Now that you’re familiar with power chords (from yesterday’s post), I want to introduce you to the power chord’s cousin.

(If power chords are your batteries, per yesterday’s photo, then his cousin is your fuel… just a little play on words).

Let’s review the power chord really quickly.

A power chord is basically made up of a fifth interval. In any given key, just play the 1 and the 5 together and you’ve got yourself a power chord.

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

But most people don’t stop at playing just “C + G.” They double up on the C, playing it on top as well:

“C + G + C.”

So there’s a crash course on power chords.

Now, at the end of yesterday’s lesson, I gave you some more variations of this “1+5+1″ power chord.

Here they are:

• If playing a major seventh, ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth chord, you can actually play “1 + 5 + 7″ as a power chord on your left hand. Since the major 7 degree is found in these chords, it makes sense and sounds awesome!
• In C major, that’s “C + G + B”
• If playing a minor or dominant seventh, ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth chord, you can play “1 + 5 + b7″ as a power chord on your left hand. Unlike the first variation, the seventh is lowered a half step to be more conducive to dominant and minor seventh chords, which both have lowered seventh notes in them.
• In C major, that’s “C + G + Bb.”

So here’s where I want to introduce you to the power chord’s cousin…

Her name is “tritone.”

She’ll help you to play this “1 + 5 + b7″ chord a lot more flavorful!

Unlike the power chord which uses the 1 and the 5 to form a chord (some call it a “dyad” because it’s only 2 notes as opposed to 3), the tritone uses the 1 and b5. So it’s like a power chord with the fifth lowered.

Power chord (example):
C + G

Tritone (example):
C + Gb

This is also called a diminished fifth interval.

There’s another way to look at tritones. You can also look at them as the 3rd and b7 of any key.

(I can just imagine you connecting the dots now… hmmm, the “b7″)

In C major:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 G 6 7

Turn the 7 into a b7 (that’s B into Bb) and there’s your tritone:

E + Bb

So where do you use it?

Anytime you’re playing a dominant chord or some kind of altered chord that is based on the dominant chord.

Here’s why…

Check out the C dominant 7 chord:

C + E + G + Bb

Do you see what I see?

It has a tritone inside of it! The distance from “E” to “Bb” in the chord is the “3 + b7″ interval we’ve been talking about.

Therefore, instead of playing the power chord alteration from yesterday (1 + 5 + b7), you can play the “3 + b7″ instead.

Actually, you can switch off. Playing by ear is all about having OPTIONS. You can play the power chord first… then when the chord comes back around, you can play the tritone on your left hand the next time.

Here’s some other things you can do:

• 3 + b7
• 1 + 3 + b7 (the only difference in this one is that you’re playing the “3″ and not the “5″ like you did in the power chord variation).
• 3 + b7 + 3 (double up on the “3,” similar to the voicings taught in this lesson).

So now you’ve got the power chord, some power chord variations, and the tritone under your finger tips!

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In this post, I’m going to break down the main movements in James Wrubel’s clip below (from our Hear & Play Jazz 101 course). This should be an interesting post and you’ll get a lot out of it…

It’s important to note that he has a recorded bass line, which gives him the opportunity to play chords in his left hand.

Here’s the basic pattern that he’s playing.

C7 —- F7 —- C7 —- C7 —- F7 —- F7 —- C7 —- C7 —- G7 —- F7 —- C7

Replay the video above and see if you can following along from the beginning. Every time he switches his chord go to the next chord. Every chord, for the most part is switching either every 4 beats or every 8 beats (sometimes you get two C or F chords in a row).

Normally you’d play a C7, F7, and G7 like this:

C E G Bb (C7 pronounced “C Seventh”)

F A C Eb (F7)

G B D F (G7)

(Note: You can play these chords on your right and play the root bass notes (”C,” “F,” or “G”) on your left if you don’t have a bass player).

But since James has a bass player, he’s playing tritones in the left hand.

Tritones are interesting little fellas.

They are diminished fifth intervals. I don’t have enough time to really delve into that part of it but just think of them as 6 half steps apart.

So if you wanted to form a tritone based on C, you would start on C and count 6 half steps up.

C to Db is 1 half step
Db to D is another half step
D to Eb is another half step
Eb to E is another half step
E to F is another half step
F to Gb is the last half step.

That makes 6 (for my folks new to counting in “half steps”).

Here are all the tritones written all in flats for simplicity’s sake:

C + Gb
Db + G
D + Ab
Eb + A
E + Bb
F + B

Now watch what’s going to happen…

Here are the remaining 6 tritones

Gb + C
G + Db
Ab + D
A + Eb
Bb + E
B + F

Basically the second half of the tritone list is just like the first but they’re inverted. Which means instead of C+Gb, now it’s Gb+C.

This makes tritones very versatile. You only need to know 6 and you can flip them to get the other 6.

So let’s recall our 3 magic chords for this 12-bar blues progression:

C E G Bb (C7)

F A C Eb (F7)

G B D F (G7)

Because they are seventh chords, they inherently carry a TRITONE. Yup, that’s true. So if you can figure out what tritones are used in these three chords, then you don’t have to play the full chord. You can abbreviate these chords with their tritone “shortcuts.”

How’s 4 notes down to 2 for ya? Easier to play right? Definitely! But it gets better… I’ll talk about the “better” part later.

So did you find the tritone in each of those chords???

You should have gotten:

E+Bb for the C7

A+Eb for the F7

B+F for the G7

SHORTCUT: Basically the 3rd and lowered 7th tone of the chord (E is the third in C major and Bb is the lowered seventh in C major) will create your tritone.

Now for the “better” part…

What’s cool about tritones is that when you’re moving in fourths (as in the case of a C7 going to an F7), they are extremely easy to play.

Notice this:

Tritone for C7 = E+Bb
Tritone for F7 = A+Eb

Can one of these tritones be “flipped” to their other pair to make this easier to play?

Abzzzzoooooooolutelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

You could do this two ways.

1) Change the C7 tritone
2) Or change the F7 tritone

So you could either go from E+Bb (which substitutes for C7 chord) to Eb+A (which substitutes for F7 chord)… which means all you have to do is lower each finger ONE note… that’s it! ONE NOTE!

Or you can change the first chord:

Bb+E to A+Eb

Your call! Switch em’ up here and there.

Now, what would you use for the G7 tritone if you were currently on the “E+Bb” tritone?

Which G7 tritone is closer?

F+B or B+F

“Give me the F+B tritone for $100 Alex!”

So I hope through this post that I not only introduced you to the 12-bar blues pattern but I’ve also shown you the power and convenience of tritones and how you can “flip” them to make it easier for your left hand to flow from chord to chord.

If you’re playing tritones correctly and using the right chord for the right moment, you should never have to slide more than a few notes. Tritones should be right next to each other. After all, there’s only 6 of them and the other flipped 6 use the same notes as the first.

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See ya next time!

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Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about this so-called gospel musicians’ “secret.”

In fact, this “secret” is suppose to be the ONE thing that connects every “big name” gospel musician together.

They all know what it is. Heck, they’ve even learned how to manipulate it so much that it can literally evoke any kind of emotion when used properly.

And what it all boils down to is their ability to find unique ways to use this secret in musical situations at church that most gospel musicians can’t begin to fathom.

Sadly, the big-time musicians want to keep this gospel “secret” to themselves (and I’m sure you probably know why by now)…

Why? Because the secret I’m about to reveal to you (that no one else wants to share) combined with a few more techniques, produces the hottest sound to ever hit contemporary gospel music… PERIOD.

And to be quite honest, it hasn’t always been accepted by the church. Several hundred years ago, its sound would have been classified as the “devil’s music.”

Today, it is the most commonly used “secret” in contemporary worship music.

Warning: Most gospel musicians think they know how to use this secret but they’ve only employed a fraction of its true power.

But because I know you’re serious about your playing, I want to give you a sneak peak of this secret for *f*r*e*e*.

And if you’re really committed to your growth like I think you are, you will take this secret and apply it to every aspect of your playing. Your worship services depend on it.

(Just wait… when your church hears how you’ve manipulated this “secret” to transform your playing, they won’t believe it’s the same person on the keys).

I’ve shared this secret in depth with a few of my closest students and each and every one of them were blown away by these practical techniques. Not just because these techniques instantly expanded their playing but because they were so easy to incorporate, yet only the big-time musicians use them in such ways.

Listen, I don’t know how long these video clips will be up so if I were you, I’d hurry to watch all 8 of them now. You’ll also want to get on the notification list to be contacted when more information is available.

Hurry to ==> http://www.hearandplay.com/thesecret

If you want to find out what this “secret” is, rush to the link below:

http://www.hearandplay.com/thesecret

(You won’t be sorry).

P.S. - The secret is called the “_________.” If you think you know the true power of the ________, think again! True _________ mastery awaits you.

Get the secret at: http://www.hearandplay.com/thesecret

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