In jazz music, the lydian chord is the major 711 chord,Juergensen, Chris (2006). ''The Infinite Guitar'', p.50. . or 11 chord, the chord built on the first degree of the Lydian mode, the sharp eleventh being a

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...

augmented fourth Augment or augmentation may refer to: Language *Augment (Indo-European), a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages *Augment (Bantu languages), a morpheme that is prefixed to the noun class prefix of nouns i ...

. This chord, built on C, is shown below. : This is described as "beautiful" and "modern sounding." The notes that make up the Lydian chord represent five of the seven notes of the Lydian mode, and the 11 at the top of the chord is the 4 (one octave higher) that distinguishes the Lydian mode from the

major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double i ...

. Major 711 may also refer to the Lydian augmented chord, an

augmented seventh chord The augmented seventh chord, or seventh augmented fifth chord, or seventh sharp five chord is a seventh chord composed of a root, major third, augmented fifth, and minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7).Garner, Robert (2007). ''Mel Bay Presents Essential Musi ...

with augmented fourth appearing in the

Lydian augmented scale Lydian may refer to: * Lydians, an ancient people of Anatolia * Lydian language, an ancient Anatolian language * Lydian alphabet ** Lydian (Unicode block) * Lydian (typeface), a decorative typeface * Lydian dominant scale In music, the acoustic ...

. : In a chord chart the notation, "Lydian" indicates a major family chord with an added augmented eleventh, including maj711, add911, and 611.

Harmonic function

Lydian chords may function as

subdominant In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...

s or substitutes for the tonic in major keys.Miller, Scott (2002). ''Mel Bay Getting Into Jazz Fusion Guitar'', p.44. . The interval of the sixth is used even though it is described after other

compound intervals In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or ha ...

, and perhaps should also be a compound interval (i.e., thirteenth). The interval is considered to be the compound interval (i.e., thirteenth) when appearing with the Maj7th in the initial chord.The dominant 711 or

Lydian dominant In music, the acoustic scale, overtone scale, Lydian dominant scale, Lydian 7 scale, or the Pontikonisian Scale is a seven-note synthetic scale. : This differs from the major scale in having an augmented fourth and a minor seventh scale degre ...

(C⁷¹¹) comprises the notes: :r, 3, (5), 7, (9), 11, (13) Basing this chord on the pitch C results in the pitches: :C, E, G, B, (D), F, (A) The same chord type may also be voiced: :C, E, B, F, A, D, F This voicing omits the perfect fifth (G) and raises the major ninth (D) by an octave. The augmented eleventh (F) is also played twice in two different registers. This is known as " doubling".

References

{{Chords Eleventh chords