Hey Friend,

Good morning! It's already been a fairly productive day, as I had to do some new hardware setup to get the lesson ready. Work recognizes today as the holiday, so I get today off - always welcome!

We had a very nice, low-key Christmas. Unlike in past years, there wasn't any rushing to get on the road for family parties. Just the four of us, taking it nice and relaxed.

My girls learned how to cook a turkey and all the fixins'. Mom figured they need to learn a little about how to cook, as none of us are getting any younger and they're going to be flying the coop before we know it!

My oldest let us know she's thinking about taking a trip to Scotland over Spring Break - a big step for all of us. She's always stayed very close to us, so it's good to see her starting to exercise some independence.

Bittersweet for mom and me, of course...

Anyway, I hope all of you had a good day yesterday, regardless of whether you celebrated or not.

I've got five systems of A to F#m chord changes for you. The combination of these two chords has an amazing feel to it. You can sense how the emotion changes as the progression shifts from the I chord to the VIm chord, from warm to melancholy. 

As I listen to this particular exercise, some of the combinations instantly get my creative thoughts going. I'm sure part of it is the contrasting E to F# note shifts as the change from A to F#m, and part of it is the choice of inversions used in each progression. Hopefully they inspire you, too.

Download the exercise files here. You can right-click and select "save file as" to get a copy on your computer.

We'll finish out the key of A major and 2016 with the G# Diminished (G#°) chord. See you tomorrow!

Peace~

Dave