Altered Dominant

What is a Altered Dominant chord?

An altered dominant chord has a distinct and intense sound, often described as dissonant and edgy. It is a type of chord that creates a lot of tension and demands resolution, and is commonly used in jazz and other contemporary music genres.

An altered dominant chord is a dominant chord with one or more notes altered from its original form. The most common alterations are the flat ninth (b9), sharp nine (#9), flat fifth (b5), and sharp fifth (#5). For example, a G7alt chord could contain the notes G, Bb, Db, E, and Ab, which would make it a G dominant chord with a flat ninth, sharp fifth, and flat fifth.

How is it used?

Altered dominant chords are typically played in place of a regular dominant chord to add more tension and interest to a chord progression.

The function of an altered dominant chord is to create tension and anticipation, which resolves to the next chord. Altered dominant chords often lead to a chord with a root a half-step or whole-step away, which provides a strong resolution to the tension created by the altered dominant chord. Commonly found in jazz, such chords open a plethora of interesting melodic opportunities. Check out the altered scale (7th mode of the Jazz Melodic Minor) in the scales section.

On chord charts, such as those found in jazz ‘real’ books you will find this chord written as, for example, ‘G7alt’. Generally, this means it’s up to you to pick a flavour of altered chord from the selection on the menu above. There are many flavours, as you can see, so experiment and pick some that you like the sound of and try them out.

Altered Dominant chord variations

There are a quite few variations of Altered Dominant chord, from the basic triads (three note chords) to chord extensions.

Chord extensions are additional notes that can be added to basic triads or seventh chords to create more complex and nuanced harmonic structures. These notes are typically added above the basic triad or seventh chord and can include 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths.

To view the guitar chord shapes pick a Altered Dominant chord type from the menu above.