I am working my way through music theory. I play acoustic guitar - or try to.
One of the exercises was in C and mentioned a Fmaj9#11 chord. So I dutifully worked out the notes for the chord and was pretty proud of myself figuring out F A C E G...but I wasn't sure of the last note.
Because it's in the key of C I would have expected the 11th note to be B#. Since B is the 11th note (counting up from F in the key of C).
But it's not - it's B (according to what I can find on the net).
Then I realise that a Fmaj9#11 chord is going to be different depending on the key.
If it was in the key of F then the 11th note is B flat. So that would make sense.
But in the key of C the 11th note is B natural. To sharp it would be B#.
So if someone says - play a Fmaj9#11 then one would need to ask what key one is in?
And then why doesn't my Fmaj9#11 in the key of C not have a B# in it?
Thank you
Update: Thanks for your help everyone.
I had to take this away and think about it for a while. But finally it made sense.
You see I learned what I know from a video, working in the key of C. He showed us how to add 3rds and 5ths to each note of the scale. Based on the key of C.
e.g. CEG DFA EGB etc
And the result was that D, E, A, B had minor thirds - so they were minor chords. That was the end of the video.
I figured that we work out chords based on they key of the scale. Which kind of works. Until it doesn't.
But instead we work out the chords from the major scale of the chord, regardless of key. So for minor chords we would flatten the thirds. Kind of the same result but easier to understand. Especially when the chords get a bit more complex.
Plenty of time to work on it with this damned virus too.
But do please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks!