Dissonant F over C?

bubbie_king · Dec 10, 2006

I have been told from several sources that if you play an F note over a C chord it will sound bad.... However I just don't hear this to be true. Seriously, do I have a bad ear maybe?
I will play an F for a whole mesure over C maj Chord, and I still dont think it sounds bad.

bubbie_king · Dec 10, 2006

I guess I would say F doesnt sound so good if I am resolving to F but to start out it sounds fine. It definatly has tension, but not dissonance for me.

monsieursax · Dec 10, 2006

It's all based on your perspective. To many unseasoned folks, tritone substitutions sound just plain awful. To those enlightened folks, they are interesting.

F is by definition dissonant over a Cmaj chord. How conditioned your ear is to accept it is determined by the sum of your experiences.

Pete Thomas · Dec 10, 2006

Dissonace will also depend on how similar the two sounds are, both in timbre and closenss of pitch (ie which octave)

If you have 3 saxophones playing CEG, you try playing an F a semitone above that E and then tell me its not dissonant.

However if you hold that F over a C, then the chord underneath changes to F or G7, the dissonace is good because its then like a suspension.

EDIT:

Strangely though when arranging, the F/E "crunch" (especially if its inside the chord rather than the top) can actually be more useful than F an octave and a semitone above the E which just sounds dissonant rather than a nice crunch.

Linky Lee · Jan 4, 2007

I think this also depends on the background you are getting your sources from.

An F in a melody on a strong beat from a classical background over a C chord would be considered dissonance even though it sounds ok.

If the F in a melody was used as part of a run, EFG triplet say, that would be fine as it is not accented.

These are accented and un-accented passing notes. Quite a lot of expression can be given by implying dissonance though not actually creating a 'dissonant sound'.

As Pete said with suspensions, this would be acceptable, though for the suspension to occur 'classically' you need to 'prepare' the suspension, normally used by a I chord or an appropriate substitute.

In jazz, you could play an F over a C chord all most all the time, it is part of the C minor blues scale and there are some far more dissonant notes in that than F. F# for instance.