Is this right??

[jenjenwaha]

Daug7(#9) I'm playing it like this

LH  RH
 D/ Eb Gb Bb C D

Is that right? 

[T-Block]

You can play the chord however you want to, just as long as you have all the notes necessary to call it that chord.  Since you say the chord is a Daug 7 (#9), then the notes you need are:  D-F#-A#-C-E#   And from the looks of it, you have most of the notes there, so let's see what you missing:

D Eb Gb Bb C = D Eb F# A# C

you don't need the Eb cuz that isn't even a member of the chord

D Gb Bb C = D F# A# C

it looks like you are missing your #9, which is E#/F, so let's add it

D Gb Bb C F = D F# A# C E#


Now that we have all our notes present, u just need help playing it in a way that sounds good.  If i were you, I would play it like this:

D / Gb-Bb-C-F
or
D / F#-A#-C-E#

Does that work?

[jenjenwaha]

That works!   

The song is in the key of G minor so that's why I used flats to spell out the chord.  Because it's a D chord should I use sharps to 'spell' out the notes?  What is correct?

[ddwilkins]

That works!   

The song is in the key of G minor so that's why I used flats to spell out the chord.  Because it's a D chord should I use sharps to 'spell' out the notes?  What is correct?

yes the correct way is using sharps.

[B3Wannabe]

Actually....if the song is in G minor, the correct way is to use flats, since the key signature would be in flats, but it would only have 2 flats (Bb and Eb), so how you modify any other note would be up to you, but flats would still look better and cause less confusion.

D / Gb-Bb-C-F

Looks better in G minor than...

D / F#-A#-C-E#

[jenjenwaha]

 

Thanks for cunfussing me LOL!!  Ok so which is the CORRECT way?

[rspindy]

Yes, Sharps are the correct route.  Gmin is the one quirky scale in our Major/Minor system in that it contains both flats and sharps.

All diatonic scales (our normal Major and Minor scales) contain 7 notes, one for each letter of the musical alphabet.  If a letter is used twice, it is no longer diatonic.

The basic layout for any G scale is G A B C D E F G

Now of course to make it Major, we raise the F to F# which is the leading tone (It "leads" to the tonic) so G major looks like this:   G A B C D E F# G

The telling note that determines major or minor is the third (B in this case).  If the B is Bb then it is a G minor mode.

Convention has said that the Natural minor or Aeolian mode is the sixth mode of the major scale a minor 3rd above the root (relative major).  Therefore convention has placed G minor with the same key signature as used for Bb Major.

G min (natural) looks like this:  G A Bb C D Eb F G.   But the natural minor scale leaves us with a Vm7 chord (Dm7, not D7) so the powers that be raised the 7th degree so that it would again become the leading tone.  F becomes F#

This is the Harmonic Minor:  G A Bb C D Eb F# G.  This gives us a dominant V7 (D7).  If we were to call it Gb, we would have 2 G's (an octave and a diminished octave) and no F.

But all was not completely well for the Harmonic Minor then left us with an augmented 3rd between the 6th and 7th degrees (Eb - F#) which some folks thought was unsingable and possibly the Devil's work -- the early church was neither fond of augmentation or diminution when it came to harmony and melody.  So, the powers that be decided to raise the 6th degree (Eb - E) which gives us the ascending melodic minor:  G A Bb C D E F# G.  The descending scale when using melodic minor is usually the natural minor.

Of course, it took a long way around to get there when all they had to do was just change the B to Bb in the major scale and be done with it.

Now, as far as the spelling of the D aug 7 # 9.

Chords in tonal harmony are based off of stacked thirds (exceptions are the sus 4, add 2, add 6), so the basic layout for any D chord is D F A C E G B (1 3 5 7 9 11 13)  In this instance, we are faced with a dominant chord to the 9th (to E)

The basic dominant 9 - D9 (or D7 with an added 9) is D F# A C E.  Now we follow the instructions -- augment means to raise the pitch -- in this case the pitch to be raised is understood as the 5th or A becoming A# (Bb would be the b6 or b13) and # the 9 which is also raising the pitch so E becomes E# (F nat would be the minor 3rd not the raised 9).  The proper spelling is D F# A# C E# and it contains the three elements that identify it as the dominant of G major or G minor -- D (the V) F#(the leading tone) and the C (making the tritone with F#)  The natural resolution of a tritone with this spelling is F# up to G and C down to B (or Bb in G minor).

The instructions Aug and # always mean to raise a particular scale degree which either is to # a natural, ## a # make natural a flat, or make bb a b.  Dim or b always means to lower a degree which means to make b a natural, make bb a b, make natural a #, or make # a ##.

Your chord is also sometimes written in lead sheets as a D7 #5 #9 or even D7alt.  The improvising scale commonly associated with it is the Diminished/Whole-tone (sometimes called the altered scale) which for D is thus:
D     Eb           E#      F#     G#       A#   C    D
1   b2/b9     #2/#9    3   #4/#11   #5     7    1

[rspindy]

Your chord is also sometimes written in lead sheets as a D7 #5 #9 or even D7alt.  The improvising scale commonly associated with it is the Diminished/Whole-tone (sometimes called the altered scale) which for D is thus:
D     Eb           E#      F#     G#       A#   C    D
1   b2/b9     #2/#9    3   #4/#11   #5     7    1

P.S.  I forgot to mention that the diminished/whole tone scale is NOT a diatonic scale, it is a synthetic scale.  That is why it has two 2nd degrees and no 6th degree.  The first half is the Half/Whole diminished scale (D - F#) and the second half is the whole-tone scale (F# - D).

[T-Block]

That works!  

The song is in the key of G minor so that's why I used flats to spell out the chord.  Because it's a D chord should I use sharps to 'spell' out the notes?  What is correct?

Thanks for cunfussing me LOL!!  Ok so which is the CORRECT way?

Technically, either way is correct.  Here are some guidelines: 

1. If you are just naming a chord, then use flats and sharps associated with the root of the chord

2. If you are in a key that uses flats, then name the notes of chords with flats

3. If you are in a key that uses sharps, then name the notes of chords with sharps

So, since you say you are in the key of G minor, which has 2 flats as the key signature, then you should name the chord using flats.  That doesn't make it any more or less correct if you named the chord with sharps, it just looks a little more better to name notes using the key signature, which is what B3 was saying ealier.

Are you clear now?

[jenjenwaha]

Yeah 

Thanks everyone!