Hey Friend,
One of the beauties of knowing different chord forms is you can take a regular old progression and give it new life by substituting another chord form.
For example, let’s say a you’re playing a tune and it calls for a basic I IV V progression in the chorus. It’s fine and it works, but maybe you feel like it sounds a bit stale or boring.
What you can do is substitute one or two of the chords with another form. Maybe you want to take one of these 7th chords and slip it in the progression in place of the IV chord.
So instead of the major form (IV), use a dominant 7th (IV7).
Now it would look like this: I IV7 V
Try it out - play a G major barre chord for the I. Then a C7 for the IV7 and a D for the V chord (using barres again).
G C7 D
This is a great example of changing the feel of the progression slightly to introduce some color and intrigue. The emotional direction goes from something stable and traditional to more of a fun vibe by mixing a dominant 7th into the flow.
Over the next week, we’re going to look at these types of substitutions so you can begin to hear the difference in chord forms. After that, I think we’ll take a look at some famous songs that use 7th chords and analyze what they would sound like if a more traditional chord selection had occurred.
I think you’re gonna like this, and we’ll learn a lot of useful concepts from these exercises.
Stay cool and Rock on!
Peace~
Dave
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