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6.2.8 High Chord? Low Chord? No Such Thing in Music
In music, there's no such thing as a "high chord" or "low chord," unlike in melody, in which there are high-pitched notes and low-pitched notes.
But first—what about all those jazz chords, such as 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths? Well, they’re just triads and sevenths dressed up in fancy duds. They all have four or more notes, so they’re all dissonant.
In fact, you can reduce all of the substance of harmony in the Western tonal system down to two measly chord types, the triad and the seventh, and their embellishments. Imagine that ... Beethoven, Mozart, Ellington, The Beatles ... all just two-chord wonders.
To get a “ninth”-type chord, for example, you just grab another note, as though it’s from the next octave up. There’s nothing to stop scale degrees from continuing on, like this...
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1 (8), 2 (9), etc.
However, unlike in melody, there’s no such thing as a low-pitched chord or a high-pitched chord. This concept is so important in harmony, it bears repeating in boldface:
There’s no such thing as a low-pitched chord or a high-pitched chord.
A chord is just a chord, as you’ll find out later in this chapter.