In jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, the lydian chord is the maj711 chord, or 11 chord, the chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

 found on the first degree of the lydian mode

Lydian mode

The Lydian musical scale is a rising pattern of pitches comprising three whole tones, a semitone, two more whole tones, and a final semitone. This sequence of pitches roughly describes the fifth of the eight Gregorian modes, known as Mode V or the authentic mode on F, theoretically using B but in...

, the sharp eleventh

Eleventh

In music or music theory an eleventh is the note eleven scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the eleventh....

 being a compound augmented fourth

Tritone

In classical music from Western culture, the tritone |tone]]) is traditionally defined as a musical interval composed of three whole tones. In a chromatic scale, each whole tone can be further divided into two semitones...

. It is described as, "beautiful," and, "modern sounding". The 7#11 chord generally resolves down by half step

Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....

 while the enharmonically equivalent 7(5) generally resolves up a fourth to the tonic

Tonic (music)

In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...

 being a dominant chord

Dominant (music)

In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale, called "dominant" because it is next in importance to the tonic,and a dominant chord is any chord built upon that pitch, using the notes of the same diatonic scale...

 (11=4=5, see octave equivalency).

Major 7(11) may also refer to the Lydian augmented chord, an augmented seventh chord with augmented fourth appearing in the Lydian augmented scale

Lydian augmented scale

In music, the Lydian augmented scale is the third mode of the ascending melodic minor scale.Starting on C, the notes would be as follows: C - D - E - F# - G# - A - B - C'Generically the whole and half steps are: - W - W - W - W - H - W - H -...

 .

In a chord chart the notation "Lydian" indicates a major family chord with an added augmented eleventh, including maj711, add9(11), and 6(11).

Harmonic function

Lydian chords may function as subdominants

Subdominant

In music, the subdominant is the technical name for 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 tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. It is also the note immediately...

 or substitutes

Chord substitution

In music theory, chord substitution is the use of a chord in the place of another related chord in a chord progression. Jazz musicians often substitute chords in the original progression to create variety and add interest to a piece. The substitute chord must have some harmonic quality and degree...

 for the tonic

Tonic

Tonic may refer to:*Tonic water, a drink traditionally containing quinine*Soft drink, a carbonated beverage*Tonic , the response of a muscle fiber or nerve ending typified by slow, continuous action...

 in major keys.

Lydian (C^Δ11):

r 3 5 7 (9) 11 (6))

• The Lydian chord has a peculiarity, in that placing the root both above and below the augmented eleventh creates an unpleasant dissonance of a tritone
  Tritone
  In classical music from Western culture, the tritone |tone]]) is traditionally defined as a musical interval composed of three whole tones. In a chromatic scale, each whole tone can be further divided into two semitones...
  
  .
• The interval of the sixth is used even though it is described after other compound intervals, and perhaps should also be a compound interval (i.e., 13th). However, convention in Jazz dictates that when describing the major sixth, the simple interval, i.e., 6 is almost invariably used instead of the compound interval, i.e., 13. This helps avoid confusion with the dominant thirteenth.

The dominant 7th 11 or Lydian dominant (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

Doubling

Doubling may refer to:*in math:**multiplication by 2**doubling the cube, a geometric problem**doubling time, the period of time required for a quantity to double in size or value**doubling map**period-doubling bifurcation***in music:...

".