Drop These Notes From Your Chords to Sound Like a Pro

When we're learning chords, we include any and all notes that define them and it's important to not leave any notes out of them. Of course this is especially true with Major and minor triads because they're so fundamental to learn. But there's actually a legitimate reason to play chords with a dropped note in them. I want to share with you a few of them in this article.

If you're familiar with Major and minor triads, you're aware that they consist of the 1st, 3rd and 5th tones.

When you create an extended chord, you add even more tones to Major and minor triads.

For example:

C7The C7 example consist of the 1st, 3rd, 5th and flatted 7th tones. In order to maintain the structure of this chord, certain tones are essential.

The root (1) is the foundational note of the chord. It identifies the tonal center of the chord and is an essential note (I'll cover an exception later)
The 3rd determines whether a chord is Major or minor. Without the 3rd in this chord, it would be a neutral chord and no longer Major.

The flatted 7th makes this chord a dominant 7th. Without it, you're back to a simple Major triad.

This leaves us with the 5th tone. Unlike the other tones in this chord, the 5th can be and is often omitted (dropped from the chord). There are a few very easy to understand reasons for this.First of all, the 5th tone of the chord is inert. It doesn't contribute to the Major or minor tonality. It also doesn't add any tension to the chord due to the stability of it being a perfect 5th away from the root.

Dropping the 5th doesn't destabilize the chord either. Because this tone doesn't add any color or interest to the chord, it can easily be dropped. You'll find that dropping the 5th tone from the chord creates a slightly more open and professional sound.

And speaking of an open sound, if you voice the chord with an open voicing (not stacking the tones from the root up), you have an even more open sound.Other examples of 7th chords with omitted 5th voicings.

B flat 7D7

The next example to drop notes from would be from extended chords beyond dominant 7th chords.

Here we have an 11th chord. By definition it consists of the root, 5th, flatted 7th, 9th and 11th tones.  The 3rd doesn't usually occur in this chord because the 11th (also known as the 4th) clashes with it. This absence of the 3rd gives the chord a suspended quality.  We'll also go ahead and omit the 5th since we've covered it in the last section.Again, we need the root in this chord to identify its tonal center.
The flatted 7th tone is also essential because its presence makes it an extended chord. It's also implied that you add it into the chord because it's being referred to as an 11th chord.The 11th is the tone in which the chord is named after. So of course it needs to be included.

This leaves us with the 9th tone. The 9th is similar to the 7th because it's implied in an 11th chord. It's also a color tone (adds color to the chord) but can be a dropped note from the chord.Dropping the 9th tone from the chord can be done for voicing considerations as well as creating a slightly different sound because it's a color tone that's absent in the chord.

Other examples of 11th chords with omitted 9ths and open voicings.

E flat 11A11

Our next example of a dropped note from a chord will be a C13th.  Just as in our previous examples, we can omit the 5th and 9th tones, but we'll include them in this example.We need to keep the 3rd to maintain the Major tonality of the chord just as in the previous example.
And as also in the previous example, the flatted 7th is essential to form an extended chord.The 13th is the tone in which the chord is named after. So it's necessary to maintain it.

So what could be left in our dropped note in a chord example?

Believe it or not, it's the root itself. In our first example, I stated that the root is the foundational note of the chord and the tonal center. While this is the case, we can still omit this tone. This is referred to as a rootless voicing.

There are some things to keep in mind when the dropped note of a chord is the root. It's uncommon for it to be just a simple triad. It's more often a dominant 7th chord with extended tones.

Let's use the C7 again to illustrate this rootless voicing before we add the other extended tones to them.If the root is omitted in this chord, the two most significant tones is the 3rd and flatted 7th. If only these two notes are played, it implies a C dominant 7th chord. This gives this type of chord voicing a strong harmonic context which is necessary to make it work.
This is also known as a tritone chord voicing because these two notes are an interval of a tritone apart.  Tri meaning 3, because the notes are 3 whole tones apart from each other.

Since there are only two essential tones in this chord, it's very common to omit the 5th and add other color tones to it such as the 9th and 13th.