• What are Subsidiary Chords?

    subsidiary chords

    Subsidiary chords are chords that are related to a given chord in terms of harmonic function. Learn all about them in this lesson.

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    Major and Minor Chords – “If You Know Your Major, You Know Your Minor” (Part 2)

    major and minor chords thumbnail

    To pick up where we left off yesterday, I’d like to talk about the connection between major and minor chords. You now realize that you can form any minor scale by knowing the relative major scale it’s connected to. In other words, you can play the “A minor” scale if you already know the notes of the “C major” scale because they’re related. Here’s how to apply this same understanding to chords…

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    Major and Minor Scales – “If You Know Your Major, You Know Your Minor” (Part 1)

    major and minor scales

    Learning the connection between major and minor scales is really simple when you understand the shortcut we’re going to cover in this blog post. There’s absolutely no reason to approach minor scales separately from major scales if you know this trick. I repeat — throw what you’ve learned about forming minor scales out the window unless you want to go at it the hard way. Why?

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    How to take advantage of the power and versatility of primary chords

    The idea of “primary chords” is not new around here. I talked about them in this past lesson, over here, and even here.

    But today, I want to talk about just how powerful primary chords are.

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    The Secret To Primary And Secondary Chords

    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.

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    The “What Key Am I In” Game 7

    popquizsmall.jpgYup! It’s that time again… The “What Key Am I In” Game!

    This time, we’re going to be covering relative minors. It’s an interesting lesson…

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    Here’s a method that’s helping beginners play in minor keys overnight

    pianomansmall.jpgHaving trouble playing in minor keys? You’ll literally laugh when you figure out how simple it is to play minor scales and all the chords that correspond to them, once you know your major scales!

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