When the 4th is added instead of the 11th, some harsh dissonances can occur due to the small distance between our 4th, and our 3rd or 5th. Voicings DO matter though, and though it is helpful to think of 4ths and 11ths as being the same thing, it is also worth noting that sometimes the addition of the 11th versus the 4th will provide a much more “clear” and “vivid” voicing. As a guitarist, sometimes you literally can’t hit an 11th because your fingers aren’t disgustingly long, and have to instead play the 11th an octave lower as a 4th. I am not picky between 4ths and 11ths, while many music teachers and composers are. the melody has the word “keep” notated as a G# but I ended up singing it as an A instead, but that’s just an error and shouldn’t affect the mechanics of the demonstration at all. I hesitate to call something “wrong” or “right” in music, but to me, singing a G# over a Dsus4 in the key of A major is just “wrong”.Īlso. However, in a big arrangement with lots of layers, small little things like that can really muddy up a mix. And in this particular case, it’s not totally horrible, so maybe I exaggerated a bit. Sometimes you want the crunchy dissonance. I’ve posted 2 Pdf’s with this info + more for all Patreon subscribers: Įven though I call the chromatic cluster at _ “unlistenable”, it’s totally acceptable to write “unlistenable” music.
