so i am just tinkering around with chords on the synth and played a c maj7 ok so riddle me this batman the notes of this chord
c e g b
c e g - c major triad
e g b - e min triad
why we call it only c maj 7 when it has both maj and min triads inside of it?
The further you flesh it out, the more triads appears. Cmaj9 is CEGBD, so C major, Emin, and G major. But the voicing is important and will lead to the most logical name.
Cmaj7 could be arranged so itās Emin with a b6, but this is just an uncommon chord - itās dissonant in an unpleasant way. Typically B would get omitted to fix that, but that changes the whole thing into C/E. Still works to functionally pull to Emin if thatās what you wantā¦
what are you trying to show me with the youtube video? it is just f min second position to c min root position chord progression. i like it, but i feel lost if you could explain or pinpoint to what you are referencing i donāt have the greatest ears, and it takes me quite sometime to transcribe things. 
i specifically mean when the chord is played as one chord, if it is just theory convention since the c is the root i mean i guess, but it still leaves out that it glaringly also has minor inside that chord by only saying oh its maj with an added 7th.
Thereās no Fm. Itās Ab/C Cm Cm7 Cm, but that first chord could be looked at as Cmin b6, maybeā¦ the whole thing feels like C aeolian with the moving note going ā6th 5th 7th 5thā. I bring it up because this was the first thing I could think of where thereās a chord that maybe you could call min(b6).
It has a minor chord that doesnāt really get used (the minor b6 Iāve been rambling about), hence it not getting named that way.
Indeed I was wrong, I had to pull out my raycons these laptop and phone speakers are crummy. So you are suggesting that the C min b6 is also that c min triad and ab maj triad in it?
Yes. Abmaj7 is Ab C Eb G, so you have the same double triads (Ab major, C minor) like in your opening example. You could play C Eb G Ab and call it C minor b6, it just sounds ugly, but you can get a similar effect thatās more pleasing to the ear by taking away G, however this just turns it into an inversion of Ab major. But this is all just naming convention - in certain cases (like Twin Peaks) something that technically is perhaps a major chord certainly doesnāt sound major anymore.
Every time you add an extension to a chord, you have a new triad in it (technically). 7th chord has 2 triads, 9th chord 3, 11th chord 4, etcā¦
The more you know, thanks for highlighting this out for me instead of me just stumbing upon this later or maybe never LOL.
Itās a case of āwhat is the reference pointā? In this case the best choice is Cmaj7, so as far as intervals go, everything is in reference to that āCā. Simplest way to communicate it and although you could also say itās an Eminaddb13, thatās really not how itās going to sound to you; and really fundamental harmony is all about 3rds and 7ths.
As mentioned above, the more tensions added to the chord, the more reharmonization possibillities BUTā¦ I guess you have to decide, what is it to you, and what is it that most of the listeners will hear?
CEG FAC GBD = I iv V triads, BUT smush it all together you getā¦
C Major scale, and indeed all 7 modes of said scale which can happen if you impose this over top of any one of the notes diatonic to that key signature (no # or b) And indeed, thereās also hiding in those 3 chord every triad in Cmaj, and every 7th chord as well as very tension diatonic to the key.
Harmonic minor, same dealā¦ CEbG FAbC GBD Imin ivmin and Vmaj.
Melodic Minor (Jazz version), same dealā¦ CEbG FAC GBD Imin ivmaj and Vmaj.
Only scales you need to practice and understand really, Major-Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor everything else is really arpeggios (Pentatonic, Blues) and symmetrical patterns (Diminished scale, augmented scale) Natural Minor/Aeolian is simply an inversion of a Major scale, and the other respective modes of these are again just inversions of the parent scale; plus modes are imaginary really until played over a chord that creates that modal reference.
I once knew a guy who practiced all of his maj scales in 12 keys, then each mode again in all 12 keysā¦ I was like āDude, are you starting to notice a pattern yet?ā He did not. Oh well, to each their own.
Donāt be afraid to simplify theory/harmony. Itās only complicated to those who want it to be. Plus, there are a LOT of different opinions and schools of thought. I hope that helps somewhat, rock on.
Of course, keep it simple to help understand it but then once one gets exploring thereās an ocean of materialā¦
I hope that helps somewhat. 
it does help, i was already looking at all the 4 note chords both maj/min and seeing which triads were within. heh and when you spelled out the chord progression stuff that is pretty neat also, thank you for this uncovering.
So funny thing is I get why you brought up that min b6 chord. I then went to some piano chord sites, and was looking around not really seeing that chord. Odd, then I see that it also is a maj 7 flipped around LMAO.
Awesome! Itās a good feeling when things start to click.
Yes, minor(b6) is a weird one - it does exist, it just isnāt really used. Instead we usually see min6 chords, which are minor triads with a major sixth added - a Dorian chord, if you like. Emin6 would be E G B C#, and this is actually just an inversion of C#min7b5 (C# E G B).
A cool thing to do is see how these arpeggios work over different chords. You can use that same C#min7b5/Emin6 over a G chord, for instance, and it gives you the intervals of 1 3 #4 6, making it sound Lydian.
Also on this topic, chord inversion can have a HUGE impact on how even triads sound, especially if you start spreading the intervallic difference because again, the ear hears the lowest note as a reference.
I mean, look at Yngwieās Arpeggio inversion thing on the GBE strings that he does; Sounds huge, and itās super powerful and seems to really āmoveā and yet itās just all the combinations of ACE. Cesario, Your Gypsy jazz guysā¦ All your favourites. Heck, with synth music you could really do some crazy stuff with just inversions and triads.
It really took all of my focus to put the synths away to focus on gypsy jazz for a few years. But I pulled out my Deep Mind 12, and honestly I havenāt picked up the guitar in probably 2 weeks. The only drawback I see with this specific synth is it is rather limited with its bass power, and wave choices. Although if I buy one of those desktop modules that is the cheaper version I could poly chain it to make these 4 voices per note patches even more powerful so then I could do 6 notes with 4 voices each for some extreme sonic character totalling 24 voices LMAO. might blow the windows out of this tiny room i am living in though.
Do it. Destrooooooooy! lol (Just have fun while you do it!)
Hey just thinking of this thread and had another thing to add. Again - the reference of this, the ROOT is the key.
So lets say you have this song where the keyboardist is playing an Emin for a bar and then a Cmaj for a bar. And the bassline is going
E-E-E _EEE under the whole thing. Well, first of all - Yngwieās Blackstar does that!
So E is the lowest note, technically the root as dictated by the bass. So we definitely have an Emin over the E, but when the Cmaj is played over that, and lets say for fun that it was a Cmaj7 - you COULD call it an Emin(b6) and it wouldnāt be wrong. Simplest possible terms = rock is modal music and the easiest way to notate that is C/E. Combine this information with the key signature (1# - and that is of course F#) and you have a pretty excellent recipe for ear training, composition, improvisation, heck even reading.
So simplicity is a factor as well. But noticing the relationships of chords within other chords is huge! Very powerful! Tertially stacked 3rdsā¦
Also totally worth it to discuss very simple things like this to death and get as many angles as possible on it. I hope that helps as well.
haha so the deeper i go the more silly it gets here is a mM7 definitely wouldnāt want to say mMaj7 here because that mM7 consists of a min and aug triad not a maj and a min triad in a maj7 chord. this notation system sucks for me, and has an extra process that i dont like. donāt get me wrong i get why its a major 7, it is talking about the interval, but to me it is just conflicting with other terms that the system lays out.
What you are missing I think is the main reference; to the root.
Also, I think triads make sense to you, so you might be trying to make too much out of that connection- yes - they are everywhere. Leveraging those relationships is important, and powerful but itās a side effect of how chords happen via stacked 3rds. Whatās a 5th? Why itās 2 3rdsā¦ whatās a 7th? 3 3rds. Thatās a mouthful to say though isnāt it? How does it sound? Happy, sad orā¦ different. Happy = Major, minor = sad, and different = dominant. From there, the flavours go on to varying degrees of sadness etc how can we communicate this? We need a reference point. A root.
The root gives R 3 5 7, which are all tertially stacked 3rds (major and minor). Thatās 4 notes. A scale has 7, so thereās only 3 left. Available tensions for each chord? 9,11,13 which is basically a 2,4,6 just in the next octave because if itās in the same octaveā¦ you have a scale.
So if you keep stacking 3rds diatonically you will eventually have aā¦ scale. Actually in one chord you could have every chord diatonic to that original chord eventually stacked over top of that one.
Soā¦ now you know that one can find not just 2 triads in a chord, but 7+ if you keep going.
Thatās inefficient, and cumbersome. Simplify, by giving it a name. The key intervals in a chord in relation to the root - is the 3rd and the 7th. No matter what else is going on, THOSE 2 are the ones that matter. 3rd tells you what it is, and the 7th tells you where itās going; you have a choice of 2 for both, and the combinations yield the following fundamental chords. Diatonic to major scale harmony.
Maj7
Min7
Dom7
This ties in with knowing your intervals, key signatures, chord construction, modality and harmonization
Some other 7th chords that are just as important but applicable to melodic minor or harmonic minor harmony or have other altered intervals besides 3rds and 7ths or perhaps have a 3rd/7th that has been substituted with a different interval.
Min7b5
Min/maj7
Dom7sus4
And from there,
Maj6, Min6 diminished 7th etc etc
Even with triads thereās Aug, dim, sus4, sus2 etc.
Hopefully that helps a bit - itās hard to explain one thing without having to explain a lot of things, and an Internet forum isnāt the best medium to explain this lol
Apologies as I am certain I left some things out, and probably just confused you. I think you are missing/misunderstanding some of the basics and some of those gaps leave you asking questionsā¦
My suggestion is to take a long hard look at the fundamentals; theyāve been around for so very long and the basics are kind of the constants even if the school of thought is different.
Notation, and written music fits in here as well.
Good luck!
Iām gonna try to make things WORSe, but only so I can then make things better. 
When you get right down to it, IS a C-E-G even a C major triad? you could just as easily call that a E minor with an omitted 5 and an added flat 6, implying the chord you describe earlier, or a Gsus4add6. And, technically speaking, you wouldnt be wrong to do so - a C major and a Gsus4add6 are exactly the same notes.
Likewise, the Cmaj7 also being a Em with an added b6 (and no omitted 5th this time), itās also a G6add11, a G triad with both a 6th and an 11th included.
This all sounds like madness, but the important thing here is that, at the end of the dayā¦ thereās a difference between āsome kind of C chordā and āsome kind of G chord,ā and that difference is how it relates to the music around it. A chord isnāt just a bunch of pitches played at once; itās a bunch of pitches played at once that are doing something musically. If you play C-E-G-B after an F major and then G major and what youāre hearing and creating is this big resolved pretty sound, itās a Cmaj7. If itās functioning as this kind of dark moody sound instead, its an Emb6. The difference is context, with the single biggest part of that context almost cvertainly being whatever the bass is doing.
Kind of a fun thing about chords one of the posters above alluded to - ājazz chordsā with extensions like this are basically just stacked triads. A C major triad, which itself is composed of a third on top of a third, is extended into some sort of a 7th chord by stacking whatever the appropriate third in the key of C is on top of the final note of the C chord, here a B for a Cmaj7. Add a third on top of that B, and in the key of C if you go a third above the major 7th of B thatās D, the 9th, and you get a Cmaj9. Thatās basically taking your C major triad with an E minor triad on top of it, and adding a G major triad into the mix too. Build a triad on top of THAT, go up a 3rd in the key of C from the 9th degree, D, and you add in F, creating a F diminished triad, which is a super dissonant triad, a minor third on top ofg a minor third, creating a b5ā¦ but if you play it over a C note, suddenly it doesnāt sound so dissonanty because youāre implying an 11th chord.
And, THAT can be all sorts of fun - knowing that, if over a C in the bass you play an E minor arpeggio you imply a Cmaj7, and if you play a G major arpeggio you imply a Cmaj9, and if you play a F diminished arpeggio of all things youāll imply a Cmaj11 chord - that can allow you to create some pretty wild colors out of pretty familiar shapes. Thereās probably a limit to how far you can take this in rock musicā¦ but E minor sweeps over a C in a C major song, or tapping out a B diminished triad on top of a G in the bass in the same key, can imply chords that arenāt technically there.
thats what i am trying to get at, the sound of the minmaj7 is both a minor and augmented at the end of the day, even in context, so to only spell out the interval is leaving out the true point of that chord the augmented higher triad, its not major. the entire aural pronunciation of the chord is minor/augmented.