Improvisation and Chord Extensions

Okay, so we've talked briefly about the types of seventh chords and how we can incorporate that seventh degree into our improvisations. What I wanted to briefly discuss now are other extensions beyond the seventh.

Understanding Chord Extensions

You may have come across these extensions in charts for music that you've looked at or in the rock school books. Above the notation, you might see things like:

• G minor 9
• F11
• E7 sharp 9
• F13

These numbers are nothing to be scared of at all. All they reference are degrees of the scale that have been added to that chord to extend it, giving it a certain characteristic or color.

Example: A Minor 9

For example, if we take the minor nine example:

1. Let's say we have an A minor 9.

2. To find the ninth degree, we play through our natural minor scale to the ninth degree:

   1. 1
   2. 2
   3. 3
   4. 4
   5. 5
   6. 6
   7. 7
   8. 8
   9. 9

   This brings us to the B note.

• Thus, we know that the ninth degree of our A minor scale is a B.
• This is the note we want to add on top of our A minor chord or an A minor 7 chord.

Improvisation Tip

This results in a great sounding chord! Knowing that this note is featured in the chord means you can emphasize it in your improvisation.

• You could do something as simple as sliding into that note to start your phrase.
• This extended note might be quite a discordant tone; however, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
• You can use that tension and resolve it to a stronger chord tone later in your phrase.

Altered Chords

The same goes for any of the other extensions we discussed; they can be sharpened or flattened.

• For example, with E7 sharp 9, you will sharpen the ninth by one semitone.
• If it's a flat nine, you'll flatten the ninth by one semitone, and that will be the note added to your extended chord.

Suspended Chords

The only other type of chord I want to briefly chat about is suspended chords. These can feature numbers as well.

• The term "suspended" means that we've taken the third out of the chord.

Example: D Sus Chords

Let's say we have a D sus 2:

• A D major chord typically contains a root, a third, and a fifth.
• In a D sus 2, we replace the third with the second.

To find out what degree that is, we count through our D major scale.

1. Start on D.
2. Go up a tone - there's our second straight away, which is an E note.

This means we need to replace the third (the F sharp) in our D major chord with an E (the second), resulting in that chord sound.

The Sound of Suspended Chords

Suspended chords have a great sound, they're neither major nor minor since there's no third to dictate the sound. This creates a slightly mysterious vibe, which is something to consider in your improvisations or compositions.

Conclusion

Trying to accent or at least notice those kinds of extensions or alterations to chords can be incredibly useful in your lead playing.

With that, we've discussed various ideas for approaching improvisation. If you want more stylistic-specific examples, check out the performance analysis from other tutors in their performance pieces. Wherever there's a development section, they'll have lots of great ideas for you on how to approach those developments and improvisations.

Good luck with that! Enjoy it! It's a fantastic skill to develop. Although it is challenging, you'll have loads of fun along the way, I'm sure. Best of luck with it all!