Free Lessons
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.
Let’s 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 the 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. You 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 harmonization–sounding 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.