Injazz music, the lydian chord is the major 7♯11 chord,[1]or♯11 chord, the chord built on the first degree of the Lydian mode, the sharp eleventh being a compound augmented fourth. This chord, built on C, is shown below.
This is described as "beautiful" and "modern sounding."[1] The notes that make up the Lydian chord represent five of the seven notes of the Lydian mode, and the ♯11 at the top of the chord is the ♯4 (one octave higher) that distinguishes the Lydian mode from the major scale.
Major 7♯11 may also refer to the Lydian augmented chord, an augmented seventh chord with augmented fourth appearing in the Lydian augmented scale.[2]
In a chord chart, the notation "Lydian" indicates a major family chord with an added augmented eleventh, including maj7♯11, add9♯11, and 6♯11.[1]
Lydian chords may function as subdominantsorsubstitutes for the tonic in major keys.[3] The compound interval of the augmented eleventh (enharmonically equivalent to ♯4, the characteristic interval of the Lydian mode) is used since the simple fourth usually only appears in suspended chords (which replace the third with a natural fourth, for example Csus4). The fifth can be omitted to avoid creating dissonance with the ♯4; this is usually not specified in chord naming.
The dominant 7♯11 or Lydian dominant (C7♯11) comprises the notes:
(Note that in jazz lead sheet notation, upper extensions (intervals beyond the 7th) aren't named unless they are altered; alternatively, when including the 9th and 13th this chord could be called a C13♯11.)
Basing this chord on the pitch C results in the pitches:
The same chord may also be voiced:
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".
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