Soul and R&B
Sevenths and ninths are the standard here, not the exception. In rock a triad is normal and a seventh is an effect; in soul it is the other way round, and that single difference is the fastest way to move an arrangement from nearly to right.
- maj9 standard
- backbeat
- blue notes on top
In which styles
- Soul
- R&B
- Neo-soul
- Gospel
In short
The tonic is a maj7 or a maj9 rather than a triad, and the gospel inheritance is audible in every chord. The harmony is usually clear major or Dorian minor while the melody keeps borrowing notes from the blues, sliding between the minor and major third over the same chord.
Warm and slightly unresolved at rest. Nothing in a soul chord snaps shut, which is why a vocal can keep moving over it.
How the style works
The backbeat is the foundation, and it did not come from rock: accents on two and four, usually snare, often reinforced with claps or tambourine, straight out of Afro-American music and rhythm and blues.
Where you run into this
- A tonic chord that is never a plain triad
- A singer gliding between the minor and major third
- Handclaps reinforcing two and four
What you leave out
Bare triads, which turn the arrangement into pop immediately. And mechanical quantisation: the feel depends on players sitting fractionally off the grid, and straightening that removes the style.
Keep going
Everything in styles
- Funk and Disco
- Soul and R&B
- Reggaeton and Afrobeats
- Blues