Advanced Chords: One Rule, Every Chord in Existence

The short answer: "advanced" chords aren't a different category from major and minor — they're the same stacking process, carried further. Gitori's Advanced Chords course teaches the one generative rule behind every chord symbol you'll ever see, from a plain triad to a C13♯11.

The rule that never changes

A chord is a root plus a stack of 3rds — that's it. Two 3rds make a triad (Basic Chords). A third 3rd makes a 7th chord. Keep stacking and you climb through 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, each one just another 3rd on top of the last. Every "exotic" chord you've seen on a lead sheet is this same ladder, possibly with a rung altered (♭9, ♯11, ♭13) or a rung skipped (a "6" chord swaps the stacking order; a "sus" chord replaces the 3rd itself).

Once the ladder is explicit, a chord symbol like Am9 stops being a lookup-table entry and becomes an instruction: A minor triad, add the ♭7, add the 9. No new chord ever requires new memorization — only the ladder, applied one rung further.

What "advanced" actually buys you

• Extensions (9, 11, 13): color tones added above the 7th, common in jazz and modern pop voicings.
• Alterations (♭9, ♯9, ♯11, ♭13): single rungs bent for tension, the backbone of jazz harmony's spicier corners.
• Every naming edge case explained by the rule — why a "6" chord isn't part of the 3rds ladder at all, why "add9" differs from "9" (it skips the 7th), why "sus" has no 3rd to begin with.

What the course covers

The full stacking system from triads through 13ths, how alterations and extensions are named and notated, and the handful of naming exceptions (6th chords, add chords, sus chords) that don't fit the ladder and need to be learned as their own small category.

Before you start

Basic Chords and 7th Chords are required — this course is those two, generalized. Degrees & Intervals supplies the counting system the whole ladder is built from.