The minor-major ninth flat sixth chord extends the mM7♭6 / mM7(♭13) idea by adding a major ninth (1-♭3-5-7-9-♭13). You keep the bittersweet frame of a minor third with a major seventh, then widen the stack with a singing ninth while the lowered sixth/♭13 adds shadow. It is a specialist color: dramatic, cinematic, and common in modern jazz and contemporary scoring when a tonic minor needs maximum harmonic information without resolving.
Construction
Think mM9 plus ♭13 (same pitch class as ♭6). Choose spellings for readability and register separation.
Usage
Brief spotlight sonorities, film scoring, and jazz reharmonizations on static minor centers.
Examples
- Modern jazz tonic colors on melodic minor tunes
- Film cues for bittersweet tension
- Neo-soul pads that avoid plain m9 or mM7
Play
Thin the voicing; separate ♭13 from the major seventh and ninth across registers.
Ear-training cues
mM7 plus 9 with a ♭13 shadow in the stack.
