Good Morning KN6Guy,

You have hit the nail squarely on the head! As I have said on this forum before, most of today's music is just noise pollution produced by a drummer who hits the drums with all of his might (no finesse), a guitar player who uses distortion with the volume turned to max, and a male or female screaming into a microphone connected to huge amplifiers that amplify their complete lack of a voice or vocal talent.

The harmonies of the music of the 20s through 50s, the full bands and orchestras backing vocalists of the stature of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaugh, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett et al combined to produce the greatest pop music sounds ever. And lets not forget those composers who wrote that beautiful music, especially those wonderful melodies. I've heard numerous pop songs of the present day where the melody is nothing more than four or five notes repeated endlessly. Is that music? I certainly don't think so. I honestly believe the young people of today have tin ears! Rhythm - the beat! - is what its all about these days. Oh, and that screaming male or female up front with the mic.

In fairness, I have to say that some pop groups have produced good music. I think Abba and the Beatles are a couple of examples. Paul McCartney wrote "Norwegian Wood" and it is a very pretty piece of music. If you don't listen to classical music you may not be aware that Paul McCartney writes classical music for string quartets. So there are good musicians in the pop music world who can and do write good music. Unfortunately, the radio stations don't play it. Here in the UK we have just two radio stations that play decent music - Jazz FM and Classic FM. On Sunday afternoons the BBC Radio 2 broadcasts several radio shows that play music from the 20s to 50s and I enjoy those shows a great deal, but they only last about three or four hours.

I'm off my soap box now.

Back to chords and harmony. It is probably not generally known that dominant chords can be bi-tonal. Let me give you an example. Take C7. The notes are C,E,G, and Bb. If you alter the chord by adding the 9th, 11th, and 13th (D,F, and A) you have a C major chord (C,E,G) with Bbmajor7 chord on top of it (Bb,D,F, and A) You don't see bi-tonal chords used very often in harmony, but they are legitimate chords in their own right. They are more likely to be used in the jazz idiom than in any other type of music. Bi-tonal chords came to mind after I had finished writing in the other thread about chords, so thought I would include that little bit of information here for anyone who is interested in chords and harmony.

Take care KN6Guy.

Chuck