Hey Friend,

Happy Labor Day! Hopefully you get to enjoy a barbecue or picnic with friends and family. I'm just happy not to have to work today!

Now that you know the basic pattern for chords in a key, it's time to look at some possible chord substitutions you can use to spice up progressions. I've mentioned some of the other chord forms before, so we'll dig into these a bit to round out C major before we move on to the next key.

Just so you remember, here's the chord pattern in major keys:

So what chords would you consider if you wanted to substitute? Well, you can look at 7 chords - a major 7 (7M) or dominant 7 (7) to substitute in for a major chord, or a minor 7 (7m) to replace a minor or diminished chord. 

Another good option is to swap out a suspended 2 or 4 (sus2 or sus4) for one of the major chords. Or you could throw in an add9 or add11 to make the major chord interesting. 

There's all sorts of chords and techniques you can play with to enhance the existing progressions, to change it up a bit. Over the next few days we'll look at some possibilities for the chords we've already learned. 

I'm gonna get back to enjoying my day off from work. I hope you can do the same!

Peace~

Dave