Introduction to Chord Substitutions

8/11/2019 Introduction to Chord Substitutions

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Introduction to Chord Substitutions – Part 1

I hear from a lot of readerswho ask me to cover particularthings in these lessons.One of the most popular requestsis how to do chordsubstitutions. I alwaysexplain that I am getting there

but have not really built afoundation in these lessons totackle that subject yet. I

plan on covering it in detail ina few more months.

That being said, I want totake a week and just introducethe topic. If nothing

else, you will probably have anew way of looking at itand can start experimenting a

bit. Later, we willaddress chord substitution in a lot ofdetail.

Let’s preten d that I tell youthat the melody note of acertain spot in a song is a Cand I need you to choose a chord

to play with it. If the key is C and youare like most pianists, you willalmost certainly choose either aC, F or A minor chord (becausethose are the three obviouschords that have a C in them).

There is nothing wrong withchoosing one of those threechords, but let me expand yourhorizons a bit. Here arethe chords you can actuallychoose from that will sound goodin at least some situations (andthis is not even intended to acomprehensive list):

Major(or Major 7th)

Minor(or Minor 7th) Dominant Other

C C C C (HalfDiminished)

Ab A Ab A (HalfDiminished)

F F F Gb (HalfDiminished)



Db D D D (HalfDiminished)

Bb Bb Bb Bb (HalfDiminished)

Gb G B G (HalfDiminished)

Eb Eb A SeveralFull Diminished

Gb

Eb

E

This list does not even begin tocover the various options whenyou start including color notes.Most of these chords are usually

played with 9ths, 11ths, and/or13ths.

I hesitate to give you this list because some people reading mayinitially get discouraged at howcomplicated this can be.However, just know that you donot have to know all of thesechords. Ideally, you will

just start using better chordsone at a time over time.If you can every regularly useeven a third of these options,you will be sounding great!

So how do you get started?First, here are a few things youneed to know:

You have to expand your horizons beyond the chords thatnaturally fit in the key. The key to the song is important but not asimportant as you might think.

Understand that themelody is not even reallythat important to chordsubstitution. As Ihave already demonstrated,you can play almost anychord possible with anymelody note. Thatmeans that you choose chords

for reasons other than whatthe melody note is. Understand that even

though you might have a lotof options, not all of them



will sound good. Your job will be to figure outwhich ones do. Youwill be amazed at how achord will sound incredibly

bad in one spot or by itselfand yet sound incrediblygood in another context.

Understand that the mostimportant factor to choosing an alternate chord is how it will relate to thechords around it.

You will know if you aredoing it right if you soundgood. Forget aboutcounterpoint and otherarchaic rules aboutharmonization – sounding goodis the only rule that

matters. Now, how can you practicallystart substituting chords?Again, this is a complexsubject, but here are a fewtips:

When in doubt, fall backon the circle of fifths.In other words, try the

chord that is a fifth downfrom the previous chord you

played. That is the most common way that chords resolve. Pick a song and force

yourself to find chordswhere the bass line ismoving in a stepwise motion.For example, if you play a Fas the lowest note in achord, try to come up with achord where a F# or G is thelowest note in the nextchord. You can see anexample of that

here (“Take My Life”). Doing this will force you toexperiment and try newthings.

You can also forceyourself intoexperimentation mode by keepingthe lowest note the same through a phrasewhile changing the chordover it. This iscalled pedal point, and

http://greghowlett.com/leadsheet2.aspx






actually sounds quite goodat times.

Go back and reread previous lessons aboutadding the 7th, 9th and

playing lead sheets. Consciously avoid

doubling and try to replacedoubled notes with othernotes.

Let your ear beyour guide. Ifsomething sounds good toyou, it is right. Ifit sounds strange, it is notright.

When we do get back to this

subject, we are going toapproach it from the standpointof learning specific voicings aswell as how chord progressionswork Trust me when I sayit will be a lot of work.However, in the meantime, justexperiment with the tips Ilisted above. That is theway I learned much of theharmonization I use..

Practice Strategy:You are going to learn howto substitute chords by doingit – a lot. Pick a hymn andstart playing. Avoid

playing any chord as it iswritten. Either add colornotes or try changing itcompletely. Experimentwith the step-wise bass patternor pedal point bass to forceyourself into thinking more

broadly.

Introduction to Chord Substitutions – Part 2

I was planning to go on tosomething else this week.However, during the past week, Ihave heard from several peopleasking me about the

chord chart that I provided lastweek . Some questioned whetheryou can really use all of those

http://greghowlett.com/introsub.aspx








chords when you have a C as themelody note.

Below I am going to give youa way to play every single oneof those chords with a C as themelody note. However,

before I do, I want to discuss afew other things about chords.

First of all, you should knowthat I am going to stick with a

practical discussion of chords.If you asked a music theoryexpert how many possible chordsthere are, you would probablyget a huge number. Butwhat he/she might not tell you

is that the same chord is nameddifferently in differentsituations. There areactually fewer chords than youmight think.

Here is an example of what Imean. If you took a theoryclass, you might hear about anaugmented 6th chord called the“Italian 6th.” From a

practical standpoint, there isno need for that complexity

because the Italian 6th looksexactly like a dominant chord.

Perhaps you have heard of polychords, meaning twodifferent chords played at thesame time. Soundscomplicated, doesn’t it? But in reality, polychords areusually just extended chords,meaning chords with 9ths, 11ths,and 13ths. If you look atit from that prospective,

polychords are no big deal.

So what you need tounderstand is this. If youcan master the sorts of chordsthat I will show you below, youwill be playing chords that areabout as good as they getin Western music. Thatshould make you feel a bit

better.





In case you don’t remember, throughout these lessons, I amnotating half diminished chordsas a minor 7th with a b5 (whichis exactly what a halfdiminished chord is).

Notice that I only list twofully diminished chords, but inreality, I could list many more.Keep in mind that a diminishedchord is simply a series ofnotes played a minor thirdapart.

As I have mentioned manytimes before, these chords cansound wonderful or horribledepending on the context.I would like to point out theAb7 dominant chord fromabove – notice that there is a Abin the left hand and a A naturalin the right hand. Thoseclose intervals are widelyscattered throughout all thesechords, and they make the chordssound good. They are notmisprints. In this case,the A natural is a flat9 – technically, I could and

probably should write it as Bdouble flat but I know most ofus (including me) hate doubleflats.

Now, let’s examine one of these chords. Here is agreat voicing for a chord whenthe melody note is the root.Play it by itself and listen to

how horrible it sounds.



Now listen to this chord in asong and notice how magical it

becomes. It is the third beat of the third measure.

Notice that this chord hassix notes and five of them areunique – remember that we want toonly double the melody note inmost situations. This is aBb7 chord with a flat 9th and a13th. Now play the phraseagain and change the G to Gb inthe chord (you will be changingthe 13th to a flat 13th).It is hard to choose whichsounds better, but they bothsound great.

My point is that those colornotes make all the difference.So, start looking for ways toadd them. And no, don’t expect it to happen overnight.Bear with me and I will get backto this topic in a few months.

Practice Strategy:You are going to learn howto substitute chords by doingit – a lot. Pick a hymn and

start playing. Avoid playing any chord as it iswritten. Either add colornotes or try changing itcompletely. Experiment



with the step-wise bass patternor pedal point bass to forceyourself into thinking more

broadly.

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Introduction to Chord Substitutions