http://www.hearandplay.com/products

After last week’s e-mail, I received the most replies ever.
Here’s another one I think will really help you (VERY IMPORTANT
STRATEGIES BELOW).It’s from a gentleman named Mark.

***Comment From Mark H.***

Hi Jermaine,

Last week’s e-mail was totally awesome! This number system
stuff is quite new to me but you’ve totally made it plain. You
certainly have a knack for breaking stuff down and I want to
thank you for taking the time to do this.

On one of your blog posts, you talked about primary and
secondary chords. You also talked about how each tone of the
scale has its own chord that is usually played.

I’m having a hard time remember all these chords and where they
go. Let’s not even talk about all 12 keys because I can’t
remember even one key. Please help!

Mark H Dallas, TX

>>> My Comments and explanations back to Mark (read closely as
you can get a lot out of what I had to say to him):

Hey Mark,

Appreciate your positive feedback!

I have a really easy way for you to remember all the primary
and secondary chords and it won’t take that long to master it.

All it takes is for you to know your major chords. Like I
teach musicians all the time, you can play both minor scales and
minor chords by understanding major chords and their
relationships to minor chords.

Don’t worry, I’ll explain…

Since you mentioned primary and secondary chords, let me
touch on those for a minute.

Every major key has what we call primary and secondary
chords. The primary chords of any given key are the 1st, 4th,
and 5th chords. These numbers come from the scale. In the key of
C, C is the 1st tone of the scale, D is the 2nd tone of the
scale, E is the 3rd tone, and so forth.

So the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of the key of C major are C,
F, and G (in that order). They are always major chords. These
chords will occur in music the most. The 1st chord of the scale
is the key that you’re in so it’s always going to feel like
“home.” This chord will begin and end your songs. When a
non-musical audience hears the 1-chord, they know to clap
because the song feels at rest… at home… at peace. It’s the
end and they don’t have to be musically-inclined to know that.

The 4th chord of the scale, the next primary chord, is like
being away from home but at a close relative’s house. It’s ‘home
away from home.’ There is a very strong connection between the
1st tone (real home) and the 4th tone (home away from home).
That’s why countless songs go from “the 1 to the 4.” It’s one of
the MOST POPULAR movements in music, hands down.

So, if the 1 is ‘being at home’ and the 4 is being ‘away from
home,’ then the 5 is ‘coming back home.’ The 5 has a strong
connection and tendency to lead back home to the 1st chord. When
you tell your kids to get in the car because we have to go home,
that’s the 5 coming home to the 1 in music.

So now that you have a good understanding of the primary
chords (1, 4, 5), the secondary chords are EVERYTHING ELSE…

That literally leaves the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th tones of
the scale. And the good news is three of those are simple minor
chords that can be played by understanding the three primary
major chords we just covered.

Let’s go to the key of C major:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

You already know that C major, F major, and G major are
primary chords.

But what you probably don’t know is that the three minor
secondary chords are relatives to the primary chords. They are
like sisters and brothers, if you will.

(Now this is like 5 chapters of a music theory book covered
in one e-mail but let’s go for it.)

Every major key has what you call a relative minor. In other
words, every major key has a minor key that “pairs” with it.
This minor key has the same notes in its scale as the major
key… it has the same sharps and flats as well.

You can pretty much call them brother-sister scales. One
being major and one being minor. They share EVERYTHING.

For C major, that relative minor is ‘A minor.’

Now before we delve a little deeper into this, let’s look at
the C major and A minor scales:

C major

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

A minor

A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Do they use different notes or the same notes?

Answer: same notes

Do they both have the same number of flats and sharps?

Answer: Yes, because C has no flats/sharps and A minor has
no flats/sharps.

They are relatives, that’s why! They are closely related. They
share the same house, sort of!

Every major scale has one of these. In fact, you can create the
“A minor” scale just by understanding the C major scale.

Here’s what you do:

(I started to make bullet points but this is too simple so I’ll
just say it)…

Just go to the 6th tone of your major scale. That’s it. Just
play your major scale starting on the 6th tone until you get
back to that same 6th tone.

C major

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ok, this is the C major scale. I’m just going up an extra
octave with this example (that’s why you see double the notes).

What tone is the 6th tone?

Answer: A

So what do you do?

Answer: Play this same scale without changing ANY notes from A
to A. Like this: A B C D E F G A

What does that give you?

Answer: The “A minor scale”

Bam! You’re done! Now you know how to play the “A minor” scale.
And the best part is that you don’t have to remember any new
scales. You can “piggy back” off what you already know.

That’s why it’s important to know the number system because
shorctus like this are EVERYWHERE. This is what I cover in my
Starter 702 course. If I were you, I’d pick it up. It’s only $17
bucks.

http://www.hearandplay.com/playbyear.html

So now let’s go back to this whole ‘primary and secondary chord’
stuff.

Basically, just how you learned the “A minor” scale from
knowing your C major scale, you can do the same with CHORDS.

You just take a C major chord (C+E+G) and put “A” on your bass
and you’ve got yourself an “A minor 7″ chord. How cool is that?

Just how you piggy-backed on the C scale to play the “A” minor
scale, you do the same to play the A minor 7 chord. Crazy huh?

You can do this with any major chord.

F major chord = F+A+C
6th tone of F major = D

Playing D on your left hand as the bass and F+A+C on your right
hand creates a D minor 7 chord.

G major chord = G+B+D
6th tone of G major = E (if you were in the key of G, this
would be the 6th tone — gotta know your scales and numbers
like we talked about in my last e-mail).

Playing E on your left hand as the bass and G+B+D on your right
hand creates an E minor 7 chord.

It’s simple. So if you know all 12 major chords, now you should
easily know all 12 minor chords by doing this easy exercise.

The magic number in this case is “6.”

Note: There are magic numbers for other stuff too. But for minor
relationships, it’s 6. See my course below for details.

So if C major, F major, and G major are the primary chords of
the key of C, then you can apply this same idea to learn your
minor secondary chords.

1st, 4th, and 5th = primary chords

2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th = secondary chords

And as you now know, the primary chords help you to play the
secondary chords.

2nd tone = D… but all you gotta do is play an F major chord
over D to play a D minor 7 chord. Easy!

3rd tone = E… but all you gotta do is play a G major chord
over E to play an E minor 7 chord. Even easier!

6th tone = A… but all you gotta do is play a C major chord
over A to play an A minor 7 chord. Bam!

So in other words…

The 1st and 6th tones pair up.
The 2nd and 4th tones pair up.
The 3rd and 5th tones pair up.

That takes care of EVERY tone of the scale pretty much. The
only one left is the 7th tone of the scale. That won’t be a
major or minor chord… it’s a diminished or half-diminished
chord depending on whether you’re going to use 3 or 4 notes to
play it. But unfortunately, I’ve spent way too much time on this
and won’t have enough time to cover it.

However, check out this very affordable course to get the low
down on all this…

To learn other unique techniques and strategies you can use
to master chords and take your playing to the next level, go to
the link below. I recommend either my 300-pg course or my
Starter 702 audio course (or BOTH). The Starter 702 course is
cheap… a steal… $17 bucks and covers much of what I’ve
talked about here… but with my VOICE and piano explaining
everything. If you’re serious, check it out:

http://www.hearandplay.com/playbyear.html

If you were a bit helped by the words I’ve written here,
then this audio course will REALLY be helpful because you’ll
hear me talking about all this stuff for 2 whole hours,
reinforcing every little concept over and over. You’ll like it.

Talk soon,

Jermaine

Flat 9, flat 5, flat 7th… this stuff is confusing — and for that matter the ADD 9, ADD 5, ADD 6, and the #9, #5 as well.  I guess I should also throw in the half-diminished chords, whatever those are.  I’m still trying to figure it out.  It all sounds beautiful but it seems that a #9 would be a minor note and a flat 7th is still just a regular 7th.  It’s hard to understand why the notation has to be so complicated.  Maybe things will become more apparent as I go along and learn more.

Anyway, I hope to understand more of this as I go along and I appreciate what you have done.  God bless,

—————–

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your question.

It is understandable why you would be confused as some of the upper level courses just tell you what they are rather than covering their construction from the beginning (that’s for the 300pg course and the starter stuff to cover, which do a fine job btw).

But just to answer some of your questions.

Flat 7th just let’s you know to take the natural 7th (which is B in the key of C) and flat it one half step. If I just said “7,” you should automatically think B, not B flat. But the minute we say “flat 7th” then that means take the 7 and flat it (lower it) a half step… aka, “dominant 7th” or “minor 7th.”

Knowing numbers is crucial. It’s probably the best thing you can learn. Knowing your scales as numbers.

9 is basically the 2nd tone of the scale
11 is basically the 4th tone of the scale
13 is basically the 6th tone of the scale

How are they determined?

Just number your scale up two octaves

C = 1
D = 2
E = 3
F = 4
G = 5
A = 6
B = 7
C = 8
D = 9
E = 10
F = 11
G = 12
A = 13
B = 14

But if you think about it, D is 9 (sure enough when playing extended chords) but the shortcut is to just immediately think “2″ (but up an octave usually). Same with the 11th, which is the 4th, and the 13th which is essentially the 6th.

When you’re instructed to “add 9,” that’s basically what you’re doing. You’re taking the original chord and adding whatever the 9th tone of the scale is. That’s it. Same with 13 or 6 or 2.

As for the “alterations,” (b9, #5, etc)… just like you flat the 7th tone (per the instructions above), you do the same with the 9th and other extended tones. Very simple. So if I’m in the key of C and instructed to play a b9 (aka - “flat 9″), I would first determine my 9th tone (D), and then lower it one-half step to Db. NEVER CHANGE THE ALPHABET LETTER when you’re doing this. For example, if I used C#, I would no longer be flatting the “9th tone” — instead I’d be raising the 8th tone (C) to C#, and that’s not what the instructions call for. So keep that in mind.

Also, yes, sharping the 9th tone is like playing a minor chord. But the big difference is that you cannot call it a minor chord because it still may be a major or dominant chord. In other words, a C7 #9#5 may still have an “E” in there (which makes this chord either major or dominant). What we are doing is essentially adding the 9 and then sharping it. So it’s giving you a chord with both a major third “E” and a “D#” (which isn’t quite a minor third because if you understand theory, that would be called an augmented second if it were played in the lower octave). So that’s why you need the alterations. Sometimes, though, you can just say “augmented” instead of #5… this is a case where sometimes they are pretty much synonyms. But be careful.

Let’s move on to your question about the “half diminished seventh” chord. But first, let’s back up and cover a more common chord first. This will help us to lead to the construction of the half-diminished seventh chord.

A diminished seventh chord is basically constructed of 3 minor third intervals.

It is important to note that:

Major third intervals have 4 half steps (like from C to E)
Minor third intervals, on the other hand, have 3 half steps (like from C to Eb)

You basically construct a diminished 7th chord by taking 3 minor thirds and piling them on top of each other…

C# to E is a minor third.
E to G is another minor third.
G to Bb is another minor third.

C# E G Bb would be a C# diminished 7 chord, for example.

For a lesson on why I used the notes above to name this chord, visit this link (you will use a mixture of sharps and flats for chord like this… see details at the link above).

Now, this leads me to the half diminished 7th chord.

The only difference is that you are taking the last “minor third” in the equation and making it a major third (which means you need to make it bigger by one half step since major thirds have 4 half steps in them). So instead of playing Bb, you’ll be playing “B.” Thus - C# E G B.

A half-diminished 7 chord is basically the same as a minor 7th chords with a flat 5 (aka - “min7 b5″). This is another way to look at half diminished 7th chords — just take a regular minor 7th chord, locate the 5th tone of the scale and lower that tone a half step.

Whewww! My fingers are tired.

I hope this answers all your questions!

***********
QUESTION
***********

Thank you Jermaine. Of course if you can answer the question, and I’m sure you can, please feel free. The question is “how do I identify the chord progression in any song?” I learned how to play “the organ” very differently, but hearandplay has helped me tremendously. The number system has just opened a whole new world of playing for me. However, I still struggle sometimes in identifying the chord progressions especially with all the other instruments layered on top of the progression. Once I view the sessions in GMTC or watch one of the DVDs it becomes so simple, but trying to do it on my own sometimes is challenging. Any assistance you can provide is appreciated.

By the way, I had no clue there was so much footage in the GMTC. There’s sooooo much material there. I’m proud to be a gold member and these will not only me, but everyone for a lifetime. Thank you.

dteel

***************
My Response
***************

Hi Deboarah,

That is a very good question.

And off the top of my head, here are a number of things you can do to get good at finding the chord progressions at work in any song.

1) Change your approach from following the piano to following the bass.

You would think the piano player is what you’re listening for (and once you get good at doing this, you can), but it’s far more easier to figure out what the bass player is doing.

2) Find the Key

I know I put “follow the bass” as #1 but I did that because it’s probably the most important thing you can know about determining chord progressions (many people follow the piano when most of the time, you can hardly hear the piano).

I would start by determining the key to the song. If you’re not good at this yet, I recommend watchin this 30-minute video I did on the topic: http://www.hearandplay.com/main/video-how-to-find-the-key-of-any-song

You see, once you find the key, it narrows down your options and makes following the bass much easier.

So instead of trying to “randmomly” pick out bass notes with no systematic process, now you’re focusing on a particular key.

3) Know what tones are more important.

Let’s face it…

Not all tones are created equal in a particular key.

(Unlike society, every tone gets their time to shine, though, depending on what key you’re in.)

For example, here’s the C major scale:

C D E F G A B C

Of course, I like to number it right away. Thinking of scales as “numbers” is probably one of the most important skills you can learn when it comes to picking out chord progressions.

C=1
D=2
E=3
F=4
G=5
A=6
B=7

Now, in this key, 3 of these tones are going to be super special. Everything will move “towards” them usually.

They are the 1st tone, the 4th tone, and the 5th tone.

If you’ve heard the words “primary chords,” well, they are built off these tones.

Which makes everything else “secondary chords” or tones.

So if you’re:

1) Following the bass note (lowest note)
2) Know the key you’re in
3) Know what tones of that key are “primary” and what tones are “secondary” (…meaning they serve as a way to get you to primary chords)

…you’re almost there.

4) Start remembering and recognizing patterns.

Just like “success” leaves traces, songs do too.

As you learn more and more songs, pay attention to the patterns that are reoccurring. THEY WILL OCCUR AGAIN IN ANOTHER SONG.

All songs follow recognizable patterns.

And since you’re a gold member of the Gospel Music Training Center, you have front row access to the patterns. All you have to do is “zoom out” and stop seeing these songs as separate entities, but rather all connected to the same patterns.

Like the California goldrush (which I know little about because I didn’t pay that much attention in history class… sadly), everyone rushed here to get them a piece of it and returned to their separate homes. Songs pull from the same “goldrush” and fool you by making you think they are special. All the patterns are the same (GospelKeys 202 reveals many of the common gospel patterns. Check out the free digital version of it in the bonus area).

I hope this talk helps!

Take care.

But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about an entirely different way to look at scales. A way that will help you to learn and understand chord progressions a lot faster! (Isn’t that what we all want? Chord progressions create SONGS!)

Don’t get me wrong… scales are great. I’m a great advocate of learning scales in the beginning.

I just don’t like when people get wrapped up into playing them just to “warm up” (and stuff like that). I think they are much more important than that.

They define the major keys you’ll play in. Understanding them is the key to playing smoothly in all 12 keys.

So I want to give you the “CIRCULAR” way to understand major scales. Yes, “circular!”

By now, you know that I’m infatuated by the circle of fifths. I think it’s a wonderful way to teach music. I think it cuts through all the baloney and if you really understand it, you can get really far… really quickly.

Take the C major scale for example:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

Here’s how you would look at it circularly:

C major (circularly)

B E A D G C F
7 3 6 2 5 1 4

I bet you’ve never seen the C major scale like that before.

And the thing is…

All the notes that would normally be in the scale are represented. Nothing has changed in that regard. Just the order of notes. We’ve rearranged them into a different pattern.

A pattern you’ll run across time and time again in song after song (if you haven’t already).

And this, my friend, is the secret.

Think about songs you’ve played in the key of C major.

Did they move from keynote to keynote like this: C D E F G A B C?

Or did you see a lot of chords flowing like this: “D - G - C” or “C - F” or “G - C - F” or “A - D - G” or “E - A - D - G.”

And notice, I got those all from the circular scale above.

This is how music flows.

So to understand the pattern, “7 - 3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1 - 4″ is extremely important. In fact, there are entire songs that use this whole stretch of tones, all in a row.

For now, just ponder this. Try to learn this order of things in all 12 keys.

Hint: Soon you’ll find much overlap. In other words, the order you see here will NEVER change in another key. If the new key you’re learning has a “B” in it, for example, it will always be followed by an “E.”

That is the cool thing… you don’t have to learn all 12 keys from scratch… as long as you start getting the pattern.

This will be key to playing REAL chord progressions in ALL 12 keys… in REAL songs!

Until next time —

You can find it by clicking here.

If you’ve ever wondered why they’re called “primary chords” and what makes them so special, this article will definitely shed some light on the subject.

Until next time —

This is majority of the chords you’ll play since almost every common chord (like major, minor, dominant, diminished, augmented, and even most altered chords) are built on thirds.

In this post, I wanted to provide a quick refresher on some of the most common tertian chords.

C major

C minor

C diminished

C augmented

C major 7

C minor 7

C dominant 7

C# diminished 7 (my image program doesn’t do “double flats” so I’m going to put the C# diminished 7 below). Note: The C diminished 7 chord is C + Eb+ Gb + Bbb (aka - “A”)

C half diminished 7

C augmented major 7

C augmented 7

C major b5 (flat “5″)

C minor major 7

C dominant 7 (b5)

Print this chart out! You may need it some day!

Until next time —

And it’s powerful.

It’s the idea of “borrowing” chords.

But in order to understand it, let me teach you what the term “parallel key” means.

Parallel major and parallel minor keys basically share the same tonic… or same “home base.”

Get it? The “C” is the same but they are totally different scales… totally different worlds — but they do have the “C” in common.

Sort of like all the other people named “Jermaine” out there (including Jermaine Jackson, Jermaine O’neal, Jermaine Dupri). Just because we have the same name doesn’t mean we’re related or similar… but we do share the name.

Now, of course, parallel keys are little deeper than that but this will hold you for the purposes of this lesson.

So back to “borrowing” chords…

Let’s say you were in the key of C major. The chords most associated with the C major scale are shown below:

1st Tone: C / Chord = C major 7 (C E G B)
2nd Tone: D / Chord = D minor 7 (D F A C)
3rd Tone: E / Chord = E minor 7 (E G B D)
4th Tone: F / Chord = F major 7 (F A C E)
5th Tone: G / Chord = G dominant 7 (G B D F)
6th Tone: A / Chord = A minor 7 (A C E G)
7th Tone: B / Chord = B half diminished (B D F A)

If you don’t know where I got these chords from, you’ll probably want to read this past lesson.

Now, let’s go to the parallel minor, which is _____?????______?

C minor

(To understand where I get the following chords associated with the C minor scale, click here to view this past lesson). But here’s a hint… if you know the key of Eb major, the chords of C minor are the same).

1st Tone: C / Chord = C minor 7 (C Eb G Bb)
2nd Tone: D / Chord = D half diminished 7 (D F Ab C)
3rd Tone: Eb / Chord = Eb major 7 (Eb G Bb D)
4th Tone: F / Chord = F minor 7 (F Ab C Eb)
5th Tone: G / Chord = G minor 7 (G Bb D F)
6th Tone: Ab / Chord = Ab major 7 (Ab C Eb G)
7th Tone: Bb / Chord = Bb dominant 7 (Bb D F Ab)

So the idea of “borrowing” chords is just like it sounds.

It’s when you borrow chords from the parallel major or minor key.

Here’s one of my favorite examples (especially if you like gospel music).

You can play this at the end of “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

It’s basically a “2-5-1″ chord progression.

That is, a chord based on the 2nd tone of the scale going to a chord on the 5th — and finally ending on a chord on the 1st tone of the scale.

Normally, you’d use the chords from the first chart above. The 2nd degree in C major would usually be a “D minor 7″ chord. The 5th degree, a “G dominant 7″ chord, and the 1st degree, a “C major 7″ chord.

But what I’m going to do is borrow a chord from the 2nd tone of the parallel minor key.

So instead of playing a usual “D minor 7″ on the 2nd tone, I’m going to borrow the “D half diminished 7″ chord from C minor.

Check out the results:

Left hand: D /// Right hand: D F Ab C
Left hand: G /// Right hand: E G C
Left hand: G /// Right hand: D G B
Left hand: C /// Right hand: E G C

(This is a simple 2-5-1 chord progression with some suspended action on the “G”).

I personally like to invert the “D half diminished 7″ chord. I think it sounds better. And since I’m inverting it, I have to change the other chords (…I don’t “have” to but it sounds much better and flows more harmoniously):

Left hand: D /// Right hand: Ab C D F
Left hand: G /// Right hand: G C E
Left hand: G /// Right hand: F A D *
Left hand: G /// Right hand: E G C

*I switched the second “G” chord a little bit.

So the moral of this lesson is that you don’t have to play the chords as they’re written in the “textbook.” You can “borrow” chords. You can experiment with chords from other keys. You can alter chords.

Until next time —

You can find it by clicking here.

If you’ve ever wondered why they’re called “primary chords” and what makes them so special, this article will definitely shed some light on the subject.

Until next time —

Today, I want to go even further and talk about another popular type of substitution… the “tonic substitution.”

As you may know from past lessons, the first degree of the scale is called the “tonic.” In fact, every degree of the scale has a name.

It’s just a fancy way to say “home.” The first degree of the scale is basically the key you’re song is in. It’s the first and last tone of the scale. When you’re playing a chord off the first tone of the scale, it has a feeling of “home” and “rest.” It’s at peace. That’s why most songs end on the “1″ (or the “tonic”).

In songs, often times you can substitute other chords for the normal “1-chords.” Composers do this to make the song more interesting. Rather than always going back to the same type of “1-chord,” they put in other stuff to spice things up… to make things less predictable. And if you have any of my GospelKeys courses, you know that unpredictability is key in differentiating yourself from other musicians.

So when it comes to tonic substitutions, there are two other degrees of the scale that are great candidates to replace the “1.”

But before I tell you them, let’s consider each degree of the scale:

C major

1st degree = C major 7 (C + E + G + B)
2nd degree = D minor 7 (D + F + A + C)
3rd degree = E minor 7 (E + G + B + D)
4th degree = F major 7 (F + A + C + E)
5th degree = G dominant 7 (G + B + D + F)
6th degree = A minor 7 (A + C + E + G)
7th degree = B half-diminished 7 (B + D + F + A)

In this example, the tonic chord would usually be something based on C major 7. Of course, you can drop the “7″ and only play C major triad if you want (C+E+G) or you can expand the 7 and play a major 9th chord (C + E + G + B + D) or even an 11th or 13th chord. But the idea is… usually it’s something “major sounding” and its usually based on the first tone of your scale.

But when you’re substituting other chords for the tonic, you’re pretty much going to an entirely different tone of the scale instead. We’re not talking about simply changing notes in your chord. I’m talking about playing a totally different chord in its place.

There are tons of candidates but I’m going to talk about the most popular 2.

The “6th” degree and the “3rd” degree!

6th degree

In other lessons, you’ve learned that the 6th degree is the relative minor of the major key you’re in so there’s no surprise that it can act as a substitute.

Now that’s another lesson in and of itself and I encourage you to use my search box in the upper right hand corner to search for “relative minor.” But for now, just know that the 6th tone and has very special bond with the 1st tone. They are close relatives! In fact, their scales share the same notes. In this case, “A” is the relative minor of “C major.” If you played the notes of the “A minor” scale, they would be identical to the notes of the “C major scale.” This rule goes for the 6th tone of ANY major scale.

So basically, whenever a song is supposed to come back “home” to the tonic, many will divert to the 6th degree. In this case, an “A minor 7″ chord or some derivative of it.

And if you really think about it, the notes of the “A minor 7″ chord are not that far off from the notes of the “C major 7″ chord.

Let’s compare:

C major 7

A minor 7

They pretty much share all but one note. In fact, the “C major” triad is a part of the “A minor 7″ chord.

In “Amazing Grace,” you can see this tonic substitution at work:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Do you see the tonic substitution at work in this song? The song could have easily gone back to the regular “1-chord” tonic on “saved” but it didn’t. Well, I take back… when people play the basic version of the song, they actually do go back to the regular 1-chord, which is major. But that’s only in very basic arrangements of “Amazing Grace.” 90% of arrangements go to a minor chord on “saved.” That is a tonic substitution! It’s when you don’t have to go there but you do… and when you do, it provides more interest and flavor.

3rd degree

Similar to the 6th degree, you can use the 3rd degree of the scale as a tonic substitution.

So in the key of C major, instead of going back to a C major 7 chord, you’d go to an E minor 7 chord.

Let’s compare the chords:

C major 7

E minor 7

Lo and behold, these chords share all but one note. It’s basically the OPPOSITE of the notes shared with the first tonic substitution above. Basically, the C major 7 chord has an “E minor” (E+G+B) triad inside it.

And just like the 6th degree above, this makes the 3rd degree an awesome candidate! Instead of going back to the 1-chord like you’d normally do, use the minor 7 chord on the 3rd degree and it will provide the spice you’re looking for!

So what’s the moral of the story?

Looks for chords that are strikingly similar and experiment with substituting one for the other. A lot of it can be systematized like the two I’ve shown you here but many will come about by “trial and error.”

I’ve interviewed tons of musicians and all of them say the same thing — that their nicest chords came unexpectedly by trial and error. So start paying close attention to chords you already play. Notice which ones share common tones and then start replacing one for the other. Remember other components like the melody and you’ll really be on the right track (that is, if you can find a chord that shares most of the notes WHILE keeping the melody on top, then you’re golden!)

I hope you enjoyed this lesson!

Until next time —

Every key has what we call “primary” chords and “secondary” chords.

You may already know the primary chords…

They’re simply the 1, 4, and 5 tones of any scale.

For example, in the key of C major:

• The first tone of the scale is C
• The fourth tone of the scale is F
• The fifth tone of the scale is G

We simply play major chords on each of these tones. Bam! There’s your primary chords.

The secondary chords are all the other ones.

That leaves the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th tones of the scale.

(This post can technically be over but I want to go a little further in explaining secondary chords).

Every major key has a relative minor key. I talk about relative minors in this past post.

Like in C major, the relative minor is “A.” It’s basically the 6th tone of the scale (or you can count backwards two scale tones… “C > B > A”).

I said all that to say this…

3 of the 4 secondary chords are basically relative minors of the primary chords. Let me break it down…

We already know that “A” is the relative minor (6th tone) of C major so that takes care of the C major primary chord.

What is the relative minor of F major? It’s D!

And the relative minor of G major? It’s E!

C > A
F > D
G > E

Like I said above, you can think of this as basically 2 scale tones down from any primary chord.

Take C major for example…

1. Go down two scale tones — B is one, A is two.
2. “A” is the relative minor.

F major…

1. Go down two scale tones — E is one, D is two.
2. “D” is the relative minor.

G major…

1. Go down two scale tones (and I’m still referring to the C major scale since we’re talking about primary chords from the C major scale but even if you used the G major scale, you’d arrive at the same tone).
2. “E” is the relative minor.

Why is this important?

Relative minors and majors have a very strong connection. They share the same key signature. They have the same notes in their scales. Heck, their chords are pretty much the same.

Want me to prove it to you?

So what does all this mean?

Simply put, whenever you want to make things more interesting, throw in the right secondary chords!

Yes, most songs can be played with just primary chords (the “1,” “4,” and “5″). That’s true!

But if you want to get more interesting, you start throwing in these secondary chords.

And now that you know how the secondary chords relate to the primary chords, you can start substituting certain chords for others (***hint hint***).

Until next time —

For those of you who don’t know, an inversion is simply a different way to play a chord.

And here’s a simple rule to remember…

The number of ways to “invert” a chord is equal to the number of notes in the chord!

Got that?

Basically, if the chord has 3 notes, there are 3 different inversions or ways to play that chord.

If the chord has 4 notes in it, there are 4 inversions for that chord.

Pretty simple.

But it doesn’t end there.

That rule just applies to inversions, not voicings. There are tons more ways to “voice” a 3-tone major chord… not just 3.

So don’t mix inversions up with voicings. A voicing is a particular representation of a chord.

Here’s the difference.

C major

Since it has 3 notes, you can invert it three different ways:

Root

First Inversion (has the 3rd degree of the chord on the bottom)

Second Inversion (has the 5th degree of the chord on the bottom)

But let’s look at other “voicings” for the chord.

See… you can double up on notes — you can leave notes out — you can rearrange notes… that’s the difference between inversions and voicings (at least the way I teach it).

C major
C on bass (not shown)

(big sound)

And if you want to get fancier and turn this regular C major triad into a C major 7, it gives you even more “voicings” to experiment with…

C on bass (not shown)

C on bass (not shown)

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do.

So remember that just because it’s written a certain way in the “textbooks” doesn’t mean you have to play it that way!

Until next time —

The premise was basically to look at chord progressions as small “couples.”

A couple or pair is 2!

When you think in terms of “couples,” you to focus on two things:

1) What chord does this current one strongly pull to?

2) What chord pulls strongly to this current one?

And truth be told, it’s all centered around the “circle of fifths.”

Back in 2004, I called it the “3-4″ principle.

Basically, you just take the tone of the scale you’re on and either go up 3 scale tones or down 4 scale tones.

So if you’re in C major, and you’re trying to find out what chord is most likely to come after a “D minor” chord, you just start at “D” and go up 3 scale tones:

D — E — F — G

So E is the 1st scale tone up, then F, then your destination, G.

You can also go down 4 scale tones (thus the name “3-4″ principle).

D — C — B — A — G

You’ll end up at the same place.

—-

Take a look at the circle. Notice that “D” and “G” are neighbors. So using the “3-4″ principle inside of a major key and referring to the circle will give you the same result.

Note: When referring to the circle, you’re focusing on the counter-clockwise direction of the keys. So rather than going from C to G to D, you’re going from C to F to Bb and so forth. Imagine your clock working backwards!

Now here’s the thing…

If you focus on mastering “couples,” you can kill two birds with one stone.

Not only are you learning how music works but you’re learning how to play in all 12 keys without even knowing it!

Because D to G has major functions in more than 7 keys, if you really think about it. So by learning all the different possibilities between D and G, you’re actually prepping yourself to use this combination whenever you need it.

I guess learning entire keys at once (which I advocate as well) is the “macro” technique and focusing on very small couples and all the possibilities between them is the “micro” way of doing it.

But imagine if you just took one day to focus on as many chords and situations that involve D going to G?

In the key of C major, you’d find that “D” to “G” operates as a “2-5″ progression (because D is the second tone of the scale and G is the fifth tone of the scale).

In the key of D major, “D” to “G” operates as a “1-4″ progression.

In the key of Eb major, “D” to “G” operates as a “7-3″ progression (or couple).

In the key of F, “D” to “G” operates as a “6-2″ couple.

In the key of G, “D” to “G” is a “5-1″ progression.

In the key of Ab, although “D” isn’t in the major scale, it has a very common function. “D” to “G” operates as “b5-7″ progression. You’ll find this in many songs.

And in the key of Bb, “D” to “G” operates as a “3-6″ progression.

When you combine these various couples, you get bigger progressions like the “6-2-5-1 turnaround.” (But at the end of the day, these can be broken down to smaller parts and focused on until you’ve committed them to memory).

Another important thing to note is that you’ll play the same exact chords on “D” and “G” across different keys. So the “6-2″ couple that occurs in the key of F will use the same EXACT chords as the “3-6″ progression in Bb major. No difference at all. So if you play well in F major but “suck” in Bb major, it’s because you haven’t made “the connection” yet. Many of those same chord progressions or “couples” will repeat in other keys. It’s just that we don’t realize it because we’re blinded by a “new key” to learn.

Since this is what you call an “introductory” lesson to a rather new concept on the blog (or should I say “reintroduced” concept), it may not gel right away. But I’ll continue this series of posts.

For now, start taking the circle of fifths and start pairing two neighbors at a time finding out their roles in as many keys as you can.

Soon you’ll know all the neighbors and you’ll feel comfortable hanging out with all of em! :-)

Until next time—

This is our own way of describing strong transitional chords that take you from one degree of the scale to another.

They occur frequently in gospel songs, especially worship and what Jason White calls the “Old School Shuffle” types of songs.

You’ll really find a lot of them in between minor chords (…and if you know anything about the diatonic chords of a scale, you’ll know that the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th tones of the scale are usually minor).

So you can apply what you’re about to learn in between the 3rd and 6th tones of the scale — you can apply it between the 6th and 2nd tones of the scale and you can even apply it between the 2nd and 3rd tones of the scale, although the latter doesn’t give you much “play” room to work with).

Let’s go to the key of Ab major.

And for simplicity’s sake, I’m only going to talk about the “3-6″ walk-up. In other words, that’s a set of transitional diminished chords that take you from the 3rd tone of the scale to the 6th.

(This happens a lot by the way. Heck, any time a progression goes to the 6th degree of the scale, you can “back up” and play the 3-chord to lead you there. You have tons of options and I’ll give you one of them here).

Ab major scale:

What’s the 3rd tone of the scale?

Answer: C

What’s the 6th tone of the scale?

Answer: F

And like I said above and from past lessons, you know that the 3rd and 6th tones of the scale usually associate with minor chords — so let’s play minor 7 chords for both of these tones:

C minor 7

F minor 7

Now, that you have the foundational chords. Let’s change things up a bit and add some “flavor.”

Warning…

We’re going to do some “borrowing” in this strategy. That is, we’re going to borrow some tones from other scales.

This walk up will use a note or two outside of the Ab scale.

Step 1: Regardless of what overall key you’re in, use the major scale of your starting note as the basis for your walk-up.

I know that sounds a little confusing so let me explain.

For this lesson, we’re walking up from C to F right? In other words, from the third tone of the scale to the sixth tone of the scale. So what I’m saying is that you’re going to temporarily be using the C major scale since C is the starting note of your walkup.

So when you walk up from C to F, you’re going to be thinking in terms of C major, not the overall key you’re in.

Because if you were thinking in terms of the Ab major scale, your walk up would include these individual notes:

C — Db — Eb — F

YOU DON’T WANT THESE NOTES! (At least for this exercise).

You want these notes:

C — D — E — F

Look familiar? They should. Because we borrowed this string of notes from the C major scale.

So that’s the first key breakthrough…

To add flavor to your movements, you don’t always have to use the notes of the key you’re in. Walk-ups and walk-downs commonly borrow from other keys.

So now that we have the framework, let’s figure out the diminished chords to play on each of these tones.

(Actually, our “C,” “D,” and “E will get diminished chords but our “F” will be a minor chord like usual).

Step two: Apply the appropriate diminished chords

Bass: C
Chord: A# dim 7 (A# + C# + E + G)

Bass: D
Chord: B dim 7 (B + D + F + Ab)

Bass: E
Chord: C# dim 7 (C# + E + G + Bb)
*Enharmonically, this chord is spelled differently but makes almost the same sound as the A# dim 7 chord (they share the same tones). You can think of this chord as an inversion of the first chord we played because all you have to do is take the first note off the A# dim 7 chord and add it to the end of this chord and you’ll get a C# dim 7. Compare the two chords and that’ll be the only main difference.

Then, we just go to a regular F minor 7 chord.

See how that worked?

Heck, you can even keep the walk-up going even further. I know I’m only focusing on walk-ups between the “3rd” and “6th” tone of the scale but if you recall earlier, I talked about using it between the “6th” and “2nd” tone of the scale. So if you wanted to, you could use the same concept to go from “F” to “Bb.”

How would you do it?

Well, instead of playing a minor 7 chord on F, you would play a diminished chord (just like we did on “C”). So basically, “F” gets treated just like “C” did… since you’re going to keep going and not rest on “F” like you normally would.

And if you remember my rule about borrowing from other major scales… the same applies here.

We’re going to use the tones of the F major scale to walk up to Bb.

F — G — A — Bb

Here are the chords:

*F on bass (my graphic doesn’t have enough room to include all the notes)

*G on bass

*A on bass

…and these take you to a nice Bb minor 7 chord:

*Bb on bass

I know this lesson is a lot to swallow so just go back through it as many times as you need to and feel free to leave any questions below!

I hope you enjoy! (And believe me when I say… “This can be used a lot, especially in gospel!”)

Until next time —

People still debate over whether it should officially be called a “chord” or if it’s just an interval. (Those who want to keep it just an “interval” believe that chords start at three or more notes).

But who cares what you think of them as — they can enhance your playing! :-)

This post can’t be too long because I need to get back on the freeway down to Long Beach. My grandma is still in the hospital and when it seems like she is recovering, something else happens to knock us backward. Pray for her.

So here are my top 5 favorite dyads to play…

1) Power chords

I talked about “power chords” in this previous lesson.

They are intervals that span a fifth. An example of a power chord is from “C” to “G.”

You can use them to power up most chords because if you think about, they all possess that perfect fifth interval (except for diminished and augmented chords).

When playing extended chords like sevenths, ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths, some people use power chords on their left, therefore, freeing up their right hand to focus on the upper tones in the chord.

2) Tritone

You can find extensive information on tritones in these two lessons.

I call them the little cousin of the power chord.

If you know your power chords and can lower your fifth tone a half step, then you know your tritones! That’s all they are!

They are an interval of a flatted fifth. So instead of playing “C” to “G,” you play “C” to “Gb.”

These are also found in dominant 7 chords. For example, a C dominant 7 chord has these notes: C + E + G + Bb. Do you notice the tritone from “E” to “Bb?” (Don’t worry, over time you’ll start recognizing them quickly).

Try experimenting with certain tritones on your left hand and various dominant, major, and even minor chords on your right hand. You’ll be amazed at what you come up with.

3) Ditone

I remember a few years back when gospel musicians started throwing this “fancy” word around. LOL :-)

It’s basically the Greek way to say “major third.”

But I like the use of “ditone” because it relates it to the tritone, which has a similar function.

Basically, ditones have 2 whole steps between them. “C” to “E” is an example of a ditone.

“Tritones” are their bigger sisters (they have 3 whole steps between them).

Essentially, anywhere you play a tritone, try its little brother and you’ll get a different feel.

In fact, you can combine them: C + E + Bb

Notice the ditone between “C” and “E” and the tritone between “E” and “Bb.”

(I know… I know… looks like a dominant 7 chord to me too! But there are little nuances like this that make all the difference.)

Like this chord…

C aug 7 (#9)

…you can easily voice this chord a million different ways but notice the use of the ditone at the bottom — then the tritone interval between the “E” and “Bb” — and even the use of a quartal chord up top. See this past lesson for more info on quartal chords.

4) Major 7 interval

Sometimes, you don’t want a power chord on your left. Like when you’re playing some type of extended major chord (major 9, major 11, etc), maybe you just want to play “C” and the higher “B” on your left hand and the rest of your chord on the right hand.

This lesson from last month really illustrates what I’m talking about.

But the idea is to try it any time an extended major chord is necessary.

5) “b7″ interval

The last dyad you should get used to is the b7 interval. It’s basically the same as the major 7 interval, except you lower the 7th a half step. So instead of “C + B,” you’ll play “C + Bb.”

You’d use this one just like the tritone and ditone… same function.

Notice on the chord above that “C to Bb” is the outer shell that results from putting a ditone “C + E” together with a tritone “E + Bb.” Similar to the major 7 interval, you’d simply play a b7 interval when you want to use less notes and keep the sound open.

Until next time —

In this post, I want to talk about different ways to use the diminished seventh chord in real-life situations.

1) Use a diminished 7 chord as a transition to any 2-chord.

As you know from past lessons, the 2nd tone of the scale is usually minor. It has a strong pull to the 5th chord. Thus, where we get the name “2-5-1″ progression.

Well, you can use the diminished 7 chord a half step lower than the 2 chord as a nice little transitional chord.

Let’s try it in the key of C major…

C# diminished 7

D minor

2) Use a diminished 7 chord on the 6th tone of the scale (also takes you to a 2-chord).

Alternatively, instead of playing C# as your bass on the first chord, you can use “A” (which is the 6th tone in the C major scale). This also has a strong pull to “D” (see prior lessons on the “circle of fifths“.)

With the “altered bass,” this gives you an A7 (b9) chord (a.k.a. - “A dominant seventh with a flatted 9″)

A7 (b9)

D minor

3) Use a diminished 7 chord in between a 4-chord and 5-chord.

This happens a lot in blues and jazz. A song will go to the 4-chord and follow up with a diminished 7 chord a half step higher… which usually leads to a 5-chord.

Here’s an example in C major:

4-chord: F dominant 7

#4-chord: F# diminished 7 (sharp 4)

5-chord: C major / G (a.k.a. - “6-4 chord“)

Note: Sharps and flats are mixed intentionally. This has a lot to do with properly naming chords. See these two lessons for details).

Until next time —

I chose this song because of its simplicity in structure and to show you how easy it is to play a popular song… if you have the right process. Plus, I love the progressions!

Yesterday, I posted a quick lesson summarizing the chords. But I couldn’t stay long because I was headed to the hospital to support my grandma as she underwent surgery. Thanks for your prayers, by the way! She’s doing great! :-).

So today, I want to back up and show you a simple way to play the chords of “Lost Without You” in all 12 keys!

First, let’s review the four chords that dominate this song. (Again, if you haven’t watched the original video, you’re missing out and this lesson won’t have its full impact).

Once again, I’ll use my new piano tool I announced on Tuesday to show you the chords below…

Here’s the four chords…

Dmin7

G7

Cmaj7

Fmaj7

Notice the stepwise motion between tones. That’s what makes it sound so good!

This is what we call a 2-5-1-4 chord progression.

Click here to view yesterday’s lesson. It will explain why we call it a “2-5-1-4″ progression in more detail.

But for this lesson, I want to focus specifically on the first three chords. This is the “2-5-1″ part of the chord progression.

(Alright alright! Here’s why we call this a “2-5-1-4″ chord progression… Because if you compare the bass notes of the 4 chords I posted above to the C major scale, the key this progression is in, you’ll find that “D” is the 2nd tone of the scale — “G” is the 5th tone of the scale — “C” is the 1st tone of the C major scale, of course — and “F” is the 4th tone of the scale. So the numbers come straight from the scale. Simple enough?)

But for this example, we’re only going to focus on the “2-5-1″ part of the chord progression. And let me tell ya… this is probably one of the most commonly used chords in music history! I’m serious! You can hardly play a song without using some kind of 2-5-1 progression.

They’re used to end songs because of the strong pull and resolution back “home.” Basically, you get a feeling of “ending” when you play a “2-5-1″ progression. It’s like that “2″ chord is sort of away from home. But when it progresses to the “5″ chord, it tells your ear, “Ok, we’re getting ready to go back home.” And finally when you hear any kind of “1″ chord, whether you’re a musician or not, your ear tells you, “Alas, we’re home!” That’s basically the whole idea.

Music is a combination of tension (being away from home) and release (coming back home). If you think about it, EVERYTHING in life is a combination of tension and release. You go through something in life (tension)… and then you overcome it (release). But you better not get too comfortable because something else will inevitably come up. That’s how chord progressions are. Heck, that’s how movies, books, freeways, marriages, sports — that’s how everything is!

So how can we learn this same exact “2-5-1″ progression in every key? It’s simple. We’re going to use the famous circle of fifths chart!

If you look closely at this circle, our “D to G to C” progression lies on the right side, going counter-clockwise. If you compare this chart to a clock, “D” is at 2 o’ clock, G is at 1 o’ clock, and C is at 12 o’ clock.

Here’s the secret…

This circle is filled with every “2-5-1″ chord progression you’ll ever want to play. What do you do to find them?

Just circle any 3 neighboring tones on this circle and move in a counter-clockwise direction. The last note circled in that direction will be your “home” chord just like “C” is our home chord in the example above.

Check out these examples from my circle:

If we want to play a “2-5-1″ chord progression in Bb major, we do the same thing. Circle “Bb.” Then circle the note right next to it “F” — then circle the note right next to it, “C.” Always remember that these kind of progressions always work in a counter-clockwise direction when you use this circle. In other words, it’s like telling time backwards. If you’re going the same direction your clock on the wall moves, then reverse the direction and you’ll be on track!

If we want to play a “2-5-1″ in “A major,” the process is the same. Circle the note “A.” Then back up and circle the note right next to it, “E” — then the note right next to it, “B.” Piece of cake, yeah?

So, with that said, here’s how to play the chords I taught you in the video — in ALL 12 KEYS.

C major (example)

Dmin7

G7

Cmaj7

(All on the right hand)

Step 1: From the first to the second chord, get used to lowering the left note first.

Step 2: From the second chord to the last chord (home base), get used to lowering the right note.

Step 3: Once you reach home, you’ll have to turn that “home base” chord into a minor chord so that it can operate as the “2″ chord in the next key you’re trying to move to. In other words, now that you’ve finished playing a “2-5-1″ progression in C (which is D minor 7 > G dominant 7 > C major 7), now you must prepare to convert the “C major 7″ into a minor 7 chord so that it can operate as the “2″ chord in the next key. You do that by just moving each note down a half step. That’s it.

So this chord…

(C major 7)

turns into…

…this chord (C minor 7).

Then you just repeat the same pattern, except now, “C minor 7″ is the beginning of your chord progression. You’ll lower its left note and it will take you to an F dominant 7. Just like you did in the original example, you’ll then lower its right note and it will take you to a Bb major 7. So now we’ve just played a “2-5-1″ in the key of Bb major.

“2-5-1″ in Bb major:

Cmin7

F7

Bbmaj7 (Bb on bass… not shown because my piano image is not wide enough)

*Notice, all we’re doing is following the circle of fifths. What was once “D to G to C” is now “C to F to Bb.” The next one will be “Bb to Eb to Ab,” all in alignment with the circle. I tell ya — once you know the circle, you’ve opened the door to tons of musical shortcuts!

So, I expect you to know the pattern by now! After we’ve successfully played Bb major 7, we lower both of its notes so that it becomes Bb minor 7. It now operates as a “2″ chord for our next progression. It’s an unending cycle, basically!

Until next time —

But I want to focus on what I think are the 3 most commonly used types.

And even among this group, I think the “Pareto principle” or “80-20 rule” would apply — meaning just the 1st type will probably be responsible for majority of chord progressions out there in songs (or as they put it, 20% of something will generally be responsible for 80% of a result).

For the purposes of this lesson, let’s label each type of progression as “A,” “B,” and “C.” Others have named them “alpha,” “beta,” and “gamma” but I want to keep things simple around here (like we also do).

Most Common Progressions:

1. Progressions that rise by fourths (or fall by fifths)
2. Progressions that fall by thirds (or rise by sixths)
3. Progression that rise by seconds (or fall by sevenths)

*Don’t be confused by what’s written in parentheses. They are essentially the same thing! For example, if you rise by a fourth from “C,” you’ll arrive at “F” (C - D - E - F). If you fall by a fifth from “C,” you’ll arrive at “F” as well (C - B - A - G - F). Yes, it’s a lower “F” but it’s “F!”

Progressions that rise by fourths / fall by fifths

These will dominate most popular songs.

If you’ve been an avid reader of this blog, you know how much I talk about circular progressions and the circle of fifths chart. Most music moves in fourths and fifths. If you just mastered progressions like this, you’d probably be able to play like 80% of songs (…or more, but don’t quote me on the exact figure. I’m just “guesstimating” here).

These are 2-5-1 chord progressions like “D minor - G7 - C major.” Notice they all moved in fourths. I honestly can’t think of very many popular songs that don’t use fourth and fifth progressions.

Progressions that fall by thirds / rise by sixths

Not as common as the fourth and fifth interval progressions above, these come in close though!

You’ve undoubtedly seen progressions like “C major - A minor - F major - G major.”

The C major to A minor to F major all move in falling thirds.

C to B to A = minor third
A to G to F = major third

C down to A is a minor third.
A down to F is a major third.

(Oh yeah, notice the mixing and matching. That’s because it doesn’t matter what kind of third. It can fall by a major third or a minor third — as long as they are thirds. That goes for any of these progression types.)

Particularly in C major, we know that going from C major to A minor is very common. “A” is the relative minor of “C.”

In fact, “A minor” can outright replace “C major” in certain progressions since they are tightly related.

Progressions that rise by seconds / fall by sevenths

These come in at third place.

You’ll find this among primary chords of a major key.

For example, in C major, the primary chords are C major, F major, and G major.

As you know, C to F is a fourth so that gets taken care of by the TOP progression above. But the F to G — that falls under this category. It’s rises by a second.

A note about intervals:

You may want to look at this lesson on how to correctly name intervals.

Basically, if you’re going to call an interval a “second,” it needs to encompass 2 letter names. F to G passes that test. F is one letter name, G is the other.

Same goes for thirds. C to E passes because C is the first letter name, D is the second (it isn’t played but it is “inside” the interval), E is third.

Some people accidentally call Ab to B a third. Sure enough, it makes the same sound as a minor third and if you played Ab and B, it would surely sound like a minor third. But it’s considered a second because it only encompasses two letter names in its interval.

So just remember that when you’re using these progression types.

Ok, let me summarize.

There are three common chord progression types.

Type A progressions rise by fourths or falls by fifths.

Type B progressions fall by thirds or rise by sixths.

Type C progressions rise by seconds or fall by sevenths.

*If you just want to think of “type A” as rising by fourths, that’s fine. You don’t have to necessarily remember the other half (i.e. - “fall by fifths”). They essentially both take you to the same note.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson!

Until next time —

Today, I want to show you a simple way to spice up your ninth chords using seventh chords.

Specifically, I want to deal with the minor ninth chord.

For the longest, I’ve taught students to simply think of the minor ninth chord as the major seventh of the flatted 3rd degree over the keynote bass.

I know that sounds tricky. That’s why I always break stuff like this down.

So your keynote is the title of the chord. If you want to play a C minor 9 chord, then your keynote is “C.” If you want to play an F minor 9 chord, then your keynote is “F.” If you want to play a Bb minor 9, then your keynote is ___what___?

Bb… exactly!

So you have that part out of the way.

Now for the second part, you have two options. You can think in terms of the major scale of that keynote or you can think in terms of the minor scale.

If major scales come easier to you, go that route! If you don’t have a problem with minor scales, it may be easier to stick with minor.

But if you’re thinking in terms of major, you’ll need to go to the flat 3 degree. So you’ll need to go to the third tone of the regular major scale and lower that tone a half step.

So if your keynote is “C,” you’ll need to go up to the third degree, which is “E,” and lower that note a half step to Eb. This gives you the flat 3rd (a.k.a. - ‘b3′) of C major.

If you’re thinking in terms of minor, simply go to the third tone of the minor scale because it’s already flatted. In other words, you can’t play a minor scale without a flatted third.

But anyway, however you get to this “magic” tone is up to you. The importance is that you play a major seventh chord off THIS tone.

So you’ll need to know all your major 7 chords with your eyes closed.

But this is the easiest part. You just play a major seventh chord over the original keynote of your chord. Let’s try a few…

If my keynote is C, I’ll determine the b3 first (”Eb”) and then I’ll play an “Eb major 7″ chord over the C bass.

C + (Eb major 7)
C + (Eb + G + Bb + D)

If my keynote is G, I’ll determine the b3 first (”Bb”) and then I’ll play a “Bb major 7″ chord over the G bass.

G + (Bb major 7)
G + (Bb + D + F + A)

If my keynote is G#, I’ll determine the b3 first (”B”) and then I’ll play a “B major 7″ chord over the G# bass.

G# + (B major 7)
G# + (B + D# + F# + A#)

All of these give me nice-sounding minor 9 chords.

But there’s a way to get a nicer sound. What I like to do is invert my major 7 chord in the right hand.

Remember that an inversion is just a different way to play the chord. It is literally shifting or changing the order of notes in the chord. They should have simply called it “reordering” or something… but that words seems just as intimidating (LOL).

Let’s take the C minor 9 chord we learned above…

C + (Eb + G + Bb + D)

Instead of playing the “Eb major 7″ chord with “Eb” as the lowest note, I want to play this chord with “Bb” as the lowest note.

This is what we call “second inversion.” It’s when you play a chord with its fifth degree as the lowest note. And if you notice, “Bb” is the fifth degree of “Eb major” (is it not?).

So by playing your major 7 chords with their 5th on the bottom, you’ll get this nice, “clustered,” sound. What it does is make two notes extremely close together in the chord: Bb + D + Eb + G

See the “D” and “Eb?”

When the chord was open, those notes were maximally separated. They were the farthest apart, and that gave you a unique sound. Now that they are the closest apart, you get a totally different sound.

So compare the voicings…

C + (Eb + G + Bb + D) = Right hand: Eb major in root position

C + (Bb + D + Eb + G) = Right hand: Eb major in second inversion

*With all outside circumstances being equal, I like the second option better. Some may like the first.

Now, depending on your melody, you may pick the first voicing if you want to put a “D” on top. If you want to put a “G” on top and the chord calls for a minor sound, there you go! Bingo!

So I took so long with this because I wanted you to see the power of:

#1 Shortcuts: As I’ve taught in the past, you can play a bigger chord by thinking of smaller, familiar chords.

#2 Numbers: If you know how to immediately go to any scale degree (natural or flatted), then you’re golden! These shortcuts will work even better for you.

#3 Inversions: You can always move around notes to find the sound that best fits your situation. If you want the open sound, go with the open inversion. If you want the clustered, “close together” sound, go with the second option I taught you.

Until next time —

Today, I want to show you how to use tritones and minor chords to form crazy-sounding dominant ninth chords.

Yes, that means if you know all your tritones (…there’s only really 6 to learn) and all your basic minor triads, then you can play dominant ninth chords — instantly!

But not just any kind of dominant ninth chord. This voicing sounds really good!

As you know, two musicians can play the same dominant chord and make their versions sound totally different. I’m going to give you a “behind-the-scenes” look at how that’s possible.

Here’s the regular C dominant 9 chord:

C E G Bb D

It’s basically a C dominant 7 chord with an added “9″ tone. If you don’t understand where the 9 comes from, read yesterday’s lesson.

There are only two steps to transforming this boring, “standard” ninth chord into a snazzy one!

Step 1: Play the tritone replacement for the dominant chord on your left hand. Remember, you can always substitute the appropriate tritone for a full dominant chord since a tritone utilizes the key tones of the dominant chord. Basically, take the 3rd and 7th tones out of the dominant chord and play them on your left hand. That is a tritone.

Example:

C dominant 9
C + E + G + Bb + D

You’d take out E and Bb and play them together.

* As you probably know, “E” is the third tone of the scale and “Bb” is the flat seventh tone.

So far, my left hand has “E + Bb” in it.

Step 2: After you have determined what tritone to play on your left hand, you’ll want to identify the 5th tone of the chord. You’ll want to play a minor chord off this tone on your right hand. If I’m playing a C9 chord, the 5th tone of C is basically G (which is in the chord). I’m simply going to play a G minor chord on my right hand.

It’s that simple! Find 5th tone of chord (or scale) and play its minor triad. Point blank!

Example:

C dominant 9
C + E + G + Bb + D

*The fifth tone in C major is G. Therefore, I’m going to play a G minor on my right hand: (G + Bb + D)

You can try different inversions of this G minor triad but I prefer first inversion, which means the keynote will always be on top: (Bb + D + G)

Same for the tritone, you can try the alternate inversion but I like my flat seventh on the bottom (Bb + E) but feel free to try the other way around too (”E + Bb”). They both work.

So my full chord looks like this:

C dominant 9
Bb + E on left hand /// Bb + D + G on right hand

If you do use the opposite tritone “E + Bb,” you may find that the “Bb” from your tritone meets the “Bb” from your G minor chord if you’re playing both hands close to each other. This is fine. It actually results in a nice little effect with simply “E” on the left hand and “G minor” on the right hand.

Now here’s the best part.

In gospel music, you can really work this! Try going down a half step and doing the same thing. Then quickly move that chord back up to your original chord.

So basically, take this same exact voicing of C9 and move it down to B9.

If you understand “big picture thinking” (yesterday’s post), this shouldn’t be hard.

What is the tritone that goes with “B?” Bam! That’s your left hand!

What’s the 5th tone of B? Play it’s minor chord in first inversion! Bam!

B dominant 9
A + D# on left hand /// A + C# + F# on right hand

*I’m using informal naming to make it easier to follow

And this B dominant 9 (a.k.a “B9″), which is the same exact chord as C9 (but moved down a half step), leads perfectly to the C9:

B dominant 9
A + D# on left hand /// A + C# + F# on right hand

C dominant 9
Bb + E on left hand /// Bb + D + G on right hand

In fact, if you play gospel music and know the classic “shouting” bass run:

C - E - F - Gb - G - A - Bb - B - C

*It’s a bass line so play each of these notes separately.

…Imagine playing this same dominant 9 voicing over each of these bass notes.

But here’s the thing — with this voicing, you don’t really play the bass. Either you rely on someone else playing the bass or you just play the chords rootless.

Imagine replacing each of those “shouting” bass notes with this dominant 9 voicing?

Try it! You already know the notes for C9 and B9.

Just take the same formula and match up the chords for each of these bass notes. Then practice playing them because it won’t be easy at first. You’ll love what you come up with! Sounds a little crazy at first but this is how top gospel musicians like Jason White and Michael Bereal think.

I hope you enjoyed!

Until next time —

On Thursday, I introduced you to the power chord’s little cousin, “tritone.”

Then on Friday, we talked about tritone substitutions with 2-5-1 chord progressions.

Just yesterday, we took it a step further and applied tritone substitutions to 6-2-5-1 chord progressions.

Today, I want to show you another way to use tritone substitutions.

Consider this simple 1-4 turnaround progression:

C major

C7 (1-chord) >>> F7 (4-chord) >>> C7 >>> F7

(Play this in rhythm. Just cycle from the 1 chord to the 4 chord).

For this progression, I prefer to play these voicings of the dominant chords:

C7
Bb + E + G on right /// C on left (instead of the regular “C + E + G + Bb”)

F7
Eb + A + C on right /// F on left (instead of the regular “F + A + C + Eb”)

Now, to spice this up, let’s figure out what a tritone up from C is. You should have mastered “tritone relationships” in prior lessons.

The good news is that if you’re moving in fourths, a tritone up from your current chord should always fall right next to the chord you’re progressing to. In other words, it will be a half step higher than the chord you’re moving to.

Let me explain…

A tritone up from C7 is Gb7. Gb7 is a half step higher than F7, the chord we’re ultimately trying to get to. It’s that simple.

So basically, similar to yesterday’s lesson, we just throw in this Gb7 chord (in the same voicing) to take us to our 4 chord. It adds much more flavor than just going directly there. See what I mean?

C7
Bb + E + G on right /// C on left

Gb7
Fb + Bb + Db on right /// Gb on left

*Note: “Fb” is basically “E.” Heck, you can call it “E” if you want. You won’t pass a music theory test though :)

F7
Eb + A + C on right /// F on left

So anytime you’re playing dominant chords and you’re progressing in fourths, you can always look for an opportunity to throw in a tritone “transition” chord.

Until next time —

And by now, you should be a pro at substituting one dominant chord for another.

What’s the trick?

It’s simple. Just figure out what’s a tritone up or down (you’ll land on the same note) from where you’re currently at — then just play that dominant chord instead of your original one.

For example, if you’re playing a G7, the rule simply states to find out what’s a tritone up or down from “G.” The answer is “Db.” Play Db7 and in its place and you’ve got yourself a new sound! It’s that easy!

Oh yeah… just in case you don’t know how to play a G7 or Db7 chord (pronounced “G seventh” or “D flat seventh” — or also known as a “dominant seventh” chord), here are the spellings:

G dominant 7: G + B + D + F
Db dominant 7: Db + F + Ab + B (using “B” informally but it would really be C flat (Cb) if this were a music theory exam or something)

So far, we’ve only covered tritone substitutions in “2-5-1″ progressions. In other words, you’ve only seen it in action in this setting:

Dminor7 >>> G7 (substitute D7 here) >>> Cmajor7

Let’s see how tritone substitutions can work in a 1-6-2-5-1 progression:

1-major7 >>> 6-minor7 >>> 2-minor7 >>> 5-dominant 7 >>> 1-major7

In this lesson, we talked about using secondary dominant chords on the “2″ and “6″ chords. Since tritone substitutions work best for dominant chords, let’s change our 2 and 6 chords…

1-major7 >>> 6-dominant7 >>> 2-dominant7 >>> 5-dominant7 >>> 1-major7

In C major, that’s:

C major7 >>> A dominant7 >>> D dominant7 >>> G dominant7 >>> C major7

Now that your minor chords have been changed to dominants, you can pretty much pick your choice! Any of these dominant chords can be candidates for tritone substitutions. (Other types of chords work as well but it’s particularly the way the dominant chord is structured that makes it perfect in these situations.

Notice the tritone in the G7 chord: G + B + D + F. And because there’s really only 6 UNIQUE tritones as we learned in Friday’s lesson, the chord that shares the “other side” of this tritone (F + B) is Db7. That’s why G7 and Db7 can be substituted for each other because they pretty much share two of the same notes — that’s half of their notes!)

So here’s the progression again:

C major7 >>> A dominant7 >>> D dominant7 >>> G dominant7 >>> C major7

And your options…

Option #1: You can choose to play Eb dominant 7 instead of A dominant 7 (Eb is a tritone away from A).

C major7 >>> Eb7 >>> D7 >>> G7>>> C major7

*I tend to like tritone substitutions much better as “tritone follow-ups” (made that up). Instead of replacing “Eb dominant 7″ for “A dominant 7,” I’d rather keep the “A dominant 7″ and just follow-up quickly with the “Eb dominant 7″ to take me to my next chord in the progression. Let’s try that…

C major7 >>> (A7 >>> Eb7) >>> D7 >>> G7 >>> C major7

(So always remember that trick. You don’t have to always substitute. You can use the tritone substitution chord as a follow-up and still add flavor.)

Option #2: You can choose to play Ab dominant 7 instead of D dominant 7 (Ab is a tritone away from D).

Option #3: You can choose to play Db dominant 7 instead of G dominant 7 (Db is a tritone away from G).

Option #4: You can choose to mix and match, substituting two of the three chords (but this gets risky). I wouldn’t go too far or else the real underlying chord progression will be threatened.

So really — for each of these options, you have two choices. You can either do a full substitution (one for the other) or you can do what I call a “follow-up,” keeping both of the chords. But that’s the idea.

So learn your tritones! Learn their relationships! And learn where you can substitute them and you’ll be a forced to be reckoned with!

Until next time —

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I know you’re thinking… “whoa, big words.”

But let me assure you that this concept is very easy to understand.

Maybe you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve seen these words thrown around forums. Well, I’m finally going to demystify tritone substitutions for you…

Yesterday, we talked about the tritone. I called it the little cousin of the power chord.

As you know, a tritone is made up of the 1 and b5 interval.

C major:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

In C major, that’s C + Gb (G is the fifth… simply lower it to Gb).

It’s also known as a diminished fifth interval. (Diminish literally means to “make smaller”).

But here’s the thing with tritones. Unlike other chords, you really only have to learn 6 of them.

Yes! 12 is THE magic number in music. There are 12 major chords, 12 minor chords, 12 diminished chords… 12 of everything!

But with tritones, they are symmetric. In other words, they are the same if you take the bottom note and move it to the top. It doesn’t matter.

Take that “C + Gb,” flip it, and you’ll get “Gb + C” (it’s still a tritone).

On the other hand, if you take a perfect fifth like “C + G” and flip it, you won’t get the same fifth — instead, you’ll get a fourth (”G + C”). That’s because they aren’t symmetric.

Tritones are basically equal when you transpose them.

And get this…

They cut the octave perfectly in half.

Yes, believe it or not, the “b5″ (flatted fifth) marks the MIDDLE POINT of the octave.

So if you go from C to Gb and then from Gb to C, you would have encompassed an octave.

Octave = 12 half steps
Tritone = 6 half steps (or 3 whole steps, thus the name “tri”)

Because of all this, there are really only 6 of them. Gb + C is basically the same as C + Gb (at least for the purposes in which we’ll use them).

That means, all you have to do is learn these (and I’m going to use informal spellings just to keep thing simple):

C + Gb
Db + G
D + Ab
Eb + A
E + Bb
F + B

…And you’ll automatically know these, the “flipped” versions:

Gb + C
G + Db
Ab + D
A + Eb
Bb + E
B + F

So the key is to master not only these tritones played as chords (or dyads) but to master, for example, what a tritone up from C is. In other words, you should be able to know that the other “tritone” side of D is Ab. Or the other side of G is Db. Or the other side of E is Bb, and vise versa.

Because once you understand this, tritone substitution is easy.

It basically says that you can substitute the chord a tritone away for the chord you’re currently on. It works best with dominant chords but you can mess around with it on major and minor seventh chords as well.

But basically, let’s see how this works in a 2-5-1 chord progression…

Normally, in a 2-5-1, the “5″ tone is a dominant chord.

2-minor7 >>> 5-dominant7 >>> 1-major7

In C major, this plays out as:

D minor7 >>> G dominant7 >>> C major7

D minor7 = D + F + A + C
G dominant7 = G + B + D + F
C major7 = C + E + G + B

See the “G dominant 7?” The rules behind “tritone substitution” say that you can replace this G dominant7 with the dominant chord that is 3 whole steps away (or a “tritone” away).

That is the golden rule!

I said “follow” because, in my experience, you can usually play your original chord and then follow-up with the dominant chord a tritone away. And other times, you can substitute the original chord altogether.

And like I said, if you know your tritone relationships very well, it won’t take long to know that you can use Db dominant 7 in the place of G dominant 7 (”G7″ for short).

D minor 7 >>> Db dominant 7 >>> C major 7

D minor7 = D + F + A + C
Db dominant7 = Db + F + Ab + Cb
C major7 = C + E + G + B

*Cb is basically the same as playing “B” — just spelled differently.

Why does the Db7 work so well as a substitute for the G7 chord?

Well, let’s look at their notes:

G7:
G + B + D + F

Db7:
Db + F + Ab + B

(Yes, I know that “B” should say “Cb” but I’m trying to make a point here).

Regardless of what you call them, do you see the two common notes that these two chords share? In fact the notes they share (”B + F”) form a tritone, themselves! There are just tritones everywhere!

Next week, I’m going to show you how to use tritone substitutions in 1-6-2-5-1 chord progressions. I’ll even show you how to simply move JUST the bass note of most of your chords up a tritone, and how it can totally change the feel of your chords! You’ll love it!

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All the best —

(If power chords are your batteries, per yesterday’s photo, then his cousin is your fuel… just a little play on words).

Let’s review the power chord really quickly.

A power chord is basically made up of a fifth interval. In any given key, just play the 1 and the 5 together and you’ve got yourself a power chord.

C major scale
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

But most people don’t stop at playing just “C + G.” They double up on the C, playing it on top as well:

“C + G + C.”

So there’s a crash course on power chords.

Now, at the end of yesterday’s lesson, I gave you some more variations of this “1+5+1″ power chord.

Here they are:

• If playing a major seventh, ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth chord, you can actually play “1 + 5 + 7″ as a power chord on your left hand. Since the major 7 degree is found in these chords, it makes sense and sounds awesome!
• In C major, that’s “C + G + B”
• If playing a minor or dominant seventh, ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth chord, you can play “1 + 5 + b7″ as a power chord on your left hand. Unlike the first variation, the seventh is lowered a half step to be more conducive to dominant and minor seventh chords, which both have lowered seventh notes in them.
• In C major, that’s “C + G + Bb.”

So here’s where I want to introduce you to the power chord’s cousin…

Her name is “tritone.”

She’ll help you to play this “1 + 5 + b7″ chord a lot more flavorful!

Unlike the power chord which uses the 1 and the 5 to form a chord (some call it a “dyad” because it’s only 2 notes as opposed to 3), the tritone uses the 1 and b5. So it’s like a power chord with the fifth lowered.

Power chord (example):
C + G

Tritone (example):
C + Gb

This is also called a diminished fifth interval.

There’s another way to look at tritones. You can also look at them as the 3rd and b7 of any key.

(I can just imagine you connecting the dots now… hmmm, the “b7″)

In C major:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 G 6 7

Turn the 7 into a b7 (that’s B into Bb) and there’s your tritone:

E + Bb

So where do you use it?

Anytime you’re playing a dominant chord or some kind of altered chord that is based on the dominant chord.

Here’s why…

Check out the C dominant 7 chord:

C + E + G + Bb

Do you see what I see?

It has a tritone inside of it! The distance from “E” to “Bb” in the chord is the “3 + b7″ interval we’ve been talking about.

Therefore, instead of playing the power chord alteration from yesterday (1 + 5 + b7), you can play the “3 + b7″ instead.

Actually, you can switch off. Playing by ear is all about having OPTIONS. You can play the power chord first… then when the chord comes back around, you can play the tritone on your left hand the next time.

Here’s some other things you can do:

• 3 + b7
• 1 + 3 + b7 (the only difference in this one is that you’re playing the “3″ and not the “5″ like you did in the power chord variation).
• 3 + b7 + 3 (double up on the “3,” similar to the voicings taught in this lesson).

So now you’ve got the power chord, some power chord variations, and the tritone under your finger tips!

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If you’ve always wondered how to make your chords sound full, here’s a strategy you can start implementing right away.

If you already do this, then you’ll enjoy this as a review.

Power chords

It’s basically made up of a perfect fifth interval. Some refer to it as a dyad since it’s really only two notes (the more commonly used big sister, “triad,” is a three-note chord).

Yup, it’s pretty much that simple.

And if you know your intervals, you’ll understand that a fifth is simply the distance between the root and fifth tone of a scale.

C major
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

So, to play a power chord, just play the “1 + 5.”

But to make it even better, double up on your root by playing octaves.

1 + 5 + 8 (a.k.a. - “1,” but the octave)

Where do you use power chords?

Typically, you can use them on your left hand to “power” up your chord.

Since they make use of the perfect fifth interval, which is found in major, minor, and dominant chords, they are pretty flexible.

C major
C + E + G on right /// C + G + C on left

C minor
C + Eb + G on right /// C + G + C on left

C dominant 7
C + E + G + Bb on right /// C + G + C on left

But keep in mind that since you’re already playing C and G with your left hand, you can get more creative with your right hand:

C major 7

E + B + E on right /// C + G + C on left

*Remember this chord from yesterday’s lesson?

Taking power chords even further

You don’t have to stick with the “1 + 5 + 1″ all the time.

I recommend being flexible with the third tone of the power chord (the “octave 1″).

For example, if you’re playing a C major 7 chord on the right hand (C + E + G + B), instead of playing “C + G + C” on the left, you can play “C + G + B” on the left, which emphasizes the major 7th interval.

Or if you’re playing a C minor 7 or C dominant 7 chord, you can play “C + G + Bb” on the left to emphasize the flat 7th interval.

However you choose, power chords can be a wonderful addition to your playing, especially if you’re just doing one fingered bass notes right now.

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Until next time —

Basically in that post, I showed you how to spice up seventh chords by changing the way you voice them.

• How the notes in a chord are spaced.
• What notes are being played twice.
• Where the root of the chord is placed.
• What feeling a particular order gives you.

These things are all important when it comes to understanding voicings.

And believe me, some musicians need a lot of help in this area. Just because you’re playing the same notes as the next musician doesn’t mean you’ll make that chord sound the same way the next musician does.

For example, Jason White and Michael Bereal (from our advanced dvds) both do this well. They can take the same ole’ major chords we’ve been playing for years and make them sound like something we think we’ve never played before. And when you find out what they’re doing, you’re often times blown away because it’s so simple.

The key is how you voice your chords and where you place them.

So in that lesson I referred to above, all I did was take regular seventh chords and alter the order and number of notes I played.

Step 1: I started with the regular root inversions.

Example:
C major 7: C + E + G + B

Step 2: I took out the fifth interval.

Example: The fifth interval in this chord is “G” (”G” is the fifth tone in the C major scale).
C major 7: C + E + B

Step 3: I chose to only play the root on my left hand bass.

Example:
C major 7: E + B on right /// C on left hand bass

Step 4: I chose to double up on the “third” (doubling up means playing octaves).

Example: The third interval in this chord is “E” (”E” is the third tone in the C major scale).
E + B + E

Step 5: Once I established my voicing (which is basically “3 + 7 + 3 over the root bass”), I used this same voicing all the way up the piano.

Example:
You already know the seventh chords that correspond to the major scale. The trick is this: Just slide over your fingers one note and that will give you the voicing for the next chord in the scale.

C major 7 = C + E + G + B = new voicing (E + B + E on right / C on left)
D minor 7 = D + F + A + C = new voicing (F + C + F on right / D on left)
E minor 7 = E + G + B + D = new voicing (G + D + G on right / E on left)
F major 7 = F + A + C + E = new voicing (A + E + A on right / F on left)
G dom 7 = G + B + D + F = new voicing (B + F + B on right / G on left)
A minor 7 = A + C + E + G = new voicing (C + G + C on right / A on left)
B half-dim 7 = B + D + F + A = new voicing (D + A + D on right / B on left)
C major 7 = C + E + G + B = new voicing (E + B + E on right / C on left)

Note: What you see in the first group of notes is what the chord normally looks like in root position. Then you see our voicing in parentheses.

You may be thinking… “wow, that seems too easy. I just move my fingers over and I can learn all these new voicings!”

Well, it’s because these voicings all have the 3rd and 7th in them and quite frankly, that’s all you need in order to play a chord (along with the root, of course). The 5th doesn’t really tell you much about the chord because major, minor, and dominant chords all have perfect 5th intervals. What really matters in a chord is what the 3rd and 7th are doing.

(Even when you’re trying to figure out what kind of chord you’re playing, the third and fifth should be able to tell you. Any extra notes may hint at it being an extended or altered chord but the 3rd and 7th will tell you what kind of underlying chord you’re playing, in most cases).

So try making up your own voicings.

Maybe you won’t use “3 + 7 + 3″ like I did. Maybe yours is the reverse: “7 + 3 + 7.” That sounds pretty good, too! And you can even take it all the way up the scale too because it has the 3rd and 7th and that’s all you need in order to form the seventh chords of a major scale.

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If you want to take your skills to the next level in half the time, you owe it to yourself to to advantage of this incredible resource. Click here to learn more | Buy now

Until next time —

It was around the time we were talking heavily about minor concepts.

We studied:

• The natural minor scale, triads, and sevenths
• The harmonic minor scale, triads, and sevenths
• The melodic minor scale (but we never got to triads and sevenths).

So in this lesson, I want to introduce you to the chords that are naturally created by the melodic minor scale.

But first, let’s review…

The melodic minor scale is basically the regular natural minor scale with a raised 6th and 7th tone.

So if you already know how to play your regular C minor scale, simply raise the 6th and 7th notes of the scale and there’s your C melodic minor scale!

Easy!

C minor

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

The 6th and 7th tones are “Ab” and “Bb.”

Raise em’!

So “Ab” becomes “A” and “Bb” becomes “B.”

C melodic minor

C D Eb F G A B C

By golly… want to know an even easier shortcut?

I think it’s just easier to think of a melodic minor scale as a MAJOR scale with a flatted third note.

In other words, you just find your third tone in the C major scale and lower it a half step.

C major

C D E F G A B C

Which gives you…

C D Eb F G A B C

So whichever way you like best is up to you. But either way, here’s your C melodic minor scale:

C D Eb F G A B C

But this is all review…

Let’s play the chords of this scale, shall we?

Just like any other scale, all we do is play block chords on each tone of the scale, skipping every other note.

So on C, we play “C + Eb + G” (again, all I did was take C and skip every other note of the scale until I had a 3-toned chord).

If you do that with the rest of the scale tones, you’ll get:

So basically, the chords that correspond to each tone of the melodic minor scale are as follows:

1st tone - minor
2nd tone - minor
3rd tone - augmented
4th tone - major
5th tone - major
6th tone - diminished
7th tone - diminished

Compared to the chords of the harmonic minor scale:

1st tone - minor
2nd tone - diminished
3rd tone - augmented
4th tone - minor
5th tone - major
6th tone - major
7th tone - diminished

… and major scale:

1st tone - major
2nd tone - minor
3rd tone - minor
4th tone - major
5th tone - major
6th tone - minor
7th tone - diminished

So there you have it!

The triads of the melodic minor scale (and believe me, they’re used a lot… we’ll talk about their application in future posts. But for now, play around with them and see what you come up with!)

Hear and Play Chords 102: The Power of Seventh Chords

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• How to form various types of seventh chords and why they are so important in playing by ear.
• Why seventh chords are the foundation of many more extended chords like ninths, elevenths, thirteenths, and altered voicings.
• The power of the "magic 3rd & 7th" and how manipulating them can help you to instantly play dozens of chords in all twelve keys… very easily!
• And much more! Click here to learn more | Buy now

Until next time —

And yesterday, I pointed you in the right direction.

We got introduced to polychords, which are essentially big chords made from two or more smaller ones.

So today, we’re going to take it a step further. Rather than stack “common” chords on top of each other, we’re going to see what happens when we venture outside the norm.

For example, if you stack a 5-major chord on top of its 1-major chord (like G major on top of C major), you’ll easily get a major ninth chord:

(C + E + G) + (G + B + D) = C major 9

*G is only played once.

Then, by simply changing one or the other to a minor chord, you’ll get a totally different chord:

C minor + G minor = C minor 9
(C + Eb + G) + (G + Bb + D) = C minor 9

(You can revisit yesterday’s post to catch up if you haven’t)

So, this basic “5-chord over 1-chord” is what I’m calling “common,” for the purposes of this post. Master those and you can pretty much play any ninth chord. In fact, change your five chord to a seventh chord (i.e. - major 7, minor 7, or dominant 7) and that will give you all your 11th chords — even some fancy altered ones.

In fact, if you take a basic 1-major 7 chord (like C major 7) and start experimenting with chords off every tone of the chord, you will find matches that create bigger chords.

Don’t believe me?

Ok, the notes of the C major 7 chord are C+E+G+B. So basically, I’m telling you to play around with chords off “E”… chords off “G” (like we’ve done in prior examples)… and even chords off “B.”

If you take each one of the tones (not including “C”) and play random chords on them, you’ll come across things like this:

C + E minor = C major 7

C + E major = C augmented major 7

C + E diminished = C dominant 7

C + E + G major = C major 9

C + E + G minor = C dominant 9

C + E + G diminished = C dominant 7 (b9) (pronounced “C dominant seventh, flat nine”)

*This is a great 6-chord. Like if you’re in the key of Eb and you’re going from Eb major to C (which is the 6th degree), play this chord and it gives you a nice bluesy feel.

C + E + G + B diminished = C major 11

*You can also try “B major” and “B minor” like I did in the other examples but you’ll get some really altered chords. They are used, but rarely.

Heck, you can even experiment with chords outside of the scale.

Like Ab major over C major (you’ll get a cool altered chord that sounds really good on a 3-chord that progresses to a 4 or 6-chord. Like if you were in the key of Ab major and used this chord to go from C (the 3-chord) to either Db or F (the 4 and 6-chords, respectively).

The good news is that these combinations and possibilities are practically everywhere.

And I believe you should reserve a portion of your practice for what I call, “exploration.” This is where you take proven rules and ideas from this blog and experiment further.

For example, the rule learned in the last 2 posts is that you can stack smaller chords to create bigger sounding ones. So you take that rule and run with it! Explore and you never know what you’ll find!

Hear and Play Chords 102: The Power of Seventh Chords

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• How to form various types of seventh chords and why they are so important in playing by ear.
• Why seventh chords are the foundation of many more extended chords like ninths, elevenths, thirteenths, and altered voicings.
• The power of the "magic 3rd & 7th" and how manipulating them can help you to instantly play dozens of chords in all twelve keys… very easily!
• And much more! Click here to learn more | Buy now

Until next time —

So today, I just want to take a second to explain what polychords are for those of you who missed the show.

First, it’s helpful to note what the word “poly” means.

It’s a greek prefix, meaning “many” so that should give us a hint as to what polychords are.

poly-chords
“many”-chords.

And that’s exactly what a polychord is…

It’s usually a bigger chord that consists of two or more smaller chords, one on top of the other.

You can also refer to this as “stacking” or “superimposing” one chord on top of the other.

So it really is that easy.

Let’s explore some examples:

What happens if you play a C major triad on your left and a G major triad on your right?

(C + E + G) + (G + B + D)

That’s basically stacking the 5-chord on top of the 1-chord.

Note: Since both chords have a G in it, you can choose to either use the left hand or the right hand.

Left hand: C + E Right hand: G + B + D

Left hand: C + E + G Right hand: B + D

(This chord is still not that huge so you can play it all with one hand: C + E + G + B + D).

This is a C major ninth chord.

C + E + G + B + D
1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9

What if you changed all these chords to minor?

C minor on left and G minor on right?

C + Eb + G + Bb + D
1 + b3 + 5 + b7 + 9

This is a C minor 9 chord.

What if you played a C major triad on the left hand and a Bb major 7 on the right hand?

So that’s basically the 1-chord + b7 chord (”flat seventh chord”)

C + E + G + Bb + D + F + A
1 + 3 + 5 + b7 + 9 + 11 + 13

Wow! This is a huge chord. A “C13″

So basically, polychords are composed of smaller chords stacked on top of each other. Regardless of whether you’re playing a ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth chord, they can always be broken down to smaller chords because all of those extended chords are essentially polychords.

Why is this important to know? Well, for one, if you’re playing with a bass player, it’s helpful to know what you can play on your left hand and what might work well on your right hand. Then you can start inverting chords on either hand to make different combinations. From there, you can start altering chords and now you’ve just entered the world of “two-hand” altered chord voicings. It’s crazy indeed!

I hope you enjoyed this lesson.

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This course is jam-packed with 300 pages of easy-to-understand instruction geared towards teaching you how to play by ear. Every chapter has been specifically designed to give you a solid foundation and understanding of what playing the piano by ear is all about. From the basics and fundamentals to scales, chords, progressions, harmony, accompaniment, rhythm, and improvisation, you'll get it all in this comprehensive program.

If you want to take your skills to the next level in half the time, you owe it to yourself to to advantage of this incredible resource. Click here to learn more | Buy now

Until next time —