Technical Music Question
 

When you play a 7 Chord, you play the 1,3,5,7 notes of the scale.

When you play a 9 Chord, do you include the 7th or do you just add in the 9th?

C Major = C E G

C Major 7 = C E G A#

C Major 9 = C E G D or C E G A# D?

Well first of all there is not an A# in a C Major 7 chord. The principle notes of a Cmaj7 chord are C G B E.

If you added the 9 in a Cmaj7 chord you would actually end up with a chord called Cmaj7(add9) which is C G B E D.

For a Cmaj9 chord the principle notes are C E Bb D.

Why not? A#/Bb is the 7th note of the C major scale. I don't get it.

How did you come up with your notes for Cmaj9? You've omitted the 5th (G) and used Bb instead :confused:

Oh man...I had a complete brain cramp. I read it as Cmaj9 but was thinking C9. Cmaj9 principle notes are C E G B D. Sorry for the confusion.

B is the 7th note in the C major scale. Bb is the 7th note in the C minor scale. And if you really want to get technical A# is not in the C major or C minor scale even though it sounds the same as Bb. But depending upon the type of music you're playing it may be close enough. ;)

I was just thinking harmonic pentatonic minor when I replied, which also adds a Eb...if you want to.

Ok, where am I wrong, because I was just recently taught to count a major scale as Whole Step/Whole Step/Half Step and a minor scale as Whole Step/Half Step/Whole Step:

C Major: 1C 2D 3E 4F 5G 6A 7Bb 8C 9D

C Minor: 1C 2D 3D# 4F 5G 6G# 7Bb etc.

Was I taught incorrectly or am I counting incorrectly?

And what's the difference between "Cmaj9" and "C9"? Maybe that's my problem, that I don't recognize that "C Major" is a different scale than just "C" or "A Major" is different than "A"

>>And what's the difference between "Cmaj9" and "C9"?<<

In a C9, the 7th is flat (or dominant).

Go to the library and check out a beginner music theory book. It will make your life a lot easier.

Jonathan

Not sure how someone would teach you that a C Major scale would have flats. Think about a C major scale as the white keys on a piano starting with a C base. Notes C D E F G A B.

Also the C mior scale you wrote would have flats not sharps. The only time you see a sharp in C scale is in a C whole tone scale (F is sharp) or some of the exotic scales like C dimished(F is sharp) or half dimished (has C, C# and F#).