Introduction to Chord Substitutions Part 1

I hear from a lot of readers

who ask me to cover particular
things in these lessons.
One of the most popular requests
is how to do chord
substitutions. I always
explain that I am getting there
but have not really built a
foundation in these lessons to
tackle that subject yet. I
plan on covering it in detail in
a few more months.
That being said, I want to
take a week and just introduce
the topic. If nothing
else, you will probably have a
new way of looking at it
and can start experimenting a
bit. Later, we will
address chord substitution in a lot of
detail.
Lets pretend that I tell you
that the melody note of a
certain spot in a song is a C
and I need you to choose a chord
to play with it. If the key is C and you
are like most pianists, you will
almost certainly choose either a
C, F or A minor chord (because
those are the three obvious
chords that have a C in them).
There is nothing wrong with
choosing one of those three
chords, but let me expand your
horizons a bit. Here are
the chords you can actually
choose from that will sound good
in at least some situations (and
this is not even intended to a
comprehensive list):
Major
(or Major 7th)
Minor
(or Minor 7th)
Dominant Other
C C C
C (Half
Diminished)
Ab A Ab
A (Half
Diminished)
F F F
Gb (Half
Diminished)
Db D D
D (Half
Diminished)
Bb Bb Bb
Bb (Half
Diminished)
Gb G B
G (Half
Diminished)
Eb Eb A
Several
Full Diminished
Gb
Eb
E
This list does not even begin to
cover the various options when
you start including color notes.
Most of these chords are usually
played with 9ths, 11ths, and/or
13ths.
I hesitate to give you this list
because some people reading may
initially get discouraged at how
complicated this can be.
However, just know that you do
not have to know all of these
chords. Ideally, you will
just start using better chords
one at a time over time.
If you can every regularly use
even a third of these options,
you will be sounding great!
So how do you get started?
First, here are a few things you
need to know:
You have to expand your horizons beyond the chords that
naturally fit in the key. The key to the song is important but not as
important as you might think.
Understand that the
melody is not even really
that important to chord
substitution. As I
have already demonstrated,
you can play almost any
chord possible with any
melody note. That
means that you choose chords
for reasons other than what
the melody note is.
Understand that even
though you might have a lot
of options, not all of them
will sound good. Your
job will be to figure out
which ones do. You
will be amazed at how a
chord will sound incredibly
bad in one spot or by itself
and yet sound incredibly
good in another context.
Understand that the most
important factor to choosing an alternate chord is how it will relate to the
chords around it.
You will know if you are
doing it right if you sound
good. Forget about
counterpoint and other
archaic rules about
harmonizationsounding good
is the only rule that
matters.
Now, how can you practically
start substituting chords?
Again, this is a complex
subject, but here are a few
tips:
When in doubt, fall back
on the circle of fifths.
In other words, try the
chord that is a fifth down
from the previous chord you
played. That is the most common way that chords resolve.
Pick a song and force
yourself to find chords
where the bass line is
moving in a stepwise motion.
For example, if you play a F
as the lowest note in a
chord, try to come up with a
chord where a F# or G is the
lowest note in the next
chord. You can see an
example of that

here (Take My Life).
Doing this will force you to
experiment and try new
things.
You can also force
yourself into
experimentation mode by keeping
the lowest note the same through a phrase
while changing the chord
over it. This is
called pedal point, and
actually sounds quite good
at times.
Go back and reread
previous lessons about
adding the 7th, 9th and
playing lead sheets.
Consciously avoid
doubling and try to replace
doubled notes with other
notes.
Let your ear be
your guide. If
something sounds good to
you, it is right. If
it sounds strange, it is not
right.
When we do get back to this
subject, we are going to
approach it from the standpoint
of learning specific voicings as
well as how chord progressions
work Trust me when I say
it will be a lot of work.
However, in the meantime, just
experiment with the tips I
listed above. That is the
way I learned much of the
harmonization I use..
Practice Strategy:
You are going to learn how
to substitute chords by doing
ita lot. Pick a hymn and
start playing. Avoid
playing any chord as it is
written. Either add color
notes or try changing it
completely. Experiment
with the step-wise bass pattern
or pedal point bass to force
yourself into thinking more
broadly.
Introduction to Chord Substitutions Part 2
I was planning to go on to
something else this week.
However, during the past week, I
have heard from several people
asking me about the

chord chart that I provided last
week. Some questioned whether
you can really use all of those
chords when you have a C as the
melody note.
Below I am going to give you
a way to play every single one
of those chords with a C as the
melody note. However,
before I do, I want to discuss a
few other things about chords.
First of all, you should know
that I am going to stick with a
practical discussion of chords.
If you asked a music theory
expert how many possible chords
there are, you would probably
get a huge number. But
what he/she might not tell you
is that the same chord is named
differently in different
situations. There are
actually fewer chords than you
might think.
Here is an example of what I
mean. If you took a theory
class, you might hear about an
augmented 6th chord called the
Italian 6th. From a
practical standpoint, there is
no need for that complexity
because the Italian 6th looks
exactly like a dominant chord.
Perhaps you have heard of
polychords, meaning two
different chords played at the
same time. Sounds
complicated, doesnt it?
But in reality, polychords are
usually just extended chords,
meaning chords with 9ths, 11ths,
and 13ths. If you look at
it from that prospective,
polychords are no big deal.
So what you need to
understand is this. If you
can master the sorts of chords
that I will show you below, you
will be playing chords that are
about as good as they get
in Western music. That
should make you feel a bit
better.
Now, lets run through the
chart and I will show you ways
to play all of those chords with
a C as the melody note. If
you sit down and play them on
the piano, dont be surprised if
many of them sound bad when you
play them alone. The way a
chord sounds is all about its
context. For simplicitys
sake, I am not going to list the
color notes in the chord symbol,
but there are obviously a lot of
them being used.
Major and Major 7th chords

Minor and Minor 7th chords

Dominant

Half diminished and Full
diminished

In case you dont remember,
throughout these lessons, I am
notating half diminished chords
as a minor 7th with a b5 (which
is exactly what a half
diminished chord is).
Notice that I only list two
fully diminished chords, but in
reality, I could list many more.
Keep in mind that a diminished
chord is simply a series of
notes played a minor third
apart.
As I have mentioned many
times before, these chords can
sound wonderful or horrible
depending on the context.
I would like to point out the
Ab7 dominant chord from
abovenotice that there is a Ab
in the left hand and a A natural
in the right hand. Those
close intervals are widely
scattered throughout all these
chords, and they make the chords
sound good. They are not
misprints. In this case,
the A natural is a flat
9technically, I could and
probably should write it as B
double flat but I know most of
us (including me) hate double
flats.
Now, lets examine one of
these chords. Here is a
great voicing for a chord when
the melody note is the root.
Play it by itself and listen to
how horrible it sounds.

Now listen to this chord in a
song and notice how magical it
becomes. It is the third
beat of the third measure.

Notice that this chord has
six notes and five of them are
uniqueremember that we want to
only double the melody note in
most situations. This is a
Bb7 chord with a flat 9th and a
13th. Now play the phrase
again and change the G to Gb in
the chord (you will be changing
the 13th to a flat 13th).
It is hard to choose which
sounds better, but they both
sound great.
My point is that those color
notes make all the difference.
So, start looking for ways to
add them. And no, dont
expect it to happen overnight.
Bear with me and I will get back
to this topic in a few months.
Practice Strategy:
You are going to learn how
to substitute chords by doing
ita lot. Pick a hymn and
start playing. Avoid
playing any chord as it is
written. Either add color
notes or try changing it
completely. Experiment
with the step-wise bass pattern
or pedal point bass to force
yourself into thinking more
broadly.