Do melody notes over chords basically change the underlying harmony and the chord extension?
Lets say you have a bunch of chords you play a melody over.
If the melody notes are a part of the underlying chord it sounds more consonant.
But if the melody notes over the chord, are not a part of the chord, they essentially change the harmony (add extensions).
Lets say we have a G minor chord, and the melody note A occurs, it basicly changes the chord to Gmadd9, even if it's for a brief second.
Is this a valid way of viewing things? Or am I over analysing?
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They're often passing notes, and as such, don't really change the basic underlying harmony. If that was the case, a bar may contain not just a simple chord, but several chords with extensions, or even different chords. Yes, it could be portrayed that way, but what are the benefits? By just playing the extensions, those 'new chords' are being recognised, but are usually so ephemeral that it's not worth mentioning in the chord written in that bar. An Am9 chord still is basically an Am chord, but then is it Am add9 or Am7 with a 9th extension?
Look at 'Laura'. Most of the chords are just triads, but the tune is around the 9th of the chord a lot of the time. The chords don't reflect this.
An interesting idea, but unwieldy in operation. It's a valid way to look at things, but important academically rather than practically.
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