For the past couple of days, we’ve been talking about slow ballads. If you’re just now tuning in, I recommend you check out both Tuesday and Wednesday’s lesson.

Today, I’m going to show you how to take it even further! Right now, you know how to play a very popular ballad movement from the past two lessons — and the best part is that you’ve only used TWO chords!

So, how do we venture outside of these two chords? I’m glad you asked…

The key is understanding “circular” movements.

I always talk about this so I won’t go into detail but here’s the main idea…

Learn this circle going counter-clockwise and you’ll never have a problem adding interesting movements to your chord progression again!

Let’s start from where we left off yesterday with these chords:

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

Right now, we’re just moving in a stepwise motion downward.

But I want things to be more interesting so let’s add some circular movements to the mix. That is, I want to start taking advantage of the strong pulls certain chords have towards others. The circle of fifths above gives you all the strong pulls (I prefer going counter-clockwise because that’s how most music works). In other words, the pull between C and F is huge! Same with F and Bb — heck, combine them together (C >>> F >>> Bb) and you get one of the most popular chord progressions there is!

The good news is you have many options. I want to focus on one of them.

It’s what you call a “6-2-5-1 turnaround.”

Don’t let the numbers scare you! They come straight from the scale.

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

What is the 6th tone of C major?
Answer: A

What is the 2nd tone of C major?
Answer: D

What is the 5th tone of C major?
Answer: G

What is a the 1st tone of C major?
Answer: Duh, C!

So what is a “6-2-5-1″ chord progression?

Answer: A >>> D >>> G >>> C

Note: Of course, each of those tones will get a chord but I just wanted you to get the concept. Whenever you see numbers like “2-5-1″ or “6-2-5-1″ or “3-6-2-5-1″ or “1-4,” usually they’re just referring to chord progressions built on certain tones of the scale. Simple!

If you also take a good look at this “6-2-5-1 turnaround,” you’ll notice that it is “circular” in the sense that these notes are neighbors on the chart. Scroll above and look at the chart again. Where’s “A” — then “D” — then “G” — then “C?” Right next to each other!

So here’s what I want to do…

I want to replace some chords in my ballad so that I can use this 6-2-5-1 progression to take me to that chord on “F.”

Why F?

Because that is the chord most likely to come after C. After all, if you keep going on the circle, you’ll see A, then D, then G, then C — then F.

So this “6-2-5-1″ should lead us to our 4th tone (or F in this case) brilliantly!

Here it is:

“6″ chord = A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
“2″ chord = D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

“5″ chord = G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
“1″ chord = C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

See what I see? Basically the “2″ chord is almost identical to the chord before it. You just lower your thumb and change your bass!

Same goes for the “1″ chord. It’s just like the “5″ chord except for the lowered thumb and new bass note!

This will take you perfectly to an F major chord:

“6″ chord = A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
“2″ chord = D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

“5″ chord = G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
“1″ chord = C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

“4″ chord = F major (F + A + C) *** Bass: F

Some things you must keep in mind…

We aren’t deviating from the original chord progression. We’ve just added a few chords, that’s all. In fact, the “A,” “G,” and “F” chords still fall where they would normally be played in the original progression. We’ve just added some other little chords in between them.

One thing you have to do, however, is speed up the chords because now you have double the chords to play in the same amount of time. So you have to play them double the speed.

Once you get used to it, you’ll be fine!

Here’s the progression altogether:

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

F major (F + A + C) *** Bass: F

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

(Yes, I know when you play a different bass note under a C or G major chord, it changes the total name of the chord. I’ve been using “C major” and “G major” for the last few posts to emphasize that all it takes is TWO chords to play a full ballad. So for now, we will refer to them as C major over whatever bass note we’re playing. Let’s keep it simple for now.)

*There’s some more changes I’d make to the original “C” and “G” chords but you’ll have to wait til’ tomorrow to get those! :-)

Until next time —

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