Lately, we’ve been talking about sevenths and ninth chords.

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 —

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Yesterday, we had a blast learning about 6-4 chords.

Basically, they are major chords with their fifths as the lowest note.

For example, if you’re about to play a C major chord — in this case, just simply play G as the lowest note with C major on top and you’ve got yourself a 6-4 chord. Simple right?

Now, here’s the big deal.

Normally when I refer to second inversion chords, I’m usually just referring to the right hand alone… like when I’m talking about harmonizing a melody or something. So when I say, “play C major in second inversion on the right hand,” the truth is that the overall chord is still C major in root position if I’m playing C major in the bass.

I usually don’t get that technical though because it’s a given that C is the bass most of the time so when I usually mention inversions, I’m only talking about the right hand.

But with 6-4 chords, it’s not just playing a second inversion chord with the right hand in the way I just described. It’s actually playing the 5th as the lowest note of the overall chord. So if C major is your chord, G will be your bass and nothing will be lower than it.

In fact, we could end this conversation about 6-4 chords right now. You could easily just say Cmaj/G and it’d be the same thing. That’s essentially a “Cmaj 6-4.”

(But if you’re like me, you’d like to know exactly what you’re playing and what other people call it, right?)

Well, today, I want to go a step further.

Let’s actually study real-life applications of the 6-4 chord.

1) The Neighboring 6-4 (a.k.a. - Pedal 6-4)
2) The Passing 6-4
3) The Cadential 6-4

Neighboring 6-4

This basically occurs when the bass stays the same but the upper voices of the chord move to a 6-4 chord and back down to the original chord. Usually in a stepwise motion (that is, the notes that move only go “next door” and come right back).

Like in this C major chord progression:

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

F major / C (or Fmaj 6-4)
F + A + C on right / C on left

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

Notice that the first and last chords are the same. The chord in the middle serves as a neighboring “6-4″ chord. The bass never changes (always remains on “C”).

You hear this a lot in the beginning of ballads. It sounds pretty.

Passing 6-4

This usually occurs when the bass is walking up.

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

G major / D (or Gmaj 6-4)
D + G + B / D on left

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

Rather than coming back to the same exact chord (like in the “neighboring” example), this 6-4 chord led to a different inversion of the C major chord (one that puts E on the bottom… we’ll talk about that chord later).

Cadential 6-4

This is probably the most common use of the 6-4 chord. You’ll definitely hear this at the end of many songs. In fact, when you’ve heard me talk about “2-5-1″ chord progressions, often times, it’s not just 3 chords (that is, the “2-chord” going to the “5″ and then immediately coming home to the “1-chord”).

Sometimes, it’s really 2-5-5-1 (but since the progression stays on the same “5th” degree for two chords, most people will just call it a “2-5-1″ as it serves the same exact purpose). In other words, the chord progression may simply hang out at the “5″ for a couple chords and then finally return home.

The 2-chord has done its job to get us to the 5 but at times, we’re not quite ready to use the regular 5-chord like we want… so we put a 6-4 chord in there first, which resolves us to the more common 5-chord, which then takes us home to our 1-chord! Thus, what I called “2-5-5-1″ above!

Let’s get a little more specific…

Yesterday, we talked about the instability and slight dissonance of chords in their second inversion (”6-4s”). They usually require resolution as they hang loose over the bass. They certainly don’t give you a feeling of “home bass.” Even a non-musician senses that the “6-4″ chord needs to go somewhere.

And usually that “somewhere” is simply moving the upper notes down in stepwise motion to a more stable major chord in root position (the bass stays the same).

Consider this progression…

C major / G (or Cmaj 6-4)
G + C + E on right / G on left

G major
G + B + D on right / G on left

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

You better watch out! With this information, you’ll soon be composing your own music! After all, this is how it’s done!

The last two days may be a lot to swallow if you’re not used to thinking of second inversion chords this way. But just go back over it and you’ll be good to go!

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Until next time —

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Today, I want to talk about the “6-4″ chord.

Usually, it’s written with the 6 on top of the 4 (something like ⁶₄) but I’ll just use “6-4″ to make things easier.

Here’s the thing…

I’m pretty sure you’ve already played this chord. In fact, it’s nothing new.

A 6-4 chord is basically a chord in second inversion. (But don’t sleep on this one yet because there’s something special about this type of chord that differentiates it from the other inversions).

Recall the chord inversions of a triad:

Root position
1+3+5

First inversion
3+5+1

Second inversion
5+1+3

Basically, root position is when the keynote of the chord is on the bottom:

C major
C + E + G

*”C” is the keynote, “E” is the third, and “G” is the fifth (thus, 1+3+5).

First inversion is when the third of the chord is on the bottom:

C major
E + G + C

*”E” is the third, “G” is the fifth, and “C” is the keynote (thus, 3+5+1).

And lastly, second inversion is when the fifth of the chord is on the bottom:

C major
G + C + E

*”G” is the fifth, “C” is the keynote, and “E” is the third (thus, 5+1+3).

So a “6-4″ chord is when you have:

• An interval of a fourth above the bass.
• And an interval of a sixth above the bass.

Now, let’s create a chord based on these rules:

Keynote/Root: C
(this will be the lowest note of the chord)

4th above the root: F (this is real the “root” of the chord)

6th above the root: A

C+F+A

That chord should look pretty familiar but the key is how it’s used in chord progressions as we’ll soon discover…

Historically, second inversions have been considered more dissonant and unstable than first and root inversions — especially, when you split up the chord and play C on the left hand and F+A+C on the right.

Don’t be confused. You’re probably thinking that “F+A+C” is an F major chord in root position. But when you consider the bass (which is the 5th of the chord), then it’s really an F major chord in second inversion:

C (bass) + F + A + C

So basically, when you play a major chord with it’s 5th note as the bass, you’re playing a 6-4 chord.

When are “6-4″ chords used?

Since they are unstable and need to resolve, you usually see them leading to a 5-chord.

Like in this example:

G + C + E on right / G on left (this is a “6-4″ chord)
G + B + D on right / G on left
E + G+ C on right / C on left

Or in this example:

G + C + E on right / C on left
G + B + D on right / D on left (this is a “6-4″ chord)
G + C + E on right / E on left

Basically, you can think of “6-4″ chords in two ways:

1) You can focus on the bass note and play a major chord a fourth on top of it (on the right hand). An example of this would be taking a keynote like C and then figuring out what’s a fourth up from C. Once you figure out that it’s F, simply play an F major chord over C (C + F + A + C). That’s essentially a 6/4 chord. But remember, C is just the lowest note, NOT the root. F is still the root and this is no doubt an F major chord.

2) You can focus on the chord itself and just play the fifth degree of the chord as the lowest note (bass). So in this case, the chord is F major. Just play the fifth as the bass note (”C”) and you’ve got yourself a 6/4 chord. (C + F + A + C). Again, 6-4 chords are just basic major chords with their fifth as the lowest note.

Tomorrow, I’m going to cover neighboring 6-4 chords, passing 6-4 chords, pedal 6-4 chords, and more.

Until next time —

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