Altered chords

In this short guitar lesson you will learn how to play 6 types of altered and extented dominant chords (7, 7b9, 9, 7b5, 7b5b9, 9b5) to expand your harmonic vocabulary.

This guitar lesson provides 10 easy exercises for understanding the relationship between the Melodic Minor Scale and altered dominant seventh chords. This is a free course (or give what you want) with a printable PDF with tab/standard notation and a YouTube short video. 

In this theory lesson we will see how to add natural and altered extensions to 7th chords. The aim being to bring new colors and so to embellish your chord progressions. This concept is a very important device for composing, chordal accompaniment and chord-melody arrangements.

Altered chords add color, tension, and sophistication to your playing, making them a must-know for jazz, fusion, and even blues and rock guitarists.

An altered chord contains one (or several) altered notes that don't belong to the diatonic scale.

These notes are the b5 (flat fifth), #5 (sharp fifth), b9 (flat ninth), #9 (sharp ninth).

In this guitar lesson we will see that they can be grouped into three disctinct families (major, minor and dominant) and also how to play them on guitar.

Unlocking that smooth tension and release in jazz harmony is where the magic lies—and the dominant seventh flat-fifth (7♭5) chord is one of your secret weapons.

Imagine sliding into a chord that sounds both unexpected and inevitable, bridging the gap between yellow-and-gold major chords and grey-shaded minor ones. That’s what the 7♭5 chord does.

This free guitar chord chart available as a PDF file contains the most important altered and extended dominant guitar chord shapes that any guitar player should know. It is totally free (or Pay What You Want) in return, don't hesitate to support this website.

Altered dominant chords are used to bring tension and an outside flavor to jazz chord progressions. 

They generally resolve to an inside chord as the I or a substitute as iii or vi.

They have one or more notes lowered or raised by a half-step, in other words they contain one or more alterations.

These alterations are b9,#9, b5 (#11) and b13 (#5).

Altered Chords are generally used by jazz musicians, composers and arrangers as substitutions for diatonic chords for adding dissonance and spicing up the harmony.