There are also other ways to alter the dominant chord. The diminished scale alters the ninth the whole tone scale alters the fifth. WeвЂ™ve learned a couple of the scales that correspond to the altered dominant chords. To create a more tense sounding chord we could alter the V7 chord to be a V7(#11), V7(b9), V7(#9), V7(#5), etc. It still creates tension because it feels like it needs to resolve to the I chord, but the tension is minimal. A V7 with no altered tones creates the least amount of tension. The more it is altered, the tenser it will sound. The dominant chord can be altered however you want. How do we accomplish this? I hinted at it in the past couple of articles I wrote on scales. In other words, the dominant chord is the вЂњtensionвЂќ and the tonic chord is the вЂњreleaseвЂќ. The dominant chord is often used as a platform for dissonance before it resolves to the consonant tonic chord. The most common place to use harmonic вЂњtension and releaseвЂќ in music is on the V7-I resolution. For the specific purpose of this article, weвЂ™ll focus on harmonic вЂњtension and releaseвЂќ. dissonance is the most effective way to develop harmonic вЂњtension and releaseвЂќ. A few examples of variation, or polarities, that create вЂњtension and releaseвЂќ are: loud vs. вЂњTension and releaseвЂќ can be applied to music melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically. ItвЂ™s an approach to create interest in order to prevent a piece of music, or an improvised solo, from potential monotony to keep music from being boring. What this refers to is a method for developing variation in music. But your mileage may vary.Д®njoy my mashup of this track with вЂњ Calabria 2007вЂќ by Enur featuring Natasja.When we listen to, study, or discuss music from a compositional or improvisational standpoint, we frequently talk about a technique called вЂњtension and releaseвЂќ. The A minor in the last bar is weak too it would be more satisfying to replace the C with C-sharp, to make D harmonic minor. It would be hipper to replace the Gm with G7, or the Bв™maj7 with Bв™7. Jazz musicians like me hear them as being essentially the same chord. In D minor, both Gm11 and Bв™maj7 are subdominants, and functionally theyвЂ™re interchangeable. To my ears, though, the real problem is the chord progression. The use of unrestrainedly passionate alto sax through heavy reverb was briefly in vogue in the 1980s, and then fell permanently out of style. ItвЂ™s also notoriously corny, and to many peopleвЂ™s ears, quite annoying. The half-step interval between A and B-flat gives Phrygian its exotic quality. This sequence of pitches (A, B-flat, C, D, E, F, G, A) is also known as the A Phrygian mode. Rather than outlining an arpeggio, it runs up the D natural minor scale from A to A. The fourth phrase is different from the others. The third phrase has all of these pitches.

Do the same process starting on B-flat, and you get B-flat, D, F, and A, making a B-flat major 7 (Bв™maj7) chord.

The second phrase has most of those pitches.

If you do the same process, but starting on G, you get the pitches G, B-flat, D, F, A, C, which make up a G minor 11 chord.

All the pitches in D minor 9 are there except for C. Now look at the first bar of the sax riff. These pitches вЂ“ D, F, A, C, and E вЂ“ make a D minor 9 (Dm9) chord. Finally, skip the root (D) and land on the ninth (E). Skip the sixth (B-flat) and land on the seventh (C).

Skip the fourth (G) and land on the fifth (A). Skip the second (E) and land on the third (F). Three of the four phrases in the вЂњCareless WhisperвЂќ riff are arpeggios, the notes from a chord played one at a time. Scale tones have a white background, while non-scale tones are greyed out. The right diagram shows it on the circle of fifths. The left diagram below shows the D natural minor scale on the chromatic circle. But because your ear has become used to the pattern of the first three phrases, the straighter rhythm in the fourth one feels more вЂњsyncopatedвЂќ because it defies your expectation. The fourth phrase is less syncopated itвЂ™s a predictable pattern of eighth notes.

After the downbeats, every single note in each pattern falls on a weak beat. The first three phrases are heavily syncopated. The fourth phrase is an ascending line running up a scale, using a very different rhythm.ДЇirst letвЂ™s take a closer look at those rhythms. The first three phrases are descending lines spelling out chords using similar rhythms. So why is the riff so impossible to forget? Its melodicВ structure certainlyВ jumps right out at you. Play the riff yourself using your computer keyboard!

Melodic minor scales saxophone