I left you with this nice ballad-style chord progression:

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

*This takes us perfectly to the beginning, where we start all over with our C major (1-chord).

And for a chord progression that only uses 2 chords, it sounds pretty darn good!

It’s used EVERYWHERE from Mariah Carey to Andre Crouch, as you saw on the videos I shared with you yesterday.

Today, I want to show you how to spice up this chord progression by employing one little trick. I’m not even going to cover more chords just yet. I’m just going to show you how to spice up the 2 chords you already know from this example.

Want to know the secret?

Some of you may already know it…

The secret is the “9.”

(And this works for any slow, ballad-style song — especially worship music).

Now, some people call it the “2,” depending on how and where you’re using it. I’m not too much concerned with explaining that part right now. You can find tons of prior lessons on the terminology by searching for “ninth chords” or “add 9″ in my search box above.

But what is important is determining what the “9th” (or “2nd”) tone of your chord is.

Here’s how you find the magic 9 and then I’ll show you what to do with it.

Let’s look at our first chord, which happens to be a “C major.”

It obviously comes from the C major scale:

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

From yesterday’s post, you understand the importance of numbering your scale.

Notice, however, that the scale only goes up to 7. Let’s add another octave (basically repeat the scale a little higher).

C D E F G A B C D E_ F_ G_ A_ B_ C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

(Don’t mind the little “_” underscores. I’m just using those to make my numbers line up with the letters. I can just see someone freakin’ out over that now! :-)… “Oh my gosh, what are those underscores!!!” Just joking…)

What is the 9th tone of the scale?

Answer: D

It’s also the 2nd tone of the scale so whichever way you want to look at it is fine. For the purposes of this lesson, the only important thing is that you know the NOTE to add. The 2 and 9 will always give you the same NOTE (although one is a high version and the other is a low version, technically).

So what do we do with this magic “9th” tone?

You guessed it.

We simply add it to our chord.

C major triad
C + E + G

C major with added 9
C + D + E + G

Some people even choose not to play the “C” because it will be taken care of with your left hand bass. If you prefer that sound, then only play “D + E + G” on your right hand with a “C” on your left hand bass. That will work too!

Ok, so let’s replace all our chords with our new chord and see what we get:

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

*This takes us perfectly to the beginning, where we start all over with our C major (1-chord).

Sounds good doesn’t it?

But we won’t stop there. Let’s add the secret “9″ to our 5-chord as well.

Simply go through the same process with the G major chord, determining it’s 9th tone (or 2nd tone).

The magic “9″ for G major should be “A.”

But if you recall from yesterday’s lesson, we intentionally inverted our “G major” chord so that “G” was on top. This provided a smoother transition between the two chords. We surely don’t want to mess this up by adding “A” on top so we’re actually going to add it on the bottom:

G major triad (inverted)
B + D + G

G major with added 9 (inverted)
A + B + D +G

*For some, it can be awkward playing the “A” and “B” with separate fingers so some people just play both the “A” and “B” with their thumb. That’s right! You can play two notes with one finger. Musicians do it all the time! So if that’s easier for you, just let your thumb handle both notes.

Let’s wrap it all up!

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

Curious to hear what you guys think about the “added” 9 trick! Let me know!

Until next time —

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Our last radio show was awesome! We took several callers, gave away tons of prizes, and delved into some more music theory concepts!

One of our callers had a question about a particular altered chord and I spent some time unraveling it with her. In this post, I just want to take some time to review what I told her on the air. I think this will be extremely helpful for people in the same situation.

Her question had to do with playing a C diminished 7 chord over F bass. She wanted to know what type of chord it was.

So we broke it down…

F on bass
C diminished 7 on right hand: C Eb Gb A

Note: I’m using “A” on purpose. If you were taking a music theory exam, you’d make that “B double flat” (Bbb). But let’s just keep it informal so I can make my point easier. That disclaimer is just for my theory heads. Most people can careless (just being honest).

Here’s something to help you out…

Whenever you don’t know the name of a chord, try starting with the 3rd and 7th tones of the keynote. In this case, the keynote is “F,” our bass.

(This is when knowing all your scales as numbers is important. If you can know the 3rd and 7th of virtually any key without having to think much about it, then finding the names of chords will be super easy for you. So work on that in the meantime).

Notice there is an “A” and “Eb” in the chord. Immediately when I see that, I think “F dominant 7 chord.” I don’t even think about it. Unless there’s something crazy going on with the other tones we haven’t analyzed yet, this chord has a very high probability of being some kind of dominant seventh chord… but we’re not done yet!

So that’s the kind of the thought process I go through. I find and hold on to the best match until it is dethroned. Make sense?

Notice the “C” in this chord. What is its relation to the keynote?

The “C” is simply the perfect fifth. From past lessons, you know that the fifth isn’t really as helpful as the other tones because you’ll find it equally in major, minor, and dominant chords. So it can’t really be the deciding factor when trying to differentiate among those chords.

In this case, the “C” doesn’t change our answer. It just further confirms we’re on the right track by adding another note to our F dominant 7 chord, which is “F + A + C + Eb.”

Back to the chord that was posed on the show…

F on bass
C diminished 7: C Eb Gb A

There’s just one more tone left… the “Gb.” And that’s what makes this chord more than an “F dominant 7″ chord.

So what we do from here is figure out what tone of the scale Gb is based on.

First off, there’s no Gb in the F major scale so we know it’s not a tone directly out of the major key of F. Something is either going to be sharped, flatted, augmented, or diminished — we just haven’t figured out what it is quite yet.

“G” is the 2nd or 9th tone in the F major scale.

Yes, I know that may sound confusing but here’s where the numbers come from.

If you play an F major scale only using one octave and number each tone as you play it, “G” will undoubtedly be the 2nd tone of the scale. This is the norm. You probably already know this.

However, if you extend the scale another octave (basically keep going), “G” will be the 9th tone in the next octave. You don’t stop counting… you basically keep going.

1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 6 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 10 > 11… and so on.

So that’s where 9s, 11s, and 13s come from.

But here’s the thing…

Just think of:

• 9 as 2
• 11 as 4
• 13 as 6

It will be so much easier.

Now, there does come a time when you use 2, 4, or 6 and this is usually when you’re playing simple triads with added notes. Like if I play an F major chord (F+A+C) and just add the “G” in between the “F” and “A,” I could simply say “add 2″ (F + G + A + C).

However, when you start getting into dominant seventh chords and your chords start reaching across octaves, that’s when the higher numbers come in. For example, some will say if you add “G” in the next octave and still maintain that regular F major triad (F + A + C + G), then you can reference it as “add 9.” Chord naming is very ambiguous like that but as long as you’re in the right neighborhood, people will know what you mean!

So, indeed, “G” is the 9. But “Gb” is what’s in the chord so we have to say “flat 9″ (a.k.a. - “b9″).

In other words, this is an F dominant 7 chord with a lowered 9.

Big picture thinking

Now how can you easily play this chord in every key?

Here’s what I like to do.

I try to find some commonality that I can turn into a “rule” that works any time.

Also, “rules” (in the way that I’m defining them) don’t use specific notes or else they wouldn’t be rules. They use universal numbers so that they can be applied to any situation.

There’s several ways to approach coming up with your own internal rule for this chord.

Let’s try a few…

1) I can think of this chord as the keynote plus a diminished 7 chord played on the 5th tone of the keynote’s scale. Yes, I know it sounds complex but it really isn’t. Basically, I’m telling myself that whenever I want to play a dominant chord with a flat 9, all I have to know is the diminished seventh chord a fifth up from my bass note and I’m good to go!

If I want to play an Ab 7 (b9) chord, all I do is put Ab in my bass and go up to the 5th tone (Eb) and play its diminished seventh chord (F on bass + Eb diminished 7).

If I want to play a D7 (b9) chord, I do the same thing. Play D on my bass, go up to the 5th tone of D and play its diminished seventh chord (D on bass + A diminished 7).

If I want to play a C7 (b9) chord, my rule works there too (because my rule works in EVERY situation). I just play a G diminished seventh chord over C bass and “BAM,” there it is!

But this isn’t the only rule. If thinking of the “fifth” on the spot works for you, then go for it! But maybe I can get closer…

2) There’s something unique about diminished 7 chords. Take that C diminished 7 chord (C + Eb + Gb + A) and play it with Eb on the bottom. It still sounds like a diminished 7 chord right? That’s because it is a diminished 7 chord… Eb diminished 7 (Eb + Gb + A + C). Do the same thing with Gb… play the same exact notes starting on Gb — Gb + A + C + Eb. So basically, once you know 1 diminished chord, you know the other 3 in the group because they all share the same notes. So if that’s the case, maybe I don’t have to play the C diminished 7 because I have three other choices that will pretty much give me the same sound (…now if you want your melody to be on top, you’ll have to pick the chord that does that). With that said though, I’m going to use Gb diminished 7 (Gb + A + C + Eb). Keep in mind that the ONLY difference in this chord and the C diminished 7 is the order of notes. That’s all.

Now that I’ve figured this out, I can change my rule a little bit. I can simply think of this chord as the diminished 7th chord RIGHT ON TOP of my bass. Get it?

My bass is F right? Now, I’ve figured out that my C diminished 7 chord can actually be Gb diminished 7 if I want it to. And Gb is just one half step higher than F right? So that means instead of having to think of this chord as the keynote plus the 5th tone’s diminished chord, I can ease my mind a little bit by simply thinking of this chord as the keynote plus the diminished 7 chord a half step up!

Bam!

So let’s compare:

Rule #1
Keynote plus 5-diminished7 chord
F + C diminished 7
F + (C + Eb + Gb + A)

or

Rule #2
Keynote plus diminished 7 chord half step up
F + Gb diminished 7
F + (Gb + A + C + Eb)

Up to you!

But that’s the idea.

It’s not always about having to do a lot of thinking. For me, at least, it’s about finding universal rules I can apply on the spot. Heck, your rules are your rules… even if they don’t make sense to others! :)

So try taking some of your favorite chords and come up with some numerical rule that you can apply to easily take these chords to any key you want on the spot (assuming you know the underlying chords you’ll be using — if your rule includes playing a big 9th chord with smaller major chords, then you had better know all your major chords or even the rule won’t do you any good).

Well, this post was a little long but I hope it helps!

All the best —

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Here’s another combination of “altered” chords:

“Cmin11 — F7 (#9#5) — Bbmin9″

In the key of “Db major”

Here’s how to play it:

1)

Bass = C

Right hand = Eb + G + Bb + D + F

2)

Bass = F

Right hand = A + Db + Eb + Ab

3)

Bass = Bb

Right hand = Ab + C + Db + F

* This progression is actually the start of a “7-3-6-2-5-1″ chord progression in the key of “Db major.” This progression covers the 7th, 3rd, and 6th degrees. Through previous “tip of the day” e-mails, you should be able to put a “2-5-1″ progression behind this one! Just explore the different possibilities and it will come to you!

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Here is a chord progression which utilizes a series of “altered” chords:

In the key of “Db major”:

“Fmin7 (b5) — Bb7 (b9) — Ebmin7 (b5)”

1)

Bass = F

Right hand = Ab + B + Eb

2)

Bass = Bb

Right hand = Ab + B + D

3)

Bass = Eb

Right hand = A + Db + Eb + Gb

Note: You should be able to find a place to “squeeze” this chord progression in. It is very pretty when used at the right time. Let your ear be the judge!

Thanks again for your time!

Popularity: 7% [?]

“The Bb7 (b9) Chord”

Here is where I introduce “altered” chords to you!

An alteration occurs when a note is raised or lowered by a half step. Above, you will see that there is a “b9″ in parentheses. The flatted 9 is an example of an alteration. This chord is simply a:

“Bb Seventh chord with a lowered 9th tone.”

Here is how you play it:

Bass = Bb

Right hand = B + D + F + Ab

I usually play this chord during a “6-2-5-1″ chord progression. That is, I play it right before I play an Eb minor chord. In other words, it leads to an Eb chord!

If you don’t know what “2-5-1″, “6-2-5-1″, “3-6-2-5-1″, or “7-2-6-2-5-1″ 1″ progressions are, you really need to consider my course. It covers all of this!

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