Chord Shapes

Altered Dominant

Intervals: 1-3-b5-b7 plus any combination of b9, #9, b5/#11, #5/b13. “V7alt” is a shorthand indicating that the 5th and 9th are altered in some way and that the altered scale (7th mode of melodic minor) is the default melodic resource. In practice, a 7alt voicing may not literally contain every altered degree at once; instead, players choose a compact subset (for example 3-b7-b9-#5) that gives strong semitone resolutions. This sound is especially common on V chords in minor, on secondary dominants that lead to important cadences, and on turnarounds where drama is required (e.g. V7alt–Imaj7 endings). Think of 7alt as “maximum dominant tension that must resolve by half-step into the next chord”.