The Abominable Flat Nine

A flat nine is the interval of a minor second bumped up an octave. It has about 3.6 times as much bite as a tritone, and is generally avoided in chord harmonization. If you've read any of my write ups on modes, then you should already have a good idea of how to avoid them. However, by avoiding the flat nine, your missing out on a metric crap ton of dissonece. Sometimes, a flat nine can add something that you’re missing out on in a chord progression. They sound awesome when used with appropriate secondary dominants. When used just on their own, it's like an out of tune octave, but worse. For a good idea on what I'm talking about, listen to Deliverance, by Opeth, off of the album of the same name.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.