of a chord, common color tones include the intervals of the 7th, 9th,11th and 13th and beyond. For example, we can extend a C major triad into C major 7, C major 9, C major 9 # 11, C maj 9 #11 / 13th. Example 1.

So why are color tones important? Well, basically in that there are ranges or groupings of color tones for each of the popular styles of American music. Staying within a stylistically defined range of color usually creates the basic storytelling environments of each of the popular styles. Really? Well I think so ... Either way, part of the fun and coolness for the advancing artist is in discovering which theoretical combinations of color tones create the "classic" American musical sounds of the various styles, then perhaps to create a musical "weave" of these classic sounds to tell our stories, in our own improvisations and style.

Are the boundaries of color tones / musical styles strictly defined? Well, yes and no, yes in that common practice within styles produce similar sounds. This is what the music critics are always upset about. And no perhaps in that is it our responsibility as creative artists to look for new color combinations to add to the common practice of a style, expanding it's dimensions? Those with an artistic sense tend to do this naturally, to simply reconfigure existing ideas into new ones, keeping what works, discarding what does not and simply continuing to search for the elements to perfectly express our ideas. So very cool eh?

So, do color tones not only include the 7th, 9th 11th etc., but also all of their chromatic variations? Yep. These would include such colors as the bluesy b7, the jazzy b9, the essential #9, the modern #11, Bebop's b5 etc. In learning to accurately spell out any of the possible variations, we can simplify our discussion by breaking down the entire harmonic resource as provided by equal temper into three primary colors, which create what I like to think of as families of chords. Once a chord is placed within a family, spelling it's potential color tones is based upon a set of theoretical guidelines that consistently define a particular chord's color. Once these guidelines are in place, projecting our ideas from any of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale is made just that much easier.

These three families of chords cover the creation of aural tension and it's release to aural stability within both the major and minor tonalities in all of the American styles. So totally cool is this equal tempered system. The myriad of different degrees of this tension / stability dynamic is in part what helps to shape the various styles of American music. As artists, we can define and control these different dynamic degrees by which color tones we choose to shade our chords and how we sequence the chordal colors from each of the three families together in creating our music. Ah, to develop the ability to control the creation of artistic tension and the when and how of it's release... Let's use one chord from each of the three families and create this tension / release dynamic. First in the major tonality. Example 2.

Here in the minor tonality. Example 2a.

From the above examples, our three different families of chords emerge. Notice the all important inclusion of the 7th degree of each chord in the above examples, so necessary in defining a chord's "family." Our three families of chords are defined by the different major and minor combinations of the triad and it's seventh degree. So, in a sense, chords are placed in one of the three families by the quality of their 3rd and 7th? Yep. In block like simplicity, here are the three essential interval combinations creating the three chord families. Example 3.

Are there other possibilities? Of course there are but these three intervalic combinations of major and minor thirds are used as the basis to create the vast majority of American music. So in the music we love, we can spell out any chord once grouped by family by simply following a predetermined set of theoretical guidelines based on the traditional roles of each of the three families? Is the physics of sound involved? Yes to both questions. Well, what are we waiting for... O.K., pick and click and off ya go!

"The amount of money one needs is terrifying ..." Ludwig van Beethoven