minor major chord?

[Mingus]

I saw this thing on learnjazzguitar.net that there's a minor-major chord. Does it just have a natural and flatted third in the voicing? what do they sound like?

[Professor1]

I think what it is refering to is a minor chord with a major seventh.

[mahayana]

Hey, Mingus.

The place you've probably heard it most is as the second chord in the "descending" minor progression, as


Gm-------Gm(maj7)------Gm7-------Gm6
XX5333---XX4333--------XX3333---XX2333

Played by itself it has the same notes as Daug X5433X

[allblues]

The minor major 7th chord is the first degree of a minor melodic (jazz scale) or harmonic chords progression.
Just as an example: Cmin maj7th is
x35443

[mahayana]

So, did we answer your questions, Mingus?

The major in a min(maj) chord refers to adding a major 7th to a minor chord.

It sounds like an augmented chord, but not the same one as its letter name.

A third common form of it is Am(maj7) 4X25XX where the regular Am is 5X25XX.

The Cm(maj7) that allblues showed you comes from the regular barre Cm chord 335543

Do you see how they work now? I got in a little trouble with Prof in another thread by saying the maj7 note was implied in minor chords. It only is to the extent that the harmonic minor scale contains that note.

Anyway, thanks for making us think this through.

[Professor1]

mahayana said:

The Cm(maj7) that allblues showed you comes from the regular barre Cm chord 335523
.

I know it may seem picky, but I feel like I need to say something about it. The G as a bass note in the chord you describe is SO not the right note to use there. In an "A shape" based Barre chord, the 6th string should not be used at all. There are many reasons for this:
Rules of Music theory,
A low dissonance (4th) at the bottom of the chord makes it sound muddy,
You're stepping on the bass line,
That chord includes the 5th 3 times, and the root only twice


Sorry, but that's a pet peeve of mine.

[jazzalta]

Gotta go with the Prof on this one. It doesn't sound that great as described M at least to my ears. allblues' version x35443 works for me.
However, while there are certainly theoretical implications (as the good Prof will undoubtedly point out) there is also a subjective quality to chord choice.

[mahayana]

Hey, I wasn't suggesting anybody playing the Cm barre chord on fret three, just saying where the minor(major7) that allblues illustrated comes from, namely a common Cm chord with a B (the maj7) in place of the C on string 3 in the regular chord.

Sorry for the confusion, Prof. No more pictures of 6 string barre chords, OK? And your points of course are correct.

[Professor1]

LOL ;D