So you want to play big, fancy chords! Who doesn’t?

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!

Until next time —

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On yesterday’s radio show, I got a question from a fellow in Vallejo, California about polychords.

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.

Until next time —

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At first look, the word “superimposition” may sound like a complex concept… but I assure you, it is easier than it looks!

For a chord to be superimposed on top of another chord means just that! Usually, you’d play one particular chord on your left hand while playing another chord on your right (both at the same time).

Major, Minor, and Dominant Chords

You’d be surprised how many superimposed chords you already know how to play.

In fact, any 7th, 9th, 11th, or 13th chord can be considered two chords superimposed on top of one another. You’ve probably heard the term “polychords” to describe these chords as well. Basically, polychords consist of two or more chords that are stacked to create one larger chord.

Think about it…

What does a Cmaj7 chord consist of? (I don’t know my maj7 chords)

Cmaj7 = C + E + G + B

Well, obviously a Cmaj triad: C + E + G

But you could also play an Emin triad: E + G + B

Combine them together, and you have one C, two E’s, two G’s, and one B.

Cmaj: C + E + G /// Emin: E + G + B

… Now get rid of any duplicate notes and you have: (C E G B)

So playing an Emin over a Cmaj creates a Cmaj7 chord.

…Moving on…

What about major ninth chords? What two chords do they consist of?

(I don’t know my maj9 chords)

Let’s look at Cmaj9.

Cmaj9 = C + E + G + B + D

If you look closely, you’ll see one major chord superimposed on top of another.

If you see Cmaj on the bottom and Gmaj on the top, then you’re absolutely correct!

Cmaj + Gmaj = Cmaj9

What about major eleventh chords? (I don’t know my maj11 chords)

Cmaj11: C + E + G + B + D + F

There are several smaller chords in this huge polychord. It just depends on how you look at the chord.

How many different chords do you see?

Cmaj, Cmaj7, Emin, Emin7, Emin9, Gmaj, G7, Bdim

How many different superimposed relationships?

Cmaj + G7

Cmaj + Bdim

What about major thirteenth chords? (I don’t know my maj13 chords)

Cmaj13: C + E + G + B + D + F + A

Cmaj7 + Dmin

Cmaj + B half diminished

Cmaj + G9

Here is a “cheat” chart for all the major, minor, and dominant chords covered above:

Type	9	11	13
Major	1maj + 5maj	1maj + 7dim	1maj7 + 2min
Minor	1min + 5min	1min + b7maj	1min7 + 2min
Dominant	1maj + 5min	1maj + b7maj	1dom7 + 2min

In order to read the chart above, you will have to know your major scales. I will demonstrate how to use this chart in the key of C major, but feel free to check out my 300-pg course to learn all twelve major scales along with tons of major, minor, dominant, and diminished chords like the ones above!

C major scale

C — D — E — F — G — A — B — C

1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8

If you wanted to play a Cmaj9 chord, you would use the row titled “Major” and the column titled “9.”

Notice the formula for a maj9 chord is 1maj + 5maj.

If you know your major scales, then this will be very simple.

The number in front of “maj” corresponds to the major scale. The “1″ of C major is obviously C. So you’d play Cmaj on your left hand. The right hand chord, according to the formula, needs to be the 5maj chord of the scale.

Count up the C major scale…

C is 1 … D is 2… E is 3… F is 4… G is 5. Ding Ding Ding!

So on your right hand, you’d play Gmaj.

Cmaj9 = Cmaj + Gmaj

*Follow these same steps for all the other types of chords.

Altered Chords

In my GospelKeys 202 video course: “Mastering Worship Chords”, I cover a number of chord progressions that are used in worship music.

If you already have the course, you will know that one of my favorite progressions is the “7-3-6″.

This is a bit more advanced but certainly relevant for this section.

Instead of playing a major or minor chord on the left hand as I’ve demonstrated above, we will play a tritone on our left hand and a major chord on our right hand.

We’ve covered tritones in other newsletters but here is a brief summary:

1) Tritones are made up of diminished 5th intervals.

• From C to Gb would be a tritone interval.

2) Tritones are 3 whole steps apart.

• C to D (1 W) … D to E (2 W) … E to Gb (3 W)

3) Tritones split the piano in half.

• From C to Gb is the same distance as Gb to C. Gb is exactly the middle of C and the octave C.

4) Tritones also create the shell of dominant chords (3 + b7).

• C + Gb is the shell of an Ab7 chord (Ab + C + Eb + Gb). C is the 3rd of Ab and Gb is the b7.

There are twelve tritones but really only six unique ones because they start to repeat. Let me explain…

C to Gb

Db to G

D to Ab

Eb to A

E to Bb

F to B

— repeating starts —

Gb to C

G to Db

Ab to D

A to Eb

Bb to E

B to F

* Notice that the bottom sets of tritones are the same as the top but backwards.

Now… back to the 7-3-6 progression:

Normally, in the key of Db, I’d play a 7-3-6 like this:

Cmin11 —> F7 (#9#5) —> Bbmin9

Cmin11 = C on bass /// Eb G Bb D F on right hand

F7 (#9#5) = F on bass /// A Db Eb Ab on right hand

Bbmin9 = Bb on bass /// Ab C Db F on right hand

For the F7 (#9#5) altered chord, you can actually substitute the shell of F7. Remember, we are calling a “shell” the 3rd and b7th notes of any 7th chord. So the shell of F7 would be A and Eb. This is also called an upper structure voicing.

You should also know from above that A + Eb is a tritone!

So… on your left hand, play the A + Eb tritone.

On your right hand, simply play a Dbmaj chord (or the major chord of the key that you’re in). Wasn’t that simple?

Moving on…

Since the A + Eb can be played either way (with A on top or bottom), let’s switch our left hand to Eb + A instead. I like this sound better.

Left hand = Eb + A.

Now, here’s the trick with any 7-3 progression. We’ve covered the superimposed substitution for the F7 (#9#5) above. But what about the Cmin11 chord right before it? Can that be substituted?

It sure can!

Just take the: Eb + A /// Dbmaj and move it up one-half step.

E + Bb on left /// Dmaj on your right hand. This will take the place of your Cmin11 chord.

… So just to recap:

What used to be:

Cmin11 = C on bass /// Eb G Bb D F on right hand

F7 (#9#5) = F on bass /// A Db Eb Ab on right hand

Bbmin9 = Bb on bass /// Ab C Db F on right hand

Is now:

D major superimposed on top of (E+Bb) tritone

Db major superimposed on top of (Eb + A) tritone

* For the Bbmin9 chord, I would change the right hand to create:

Ab maj over Bb bass.

Here’s an audio example of how this progression should sound:

Concluding…

 

We didn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to superimposing chords on top of one another.

 

Yes, I covered major, minor, and dominant chords but there are series of other combinations that we couldn’t get to because of limits on space in this e-mail.

 

If you are truly serious about learning how to play the piano by ear, I recommend that you check out my newest gospel series: GospelKeys 202 video course: “Mastering Worship Chords”

Also, considering that the holidays are quickly approaching, GospelKeys 202 is a wonderful gift for any aspiring Gospel musician. In fact, since chords and progressions are used across different genres of music, there are tons of chords and voicings in GospelKeys 202 for R&B, jazz, and blues musicians!

Explore these chord types along with the GospelKeys 202 video course:

• Major triads; see pg chapter 5 of 300pg course

 

• Minor triads; see pg chapter 8 of 300pg course
• Major sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Minor sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Seventh (dominant) chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Minor seventh chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Major ninth chords; see pg chapter 14 of 300pg course

Well, I hope you enjoyed my November newsletter and I’ll be back in December! Take care!

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This concludes your November Online Classroom Lesson

If you were intrigued by the online classroom lesson above,

then you would definitely benefit from my course!

*** “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300-pg Course ***

With 20 chapters and over 300 pages, the home piano course provides several resources, techniques, tips, principles, and theories to playing the piano by ear. Along with hundreds of chords and scales, you’ll also learn how to turn them into gospel, jazz and blues chord progressions and better yet, how to use them to play ABSOLUTELY any song you want … IN VIRTUALLY MINUTES! Again, don’t miss this opportunity. I’ve even added an additional bonus if you purchase the course this week — You can read more about the course at:

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Jermaine Griggs

www.HearandPlay.com

www.GospelKeys.com

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Further References “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300-pg Course [5] Chords & Progressions: pgs 65-78, 105-130, 147-165, 182-227. Do you know what a “2-5-1” or “3-6-2-5-1“ progression is? Or perhaps the famous 12-bar blues chord progression? In this piano course, you will not only learn how to play gospel, blues, and jazz progressions, but how to recognize them in songs. In addition, you will learn the simple techniques to playing these progressions, hymns, and songs in all 12 major keys! … Enjoy learning: The famous “2-5-1″ Chord Progression: pgs 114-120, 153-156, 208, 235-236. I - IV - I - V - I Chord Progressions: pgs 66-70. I - IV - V - IV - I Chord Progressions: pgs 77-78. Techniques behind the famous “5–>1″ progression: pgs 68-72. I –> IV, I –> V Chord Progressions: pgs 74-75. “Circle of Fifths” Chord Exercises: pg 78. Major and Minor Chord Progressions: pgs 105-130. “6 - 2 - 5 - 1″ Chord Progressions: pgs 121-122, 157-159. “3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1″ Chord Progressions: pgs 122-123, 160-162. “7 - 3 - 6 - 2 - 5 - 1″ Chord Progressions: pgs 124-125, 190-191. Gospel Chord Progressions … ranging from “up-tempo praise” chord Progressions to “worship-oriented” chord progressions: pgs 65-78, 105-130, 147-165, 182-227. Various Blues Progressions … 12-bar, seventh chords, diminished chords … and others: pgs 163-165, 192. Jazz Chord Progressions … using dominant ninth, eleventh and thirteenth chords: pgs 193-240 Study the different types of Root Progressions — closing, opening, circular and other types of progressions: pgs 121-122. Study how chord tones and scale degrees relate to each other [which chord progressions are most likely to be compatible]: pgs 122-130. Learn various “turn-around” progressions [used in gospel music]: pg 213-214. If you don’t have the 300-pg Course, click here to read more about it.

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“The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300pg Course - Learn the secrets to playing literally any song on the piano with a few simple, “easy-to-understand” techniques and principles! Join Jermaine Griggs in learning tons of music theory, concepts, and tricks that will help you to learn piano by ear! Thousands of musicians have already taken advantage of this excellent program … why not you? “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” is full of easy-to-understand tricks, tips, techniques and secrets to playing piano by ear! For this month only, I’ve also been able to throw in a few bonus items (3 additional piano software programs). Click here to learn the secrets to playing absolutely any song on the piano in virtually minutes! You won’t regret it!

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