Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Introduction to Chords Substitution

Hi,

This post is an attempt to understand basic chords substitution.

This is useful when the chords for both the verse and chorus of a song are the same.

Let's list down the chords in G major.

I II III IV V VI VII
Gmaj7 Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7 Em7 F#m7(b5)

For example, the chords of a song uses I VI IV V progression.

The chords will be Gmaj7 Em7 Cmaj7 D7.

We can substitute I with III.

Instead of playing Gmaj7, we change to Bm7.

The new progression will be Bm7 Em7 Cmaj7 D7

The notes in a Gmaj7 are G B D F#

The notes in a Bm7 are B D F# A

Out of 4 notes, 3 are the same, therefore it will sound correct.

Hope this helps.

Have fun.

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