Announcing Our All-New Facebook Fanpage! Click here to visit

tonic substitution

The secret to inspiring your own flavorful altered chords!

by Jermaine Griggs · 12 comments

in Beginners

pianomansmall.jpgI promised yesterday to show you something else you could do with the 3-chord in “Amazing Grace.” As you learned on Thursday, substituting major for minor can sound much better at times. It doesn’t work all the time but it’s usually worth a try. If it sounds worse, you just revert back to using minor… it’s that simple!

The reason it works is because it’s sort of operating like a 5-chord temporarily…

Here’s a quick way to add even more spice to your songs

by Jermaine Griggs · 8 comments

in Beginners

spicesmall.jpgToday, we’ll continue to use the circle of fifths to create even bigger chord progressions that are sure to spice up our songs! We’ve certainly come a long way since Wednesday’s lesson on primary chords. And after this post, you’ll be one step closer to picking out these common circular progressions in your favorite songs, guaranteed!

It’s a numbers game! Discover how to crack the code…

by Jermaine Griggs · 12 comments

in Beginners,Theory

(If you haven’t read Wednesday’s and Thursday’s post, it’d be a good idea to start there as this lesson continues with what we’ve already learned…)

numbergame-small.jpgToday, we’re going to keep exploring the number system and circle of fifths and see what else we can do to spice up the primary chords we already know.