Substitutions & Passing Chords
There are many ways (long and shortcuts) in which you can take to get to your destination. When we talk about substitutions, we talk about other ways you can play a particular chord. Let us say you want to play a 2 – 5 – 1 progression, and you want to make it different, substituting them with other chords/patterns or replacing them with other chords/patterns e.g. 2 – 2b – 1. I would explain this movement further in this post.
A passing chord is simply ‘a passing chord’. This means that they are not standard chords, but you use them to get to other chords in your progression, making your movements ‘phatter’. I know you will be wondering what that means. ‘Phatter’ in this sense would mean expansion. Let’s say you want to play the regular 3 – 6 [this numbering should be familiar to you as mi – la], and you don’t want it to sound common, you add a few passing chords in-between before you arrive at the 6, like 5b – 6b. I will expand on this later.
1] The first substitution we will talk about is the Flat 7th [b7] substitution.
The b7 substitution is the substitution used when playing dominant chords. For this example, I would use the C dominant 9 [C9] to explain its use.
As you know, two musicians can play the same dominant chord and make their versions sound totally different. I’m going to show you how that is possible.
Here’s the regular C dominant 9 chord:
C E G Bb D
A passing chord is simply ‘a passing chord’. This means that they are not standard chords, but you use them to get to other chords in your progression, making your movements ‘phatter’. I know you will be wondering what that means. ‘Phatter’ in this sense would mean expansion. Let’s say you want to play the regular 3 – 6 [this numbering should be familiar to you as mi – la], and you don’t want it to sound common, you add a few passing chords in-between before you arrive at the 6, like 5b – 6b. I will expand on this later.
1] The first substitution we will talk about is the Flat 7th [b7] substitution.
The b7 substitution is the substitution used when playing dominant chords. For this example, I would use the C dominant 9 [C9] to explain its use.
As you know, two musicians can play the same dominant chord and make their versions sound totally different. I’m going to show you how that is possible.
Here’s the regular C dominant 9 chord:
C E G Bb D
It’s basically a C dominant 7 chord with an added 9th tone.
There are only two steps to transforming this boring, “standard” ninth chord into a snazzy one!
Step 1: Play the tri-tone replacement for the dominant chord on your left hand. Remember, you can always substitute the appropriate tri-tone for a full dominant chord since a tri-tone utilizes the key tones of the dominant chord. Basically, take the 3rd and 7th tones out of the dominant chord and play them on your left hand. That is a tri-tone.
C dominant 9
C + E + G + Bb + D
There are only two steps to transforming this boring, “standard” ninth chord into a snazzy one!
Step 1: Play the tri-tone replacement for the dominant chord on your left hand. Remember, you can always substitute the appropriate tri-tone for a full dominant chord since a tri-tone utilizes the key tones of the dominant chord. Basically, take the 3rd and 7th tones out of the dominant chord and play them on your left hand. That is a tri-tone.
C dominant 9
C + E + G + Bb + D
You’d take out E and Bb and play them together.
* As you probably know, “E” is the third tone of the scale and “Bb” is the flat seventh tone.
So far, my left hand has “E + Bb” in it.
* As you probably know, “E” is the third tone of the scale and “Bb” is the flat seventh tone.
So far, my left hand has “E + Bb” in it.
Step 2: After you have determined what tri-tone to play on your left hand, you’ll want to identify the 5th tone of the chord. You’ll want to play a minor chord off this tone on your right hand. If I’m playing a C9 chord, then the 5th tone of C is basically G (which is in the chord). I’m simply going to play a G minor chord on my right hand.
It’s that simple! Find the 5th tone of the chord (or scale) and play its minor triad. Point blank!
C dominant 9
C + E + G + Bb + D
It’s that simple! Find the 5th tone of the chord (or scale) and play its minor triad. Point blank!
C dominant 9
C + E + G + Bb + D
*The 5th tone in C major is G. Therefore, I’m going to play a G minor on my right hand: (G + Bb + D)
You can try different inversions of this G minor triad but I prefer first inversion, which means the keynote will always be on top: (Bb + D + G). The same goes for the tri-tone. You can try the alternate inversion of the tri-tone, but I like my flat seventh on the bottom (Bb + E). Feel free to try the other way around too (“E + Bb”). They both work.
So my full chord looks like this:
C dominant 9
Bb + E on left hand /// Bb + D + G on right hand
You can try different inversions of this G minor triad but I prefer first inversion, which means the keynote will always be on top: (Bb + D + G). The same goes for the tri-tone. You can try the alternate inversion of the tri-tone, but I like my flat seventh on the bottom (Bb + E). Feel free to try the other way around too (“E + Bb”). They both work.
So my full chord looks like this:
C dominant 9
Bb + E on left hand /// Bb + D + G on right hand
If you do use the opposite tri-tone “E + Bb,” you may find that the “Bb” from your tri-tone meets the “Bb” from your G minor chord if you’re playing both hands close to each other. This is fine. It actually results in a nice little effect with simply “E” on the left hand and “G minor” on the right hand.
Now here’s the best part. In gospel music, you can really work this! Try going down a half step and doing the same thing. Then quickly move that chord back up to your original chord.
So basically, take this same voicing of C9 and move it down to B9.
What is the tri-tone that goes with “B?” Bam! That’s your left hand!
What’s the 5th tone of B? Play its minor chord in first inversion! Bam! That’s your right hand!
B dominant 9
A + D# on left hand /// A + C# + F# on right hand
Now here’s the best part. In gospel music, you can really work this! Try going down a half step and doing the same thing. Then quickly move that chord back up to your original chord.
So basically, take this same voicing of C9 and move it down to B9.
What is the tri-tone that goes with “B?” Bam! That’s your left hand!
What’s the 5th tone of B? Play its minor chord in first inversion! Bam! That’s your right hand!
B dominant 9
A + D# on left hand /// A + C# + F# on right hand
And this B dominant 9 (a.k.a. “B9), which is the same exact chord as C9 (but moved down a half step), leads perfectly to the C9:
B dominant 9
A + D# on left hand /// A + C# + F# on right hand
C dominant 9
Bb + E on left hand /// Bb + D + G on right hand
B dominant 9
A + D# on left hand /// A + C# + F# on right hand
C dominant 9
Bb + E on left hand /// Bb + D + G on right hand
More Substitutions & passing chords:
*Major 7th on steroids
*Di-tone and Tri-tone substitutes & passing chords
*7th chord voicing substitutes
*Major 7th on steroids
*Di-tone and Tri-tone substitutes & passing chords
*7th chord voicing substitutes