Zephyr Nova's drunken AMA

they call me the tommy wiseau of music theory 

the disaster music theorist

  On 3/16/2021 at 5:55 PM, Alcofribas said:

 these voluminous, insightful paragraphs analyzing the chord.

  On 3/16/2021 at 10:54 AM, brian trageskin said:

i didn't know b13 wasn't an option for notation in the absence of a 5th

Well a couple of my personal rules of thumb for spelling chords, a) any piece of information in the chord name (like a #5 or b13) should also indirectly give information about the rest of it. So using this chord, (hereby known as the WATMM Chord) as an example, if you spelled it A9b13 as you suggested earlier, that's fine if the context is mixolydian b6 [which earlier I misnamed lydian dominant, a totally unrelated scale, whoops, post edited] because "A9" means a dominant chord (containing a flat seventh), and mixo-b6 is the only scale with a natural 9, a flat 7 and a flat 13 (the latter of which implies natural fifth is available, which it is in that scale). But in a lydian-augmented context you would want to say Amaj9 because of the major seventh in the scale, and you wouldn't want to call it a flat 13, because the lyd-aug scale also has a major sixth (13th) in it; the F natural (or E# technically here) is functioning as the fifth in that scale, so you would want to label it as such, and piss everyone off using E#s lol. If you called the chord A9#5 that would imply whole tone scale, again because A9 means there's a flat 7 and a natural 9, and there's no natural fifth, i.e. it's the only scale with those three functions.    And, b) You need more info than the chord itself to inform best spelling of the chord - melody notes that are not chord tones should give that extra info to indicate the scale being used. So ultimately it comes down to what kind of melodies Zephyr is writing over the chords. And he might choose to write a melody using notes that don't indicate any of those other scales in which case you're on your own lol. If the WATMM Chord is being played over some other root, then it becomes a rootless voicing for something else (just as an example because it sounds like that is not the case here, since the A is doubled it sounds like a pretty definitively "A" chord, functioning in its own right). It could also be some kind of polychord. There are plenty of possible chords out there that aren't easily defined by standard nomenclature,  if you've exhausted all the options. In those cases you have to just tell em what to play, spell the chord and the available notes under it, or again let them figure it out on their own based on the melody. At the end of the day it only matters if you have more than one person trying to play the song and not step on each other. 

  On 3/16/2021 at 10:54 AM, brian trageskin said:

just play harmonic major on top and call it a day lol    

Oh yeah and then there's this lol. I need to get into more harmonic major exploration. I guess in that case you would in fact call it Amaj9(b13) because there is a natural 5, a flat 6 (13) and a major 7 in that scale

OK last point here. When it comes to just spelling the chord itself, with no outside information, you would call it:  
A aug (add9)  or A+(add9) if you're okay with using "+" to mean augmented (some oldschool folks might think plus means major tho).
Doesn't give any extra info about 7ths or whether that E# (F) is an augmented fifth or a minor 6th (13th) but spells the exact notes in that particular voicing of the chord.  

thanks for the thorough explanation 

  On 3/16/2021 at 6:50 PM, toaoaoad said:

OK last point here. When it comes to just spelling the chord itself, with no outside information, you would call it:  
A aug (add9)  

shit, i had it right from the start then 

  On 3/16/2021 at 6:40 PM, toaoaoad said:

hereby known as the WATMM Chord

hell yeah. some call it the zeph chord i heard

  On 3/16/2021 at 6:40 PM, toaoaoad said:

the F natural (or E# technically here) is functioning as the fifth in that scale, so you would want to label it as such, and piss everyone off using E#s lol

  On 3/16/2021 at 5:50 PM, hello spiral said:

please post audio of this chord

This is the chord:

I was going to just strum it once using my cheap lap top mic, but decided it wasn't lush enough (although I still did do that first part).  You theory nerds can call it what you will.  I call it A Major 69.

  On 3/16/2021 at 10:49 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

This is the chord:

I was going to just strum it once using my cheap lap top mic, but decided it wasn't lush enough (although I still did do that first part).  You theory nerds can call it what you will.  I call it A Major 69.

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this is seriously sick. well fucking done dude 

it's not a 6/9 chord because the 6th isn't natural. btw minor 6/9 chords are the shit

If the video is tl;dw then yes -- "A major 6/9" implies the notes A, C#, E, F#, B.  So I mean you can call the chord whatever you want but if you write "Amaj6/9" on a chart then those are the notes someone will play.  Thanks for the demo btw very cool

  On 3/15/2021 at 11:49 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

A far more common, but no less confounding chord is an F major with the B and high E string ringing out... so the high E becomes a Maj7 and the B is a tritone up the octave from the root, flat 5 I suppose you could call it?  Augmented 4th?  Fmaj7aug4 is perhaps the name for it.

Totally missed this the first time around. The B is a sharp 11, you'd just call this chord Fmaj7(#11) and it implies the F lydian scale.  Not too sure about the other chord you mentioned just before that. What are the notes in it? I suspect people reading this thread want to hear more theory/chord analysis so let's give em what they want. 

  On 3/16/2021 at 11:17 PM, brian trageskin said:

this is seriously sick. well fucking done dude 

Thanks!  it was a good way to start the day.  It only exists because Squee asked the question, you and tao presented a dissertation on what it might actually be called, and then Spiral asked to hear the chord.  It's a collaborative piece really.

  On 3/17/2021 at 4:53 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Thanks!  it was a good way to start the day.  It only exists because Squee asked the question, you and tao presented a dissertation on what it might actually be called, and then Spiral asked to hear the chord.  It's a collaborative piece really.

Truly the WATMM Chord now  
 

  On 3/17/2021 at 4:53 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Thanks!  it was a good way to start the day.  It only exists because Squee asked the question, you and tao presented a dissertation on what it might actually be called, and then Spiral asked to hear the chord.  It's a collaborative piece really.

i hardly see how asking for your wi-fi password/childhood memories contributed in you making that tune but ok lol

  On 3/17/2021 at 6:46 AM, brian trageskin said:

i hardly see how asking for your wi-fi password/childhood memories contributed in you making that tune but ok lol

Oh yeah that was your question!  Haha geez... that should have been obvious too.  Sorry!  Credit where credit's do.  You definitely get the main assist.

very mysterious chord, vnice ty

i'm waiting for the other 2 chords to get the same treatment btw

lol... it might happen.

Is everyone ok?

On the contrary, nobody is ok.

y u no answer my questions?

It's like any AMA.  I just respond to the ones to which I have answers worth sharing.  That was a weird sentence.  I am sorry.

rude

that's a wrap!

as a reminder of the sound of dominant 7(#11) 

and m9(b5) 

lol that meme is great.  thank you.

  On 3/19/2021 at 1:24 AM, brian trageskin said:

 

 

 

 

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It's not tho

  On 3/19/2021 at 1:50 AM, toaoaoad said:

It's not tho

oh fuck my analysis is completely wrong cause i got all mixed up and took the tonic for the 3rd and vice versa. i would have noticed my error instantly if i had checked on the keyboard. my joke is ruined now 

this is the correct analysis then (maybe)