Quote:
Originally Posted by Mellow_D
As you said if you raise a major or a perfect interval you get an augmented.
Now if you lower the major interval by a half-step, you get a minor interval. So take that major 9 interval and lower it, it becomes a minor 9 interval (an E flat, which is 13 semitones above the D). A "b9" is a "minor 9th".
But we call the chord a D7b9; we DON'T call it a "D Minor 9", right?
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Exactly. Because the word "minor"
in that context is as confusing as "augmented" is.
Both words are correct in a narrow sense (referring to the following extension, the 9th), but confusing in a chord name, because in chord names those words are reserved for ONE purpose only:
"Minor" = lowered 3rd
"Augmented" = raised 5th
The other occasionally confusing chord name term is "maj", which refers solely to the
raised 7th - not the chord's 3rd, or any other extension.
Eg, when we see "Cmaj9", the "maj" means we have a B note in the chord, a major 7th interval above the root. It doesn't mean the
triad is major. It is, of course, but we don't need to to say that in the chord name ("C9" is also based on a major triad)
We can also have a major 7th on a minor chord, expressed the same way: "Cm(maj9)" = C Eb G B D.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mellow_D
(I know a D Minor 9 is not a D7b9 chord, but I'm saying in the "unsual way" they ended up calling a D7#9 chord a D Augmented 9 chord in the dictionary above, they could have weirdly called the D7b9 chord a D Minor 9 chord ... if they were trying to focus on INTERVAL in naming the chord (i.e., a minor 9 interval, the distance between the D and the E flat being 13 semitones).
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Exactly right. They are not only being confusing, they are being
inconsistent!
They're picking and choosing: going for "flat" to describe the b9, but "augmented" to describe the #9.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mellow_D
I hope that made sense. I'm just trying to follow the "logic" of how the dictionary COULD have defined the D7b9 chord if they had applied the same manner of labeling -- one based on the interval itself -- as they did in defining the D7#9 as a D Augmented 9.
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Sure - sorry if I suggested you weren't getting the point - obviously you are!