Chord Substitutions

I didn't try to cover all the possible substitutions... I don't think that would even be possible! I only did the more common ones.

All the ones you show would work for only part of the original chord. You'll want to resolve each one to C before moving on to the next chord in the progression.

In #14 of my article I talked about stepping, which is usually chromatic - but I pointed out that whole step and step-and-a-half stepping will also work. These larger intervals are most commonly used with dominant and altered dominant chords, but you can use them for triads if you like the sound... so that takes care of the II and bVII - each is a whole step from C.

And in the beginning of the article, where I described how a basic substitution works, I showed Am substituting for C because the two chords share two tones. In your other three examples, bIII, iv, and bVI, each has one tone in common with the C. These won't sound nearly as 'smooth' as those with two common tones, but they'll still work because that common tone serves as a sort of musical pivot. If you do two substitutions, you can make them very smooth, by changing one of the non-chord tones, then the other:

bIII (Eb-G-Bb) to i (C-Eb-G) to I (C-E-G) or
bIII (Eb-G-Bb) to iiiº (E-G-Bb) to I (C-E-G)

iv (F-Ab-C) to Isus (C-F-G) to I (C-E-G) or
iv (F-Ab-C) to I+ (C-E-Ab/G#) to I (C-E-G)

bVI works just like iv - Ab-C-Eb and F-Ab-C are relative major/minor chords, so they'll have the same resolutions.

Hope that helps.

I didn't try to cover all the possible substitutions... I don't think that would even be possible! I only did the more common ones.

ahhhhhhh man..... :D

Thanks, Noteboat. I appreciate the reply.

IT HELPS! :lol:

I just realized what I was missing (two weeks later - haha)

The bVII, bVI, bIII comes from the parallel minor...

C D Eb F G Ab Bb
i ii III iv v VI VII

:oops:

Just an update. :lol:

Hi again Tom:

I was re-reading your A+ article Chord Substitution, and I got confused with the section 'The Tritone Substitution' : You mentioned that G7 can be substituted by Db7 ,and one of the reasons you give is because they share two notes...but I don't know if i'm mistaken but I don't see the two notes,but one:
G7: G B D F
Db7: Db F Ab C

PLs help me Tom..I don't want to spend one more hour trying to solve the mystery myself :)

Best regards,
Roberto

Db7 is not Db-F-Ab-C , but Db-F-Ab-B .

The F-B tritone interval is shared with G7.

Thank you!

So it was only a typo .

Best Wishes.

Roberto

Reading all these comments it gives me the feeling that I have to be really skilled in knowing all the notes in evry chord. Certainly I'm not and I would like to receive any tip in order to work properly with chord progressions , so I could guess that BVI and iv share two notes, for example. Does it take many years of experience to be trained in this area?I mean when you are composing, do you have the time and patience to analize evry note under the chords to check out if they fit or not and why do they fit in the progression?

Thanks

I can't recall it being very hard to learn this stuff. A few months.

There are a couple of tables that I've put here a few times that are very useful.

You can memorise them, but they're so simple really that you hardly need to once you get the idea of how these things are organised.

The first is Harmonising the Major Scale.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 C D E F G A B C Chord no. Chord name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 3 5 C E G I C major
2 4 6 D F A ii D minor
3 5 7 E G B iii E minor
4 6 8 F A C IV F major
5 7 9 G B D V G major
6 8 10 A C E vi A minor
7 9 11 B D F vii° B diminished

This will tell you how the notes of a scale become chords.

The second is a table of

The Notes of Different Major keys (and Their Relative Minors)

Key Rel.minor Signature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C major A minor C D E F G A B
G major E minor # G A B C D E F#
D major B minor ## D E F# G A B C#
A major F# minor ### A B C# D E F# G#
E major C# minor #### E F# G# A B C# D#
B major G# minor ##### B C# D# E F# G# A#
F# major D# minor ###### F# G# A# B C# D# E#
F major D minor b F G A Bb C D E
Bb major G minor bb Bb C D Eb F G A
Eb major C minor bbb Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Ab major F minor bbbb Ab Bb C Db Eb F G
Db major Bb minor bbbbb Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Gb major Eb minor bbbbbb Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F

The third is

The Notes of Some Common Chord Types
Chord Notes
major 1 3 5
6 1 3 5 6
7 1 3 5 b7
maj7 1 3 5 7
9 1 3 5 b7 9
maj9 1 3 5 7 9
13 1 3 5 b7 13
add9 1 3 5 9
sus2 1 2 5
sus4 1 4 5
5 1 5
minor 1 b3 5
min7 1 b3 5 b7
min9 1 b3 5 b7 9
min11 1 b3 5 b7 11
dim 1 b3 b5
dim7 1 b3 b5 bb7 (6)
min7b5 1 b3 b5 b7
aug 1 3 #5
6/9 1 3 5 6 9

Thanks a lot!!
That's really cool.
I'll print it and use it.

:)))

All the best