Swapping Sounds: The Art and Practice of Chord Substitutions
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Simple progressions are great, but you know what's even better? Adding weird chords to them! But how do you do that without losing the underlying structure of the progression? That's where chord substitutions come in. There's lots of different approaches, from slight alterations to complete re-imaginings of the harmonic landscape, but they all help you add a little bit of extra spice when your harmony is getting stale. Although spice doesn't combat staleness... Eh. We're not a cooking channel. Check it out!
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Doo-Wop Changes video: • Harmonic Rhythm
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Added-Note Chords video: • Striking A Chord: Powe...
Subdominant Function video: • Subdominant Function
Tonic Function video: • Tonic Function
Modal Interchange video: • Modal Interchange
Secondary Dominants video: • Secondary Dominants: A...
Tritone Substitutions video: • Worth A Tritone Substi...
Diminished 7ths video: • Diminished 7ths: Trito...
II-Vs video: • Secondary Function And...
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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold and Inés Dawson for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!
I love this channel for learning theory cuz this is one of the few who actually have the SOUND each chord numeral represents. Helps wayyyyyyy more to identify things. Pls never stop uploading
Thanks!
i know it is quite randomly asking but do anybody know a good website to watch newly released tv shows online ?
@Kamryn Zahir Ehh I watch on Flixportal. Just google after it:P -micah
@Micah Anakin Thanks, I went there and it seems to work :) I really appreciate it !
@Kamryn Zahir no problem :)
So interesting! It's crazy how one little note can change the sound of an entire progression. :)
I know, right? Modal interchange is amazing.
I love using add9 chords/having the melodic lead play the 9th over a chord.
That's such a stanky sound I love it
A melody note a tritone away from a chord tone can work sometimes, at least in my experience. Starting a melody with a #4 over a 1 chord and then quickly resolving to 3 or 5 can really drive home a lydian feel.
Resolving it to a 3 makes it sound more like a spicy sus4 while resolving it to a 5 sounds a bit off if you use 1 3 #4-5
NOTES
Subdominant function (destabilize): 4, 2
Tonic function (stability, rest): 6, 3
Modal interchange: borrow chord from neighboring scales, e.g. B (IV) -> take IV from Bm
Borrow flat VII dominant, substitute V dominant or IV
Introduce unstable chords (e.g. B7: wants to resolve to E)
Tritone sub
Diminished 7 for more instability
Interpolation
Add extra chords
Prepare secondary dominant with borrowed subdominant chord
Add stuff to dominants
Melody: limits possibilities
Make sure chords work with the melody
Problem if: minor second ot tritone between chord note and melody note
The Minute Physics of music! Amazing channel
Aw, thanks!
3:14 YASSS! That's the stuff!
I love how jazz musicians can be like "Hey what if we just resolved everything into everything forever?" and it totally works... II-Vs are incredible, aren't they?
hahah they give you a chart with 4 chords but then they go ahead and play 17 chords.
step 1. draw a circle
step 2. draw the rest of mona lisa.
and then i said that's funny..;-))
This video is so rich in knowledge I will be watching it again and again to learn. Thanks man
This actually helped me a lot, thank you. You definitely deserve way more subscribers
Thanks! Feel free to share it if you know anyone who'd be interested!
Magnificent, as always!
Thanks!
Man great, it just resumed the whole thing, very useful thanks
Wow, this channel is fantastic!!! Great job- and thanks!
So.. much.. stuff... in .. 5 minutes.. head.. exploding. Great video. Thanks for all the info.
Just discovered your channel via PlayTheMind, via Tom Scott. Great stuff, always good to see these building block concepts explained in new ways!
Thanks! Yeah, Alex is awesome, I'm really glad he got that boost from Tom. Well-deserved, and the video he did for it was really good.
These are terrific! Great contributions! Thanks!
Thanks!
I’m going to watch all your videos I haven’t seen yet today, gotta catch em all
I like playing with modal interchange. The progressions that come out of it often don't sound the most pleasant but they usually sound more interesting. And interesting that is what we are really looking for with chord substitutions anyways.
Yeah, modal interchange is one of my favorite tools. You get such cool sounds with so little effort, it's like a cheat code.
They dont need to sound jarring, you just gotta pick the right ones. For example, I - bIII - IV progression sounds really good, and you only switched the iii with bIII. Also using IV instead of iv while in minor.
*(lowercase numerals mean minor chord, uppercase means major chord)
Fantastic video
Love these vids I've learnt so much from these
Thanks!
Really informative. Im wanting to play some jazz guitar and this is helpful!. Thanks
what a ride! very creative presentation but very fast-paced (new in music theory). i had to pause here and there to see and make sure whats going on. nevertheless very informative. thanks alot!!
The progression at 1:17 with the II substitution really reminded me of My Country Tis of Thee.
awesome work
Thanks!
That said, amazing video and you explain it well :)
Been binging your content for the past few days and this is the most useful video I've come across yet! definitely going to be utilising these substitutions in my writing -
Btw - not sure if you were aware of Adam Neely's shoutout to your channel but it's what sent me here.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks! Yeah, I'd seen Adam's shoutout. I have a lot of respect for him, and it was really amazing to see that he appreciates our work too!
Some really great info here.
Awesome art 😊 Looks really good! Keep up the good work! 🙏🏼 i left a like and subscribed ❤️👍🏼
Thanks!
great vid
Good lesson. ‘Preciate.
I fucking LOVE your videos man.
Thanks!
ill have to read about it, but it gives so mqny new options!
i usually write the melody for the chords, and use either the root, third, 5th, of the chord but try to move in the oposite direction... if the chord goes lower than the last i go up, or if i go in the same direction i try to use a different interval or do it at different times... so the chord goed up and i reach it just after it lands and just before it moves...
Hi, just found your channel and it's great! One question: How would this approach work for a harmonic minor scale progression, something like Am-Dm-E-Am?
Hmm... Well, minor's functions are somewhat comparable to major's so you could do a lot of the same things. Like, Ami-Bo-E-F would work. And, of course, the tricks like secondary dominants don't really care what sort of tonality you're in, they just care where they're going to resolve, so you can use those in exactly the same way!
As someone more used to classical (and even Classical) music, the "backdoor progression" sounded weird to me, but the "even more dissonant and wildly unstable" diminished 7th was "heard it before!" :-)
I was hoping for a Neapolitan for the II ;)
Agreed that making progressions more complicated is even better than simple chords.
Mr, Tell me please, I am very confused, I am doing tutorial on non diatonic changes in Music and scales best fitting them, but I encounter a problems, when want to put secondary dominant and other non diatonic chords both on the same example - I actually do not know, for example: I start tune with C major chord, go to A7, next for example Eflat7 chord or Dsharp7 chord should I give a name for that chord (somebody told me not to mix sharps and flats on the same piece of music), then I am confused, please help me. Because A7 chord consist of csharp note using for example chord Aflat7 instead of Gsharp7 would not be proper?
Or does it depend on scale proposed for that non diatonic chord?
And one more thing: my proposed chord progressions would not be about real world modulations, only on short changes
Many thanks for the answers in advance🤗👍
What about IIImi/V resolving up a half step? I have personally started experimenting with it and it feels, at least to me, like it works perfectly well.
So, like, replacing G7 with B minor, resolving to C? Interesting. Kinda like a VII diminished resolution, but with a perfect fifth... I just tried it out, and it definitely sounds nice to me too! I'd guess it works on the same basic leading-tone principle that the VII diminished does, but replaces the tritone resolution with a parallel fifth one, resolving the fifth degree up a half step like a kind of second leading tone. Neat!
I also tried it out with a B major triad, and I think that works nicely too, so if you want to expand on this idea that might be a good place to start!
12tone Secondary chromatic mediants? I am not sure that would work well, especially with intended III/V-I(m) progressions. Think of F(7)-Gb(m) for example, is it really possible to hear that as an authentic cadence in Gb(m)? That is why I only raise the fifth of VII to turn it into IIIm/V.
It doesn't sound all that resolve-y, no, but it has an interesting planing sound that I think works nicely. It's not a super strong cadence, which lets you get that leading tone action without delivering a huge sense of finality, so you can keep going. I probably wouldn't end on it though.
As for specifically F to Gbmi (or probably F#mi, to avoid the double-flat.) that's a really interesting movement called a slide, where you shift between a major and a minor triad that have the exact same third degree. Not really relevant here, but it's a fun trick!
12tone I said F as the leading tone in order to avoid spelling the first chord with unnecessary accidentals, and then Gbm sort of had to follow that in order to observe orthography even though it really has the same problem as E#(7) would have had, albeit to a lesser degree. Besides, E#(7)-F#(m) is generally not to be written except as a secondary "deceptive" cadence in G(m) anyway due to Gratuitous and Relatively Unnecessary Use of Sharps, which is a major faux pas to avoid if you want to keep your scores easy to "decrypt".
Hey! Thank you for this video, really great as usual ;)
I have a question if you've got time:
I read somewhere (don't remember where) that the III chord can have a tonic function as you said OR a dominant function depending the context. It sounds weird to me but I'm pretty sure that it's that I read, so what do you think about that?
For me it doesn't sound as stable as the I or the VI chord.
That's true! Well, depending on interpretation. The earliest theory of functional harmony related each major chord to a minor chord, so the I and VImi chords were tonic, the IV and IImi chords were subdominant, and the V and IIImi chords were dominant. And the IIImi chord does have the leading tone, which means it could definitely carry dominant function. In practice, though, I think that the third degree of the scale is too powerful a tonic sound for the IIImi chord to really sound unstable enough to give you a real sense of dominant resolution. It's kinda somewhere in between, but I'd probably call it more tonic than anything. The bIII augmented chord, on the other hand, is a pretty common dominant substitution, since it's a lot more unstable.
Ah ok I see it's like theorical interpretation that they wanted to apply everywhere but it doesn't really work?
The IIIb: is it like borrowing the III from the natural minor tonality? I tried, but it attract the V or VII chord, I don't really manage to use it in a very "clever" way...
Thanks = )
Well, whether or not it works is always a slightly tricky question, because in the end that's up to your ear. If you like it, then it works, and there's some models that explain why, but to my ear at least IIImi to I isn't a strong resolution. But if you like it, use it!
The bIII augmented would be borrowed from harmonic minor, not natural minor. It's the same notes as a V augmented, just with a different root. That gives it a leading tone, and makes it unstable enough to need resolution.
The first thing he mentions is that the Doo-Wop changes are boring because theyre in a million songs. But he criticized Rick Beato for making the same point (he used the word boring too) about some other progressions in today's music.
So let me see if I can understand the concept...I've been trying to learn The Cranberries "Linger" and I believe the chords are D A F7 G. So my thoughts are that this is in the key of D major (Ionian) and the F7 is a borrowed (substitute) chord from D minor?
nice video
Whats the theory behind the bVII being used as substitution for the IV chord?
The bVII of B minor is A major. In B major the IV chord is E. A is the subdominant of E so this follows the secondary subdominant substitution.
what is the chord substitution IV of IV
This just confused the shit out of me. I thought this would help my writing and playing and I'm sure it will but i had no idea chord substitution was so involved.
It was again a great video! One thing, though. Personally I really dislike the "more sophisticated chord" term. They just sound different! They have a different function, sometimes they totally don't make sense in a particular mood.
But if we call them sophisticated people would be pressured to use them and not "those simple, boring" chords.
Fair point. Perhaps "more complex" would be a better term. I don't tend to view "sophisticated" as an inherently positive description, but I definitely see how that could sound judgmental. Thanks for pointing it out!
Interestingly, John Lennon had many melodic Tritones intervals above the chord root in strawberry fields if I'm not mistaken
Nice! I haven't analyzed Strawberry Fields but that certainly wouldn't surprise me from what I remember about it.
I love how on it you are to breaking down these subs, seeing 20 minute videos on UA-cam each sub -- err no thank you
I thought secondary dominants were only ever the dominant's dominant (V/V), or is there another way of seeing it I never knew about that you've described here?
Good question! Those were the original secondary dominants, but the term has since been generalized to include any dominant chord that doesn't point to the actual tonic. At least, that's how I was taught: Terminology is always a somewhat sticky subject, because different schools teach things with slightly different words.
12tone That makes sense :) I was taught 'secondary dominant' as V/V and the general 'interdominant' as V/ anywhere else. I'm quite new to this channel, have there been any videos yet on fugues?
Interesting, I'd never heard the term "interdominant" before, thanks for sharing! On fugues, that's one of those topics that I keep meaning to make a video about but keep getting distracted from. I'll get around to it one day...
Interesting, I'd never heard the term "interdominant" before, thanks for sharing! On fugues, that's one of those topics that I keep meaning to make a video about but keep getting distracted from. I'll get around to it one day...
12tone I don't know if it's just a UK thing for that nomenclature :)
Damn, these old videos feel weird now :D
What about Tritone substitution?
Yeah, that's a great one! We mention it briefly around 2:46 in this video.
back door.......hum? now thats substitution
Ap music theory in 5 minutes!
I av to be honest im glad i cant read music cos music is a great mystery to me and wen im writing i rely purely on my ear and seeing it all explained it seems to lose sum of the magic to me.i envy you tho being able to explain like that but id rather play blind as it were
There is chord substitution but there there is also throwing feces at a canvas and calling it art. Different people distinguish between the two by personal taste. When done well, it sounds wonderful and new. When abused, it sounds like random notes creating their own unique stinky bouquet of dissonance.
If the amount of work put into nonsensical doodling was put into notating in a clearer way, this would be some much more valuable.
Ok, so to put this into practice... ear training. Fuckloads of ear training.
Always ear training!
1,6,2,5,1 IS JUST A FRAMEWORK ( OF PROGRESSIONS). their are many ,TO EMBELLISH on.
Did the dog eat all the jelly babies?
(yes, I realise they probably landed off-frame)
Must've been our cat...
If you watch really closely, there's like one frame where there's a whole bunch of gummy bears in mid-air, but yeah pretty much all of them overshot this time. Whoops!
go ask kurt cobain about ur rules lololololol
I am NOT smart like this. I feel like an idiot
Too Fast!
You wrote like 20 church-songs in this video
This video currently has 666 likes.
THE DOODLING MAKES IT HARDER TO GRASP
ALSO THEY ARE ALSO TOO QUICK AND SHORT
you won't heed what I say.
you fucked up your diminished notation for the substitution part.
should be /III not /IV
Fantastic video