An altered note is a note which is a deviation from the canonical chord tone.

Those are notated in a similar manner to inversions, except that the bass note is not necessarily a chord tone.

The band chose to use more funk by using extended chord tones, a dramatic pause eighteen seconds into the song and other methods as well.

The changing tone functions as a way to decorate, or embellish, a chord tone and are also used to provide rhythmic interest between common tones.

The next step is learning to improvise melodic lines using scales and chord tones.

Because any chord tone of the diminished seventh can be heard as the root, the tensions are not numbered as ninth, eleventh and so on.

Dominant 7th chord tones (E7) in bars 8-9.

There are a number of ways to target a chord tone.

This means playing the note a semitone above or below one of the chord tones.

It is also the only context where the major seventh is considered a tension, rather than a chord tone.