Hello all,
First of all: what wonderfull HK is!
I´m new to Hooktheory and have just recently searched for some specific chords: alt (b5, #5) b13, b9, #9, I found this thread and although it dates from june ’14 I still like to add my thoughts.
First of all I’m specifically interested in the functional analysis of Hooktheory, not for arranging. I’m an Jazz musician (amateur) and use functional analysis to really understand what I’m hearing and to get hints for what notes to play when improvising. E.g. in Jamey Aebersold play along jazzmaterial there are often these type of suggestions on which notes to play and how),
But it’s a thin line between chords quality and adding tensions. In other words: between functional analysis and voicing:
- The dim or aug 5 might be more considered as a voicing than functional. But I’d like to compare what I hear on some CD-recording of a song to what I write down in HK. So I would use the ‘voice’-option and maybe put them in the higher octave. But especially in Jazz then the fifth is often omitted.
- The same would go for the dim and aug 9
- There is a lot of ‘walking’ bass in jazz recording from which I try derive the function of the chord. So I would put in a bassline as a voice in HK. But it clutters when I have to listen to the bass of the HK-chord at the same time, in stead of after eachother. Furthermore, I’ve seen several solutions for nice baselines via inversions but these I would also like to compare with the bassline I hear in the song. And other instruments often omit the bass-note of the chords because that’s the bass-players area.
In bluesy style the I-chord kan be Ib7 (not I7) and I might use Mixolydian. (This is called the extended dominant in Berkley music terms). But typically the #9 is sometimes added to create that bluesy sound. This let me to the idea to add ‘voice’ for the #9
This would all lead to two ideas:
- to have a playback option to only playback the bare quality of the chord: the 3 and 7 and not playback the 5 or/and the rootnote (yes even for other inversions). I would then listen to it with my voicing an/or bass added. This would give me the option to compare between the full analysis of HK and what I hear in the actual song, just by switching.
- Thought the 5 and 9 might be considered as voicings, there are some rules involved when and where they might be altered (5) or minor/major intervals. (as I read in Berkley musical harmony) tutorials. Maybe, just maybe, HK can bring in suggestions by rules derived from good functional analysis.
Btw I also saw the thread: On implementing the augmented fifth
And I’d welcome the use of functional analysis related to harmonic and melodic minor. It does bring in some of these altered chords.
I hope that I can still provoke some ideas or maybe there is somebody more informed on this forum to address this issue.