[u]My point in a nutshell.[/u]

Sorry if it seems like I am being unkind. What seems to start of being a friendly debate always turns into my theory is all wrong because, in this case, I don't see every chord with a tri-tone being a dominant chord. Or diminished chord. A minor 6th is chief example of what I am saying. This chord is neither a dominant chord nor a diminished chord, yet it carries a tri-tone. A minor 6 chord can’t be a dominant 9 with the 5th in the bass, because it would be missing the root note making this label incorrect. G9 with the 5 in the bass would be D, G, B, F, A, G and a Dm6 consist of D, F, A, and B. There is no G in a D minor 6 chord. No Match! The minor 6 chord and diminished chord is even farther off from the truth. Again the Dm6 is made up of D, F, A, and B. The tri-tone is clearly F-B, but the middle tone would have to be Ab to make this correct. The A is natural in the Gm6 chord, not flat. Note to the side, in a F dim chord the B would be wrote as Cb, giving it the b5 spelling. Although this is less than addressable to prove my point. Again, No Match! Now the function accepted for a minor 6 chord is a suspension. Illustrated in my reply to Chris about suspension, the i-iv-i or i-iv6-i is a common suspension in the minor key. The same for the chord progression at the bottom of my last post (ii-V7) is also a suspension. Written as ii6-V9, which is a sus2. Clearly a tri-tone exists within a minor 6th chord, and just as clearly it’s function in any case is that of a suspension. Even when it exists within a dominant chord or diminished chord it’s function remains as a suspension. Remember the chord progressions I wrote earlier I-V7-I, suspension, i-iio-i-viio, suspension. I don’t know why I didn’t write this before. haha Hopefully you see my point now griphon. I think we were both right on some ends depending on how we look at things.