As heard in Cool #9 by Joe Sateiani
Bb/Cmi
on Stick play Bb on the treble side right hand, and Cmi on the left bass side
Result a cool Cmi11


Steve A

Thanks Steve! a great birthday present!! lol

Unwrap it.
I hope it fits

SA

lol Who the heck is this "Joe Sateiani" cat? And who the #@$@# does he think he is going and naming a tune after one of the great Joe Satriani's songs? (From back when Joe still had hair! ooo!)

Arrrrrrr!!

I'm trying it Steve but it sounds a bit 'discordant' to my ear. Maybe it's because it's an 11th? I do like the sound of the polychords using the 9th's, they seem more melodic sounding to me. Probably cause I'm such a music noob still lol!

BbDF over CEbG

Bb= min7
D = 9 (maj2)
F = 11 (P4)

C= Root
Eb=min3
G=5

If it sounds too dissonant, drop the Cmin an octave lower or ditch the 5th. Best bet though, is to raise the Bbmaj triad an octave, or at the least grab a different and higher sounding inversion over it. Context is everything. Better yet, Transpose this thing to Aminor, and record yourself jamming it, and send it to me at 110 bpm... (G/Amin = GBD over ACE)

Perhaps try making up a little groove with maybe a Cmin triad over Cmin, and THEN a Bb triad over Cmin.
Like so:
|:Cmin/Cmin | Bb/Cmin

Although me personally, I would look at it as such;
Like so:
|:Cmin | Cmin7add9add11:|

(Remember though that I'm nobody, and my advice will take you to the deepest, darkest holes of 'suck' where you will be forced to listen to my favourite band for eternity; Abba.)

Umm, OK, I slammed this together real quick I just noodled some stuff over Cmin, made it up as I went.

I like a C Dorian mode over this; that is CDEbFGABb (Otherwise known as good old BbMajor)
The "superimposing" of scale tonalities over different chords works kind of in similar fashion to 'polychords'. Fun, and it sounds cool...


And I of course noodled a bit with a Cmin Pentatonic thing, before jumping into the Cmin Triad with a Cmin triad over it, as well as a Bb Maj triad. Thanks to Steve Adelson for sharing this.

Anyways;

Yes it can be a bit dissonant.
The combined notes alphabetically are Bb C D Eb F G (Bb Major scale without A)
so there are lots of second intervals if voiced poorly.
A few ways to vary.....spread the chords out, arpeggate, use effects.
After the initial melody on Satch's Cool #9, he whacks this Cm11 combo pretty hard.

Steve A

When I hear that chord, it screams "modal jam" Haha I am thinking that listening to Cool#9 is a great way to get your ears "used" to it... A good starting point. Or grab a guitar and take a look at the notes if you barre straight across at the 8th fret n standard tuning.

CFBbEbGC well holy crap! That is a Cmin7 with an added 11th, Cmin11. Otherwise known as C minor Pentatonic. The open strings on a guitar are tuned to EADGBE, which is an Emin11 chord, otherwise known as Emin Pentatonic scale. Ever wonder why guitarists play Pentatonic so much? It's in our tuning/DNA... lol Perhaps that particular chord is not so alien and bizarre after all, it's right under our noses the whole time, and used heavily everywhere...

Interesting how stacked 4ths lead to a minor 3rd eventually? CFBbEb The 4th "4th" is actually a minor 3rd. And on guitar, the tuning is 4 "4ths" then a "maj3" before resuming 4ths... Just an observation...

Anyways, a lot of fun, that chord leads to a lot of ideas both rhythm and lead playing...