Friday, July 25, 2008

Db Chord Progressions: Relative Minor Substitutions

Remember from last time:

I. Db major
ii. Eb minor
iii. F minor
IV. Gb major
V. Ab major
vi. Bb minor
vii(b5). C diminished

Each major chord in the key of Db has a relative minor that might sound great instead of playing the major chord, and vice versa. What? In other words...

I/vi: Db major could possibly be substituted with Bbm
IV/ii: Gb major could possibly be substituted with Ebm
V/iii: Ab major could possibly be substituted with Fm

Instead of playing I-V-IV-I, for instance, try the following permutations (not an exhaustive list), but we'll start with the original progression:

I-V-IV-I: Db Ab Gb Db
I-iii-IV-vi: Db Fm Gb Bbm
I-V-ii-I: Db Ab Ebm Db
vi-V-IV-I: Bbm Ab Gb Db
vi-iii-ii-vi: Bbm Fm Ebm Bbm
etc.

Substituting a major chord with its relative minor (and vice versa) might liven up a boring progression with a less boring progression (albeit still widely used).

No comments:

Post a Comment

We'd love to hear from you! If you spot a typo or musical inconsistency (it sometimes happens), please let us know (please be nice, too). Thanks!

Comments on each post close after seven days.

guitar (1101) piano (566) keyboard (556) chord (537) dictionary (490) scale (358) major (301) minor (297) mode (222) jam session (142) drums (117) bb (113) eb (112) f (112) db (111) ab (110) c (106) gb (106) a (104) b (101) g (101) lesson (101) d (100) power chord (100) e (98) podcast (74) 7ths (72) bass (61) diminished (59) suspended (44) news (42) index (38) augmented (26) 0 flats (10) 0 sharps (10) 1 flat (10) 1 sharp (10) 2 flats (10) 2 sharps (10) 3 flats (10) 3 sharps (10) 4 flats (10) 4 sharps (10) 5 flats (10) 5 sharps (10) 6 flats (10) 6 sharps (10) backtrack (9) ukulele (4) harmonica (2) 9ths (1)