How small changes to chords can lead to HUGE results!

In today’s post, I want to take our ballad chord progression
from yesterday a step further.

Let’s look at where we left off yesterday…

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

(I hope you practiced that 6-2-5-1 turnaround
[A chord > D chord > G chord > C chord] from yesterday. Remember that you’ll have to play the turnaround a little faster than your regular chords because it needs to fit in the same amount of space as the chords from the first lesson. See Thursday‘s lesson for details.)

I have specifically emphasized the chords we’ve already changed. Now let’s start with the F major chord.

Right now, we’re playing a regular major chord. But after coming off such a nice sounding turnaround, I think this F chord should be jazzed up a little bit.

The good news is that you can turn any major chord into a major seventh chord by lowering one note. Yes, one note!

Since you’re already playing “F” on your bass, you don’t necessarily have to play it on your right hand. So let’s simply lower “F” to “E” on our right hand.

F major 7
F major (E + A + C) *** Bass: F

See what I see? Yup, it’s what I talked about in a previous lesson. If you look closely, you’ll see that you’re now playing an A minor chord (A + C + E) on your right hand. You’re just playing it in second inversion, which puts “A” in the middle. But that’s another lesson. All together, this chord is an F major 7.

So, let’s review our chord progression with this latest change…

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 (E + 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

Here’s the next change I’d make…

See the chord on “E” bass right after the F major 7 chord?

Let’s change it!

There’s actually many things we can do to it. For starters, we can invert it so that it’s closer to our F major 7 chord.

Since we have made many changes to our previous chords, it’s sort of changed where we play our chords over time. So by going back to these original chords like we’ve done, it’s kind of awkward because our new chords are so far away.

So the first thing we can do is invert what we already know to play and see if that makes things sound better.

Here’s what we’re already playing…

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

Now, let’s invert it so that it’s closer to our “F major 7” chord…

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

Sounds good to me! So let’s save this one! We can use it!

But we also have other options…

Remember this lesson on quartal chords? They’re basically chords built on fourth intervals.

I particularly like the way major 7 chords sound when they progress to quartal chords. Here’s a quartal chord you can use over “E” bass:

D quartal / E (D + G + C) *** Bass: E

Let’s plug this into our progression…

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

D quartal / E (D + G + C) *** Bass: E

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

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

It’s getting better and better!

For the chord on “D,” I’m just going to play an F major chord
on my right hand. That makes it a D minor 7 chord.

D min 7 (F + A + C) *** Bass: D

And here’s the thing about ending songs. Remember yesterday, I talked about circular progressions?

That’s exactly what D >>> G >>> C is! We call it a “2-5-1” chord progression. It’s probably one of the most widely used progressions in music. It’s perfect for ending songs.

And if you review yesterday’s lesson and look at the circle of fifths, you will see that “D >>> G >>> C” are all neighbors!

The best part is that you can keep the “F major” you’re playing on “D” bass the same! No need to change it. Just change your bass to “G.” (This goes for most song endings, by the way!)

Fmaj / G (F + A + C) *** Bass: G

And this will naturally bring you back to the beginning of the ballad!

~~~~~~~So beautiful ~~~~~~~~~

So let’s put this all together…

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

D quartal / E (D + G + C) *** Bass: E

D min 7 (F + A + C) *** Bass: D

F maj / G (F + A + C) *** Bass: G

How do you guys like the additions?

Until next time —

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Jermaine Griggs

Founder at HearandPlay.com

Hi, I'm Jermaine Griggs, founder of this site. We teach people how to express themselves through the language of music. Just as you talk and listen freely, music can be enjoyed and played in the same way... if you know the rules of the "language!" I started this site at 17 years old in August 2000 and more than a decade later, we've helped literally millions of musicians along the way. Enjoy!

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