Made to Order...Extra Spicy!

To me chord progressions are like Chicken Tikka Masala: I like them extra spicy! There are several ways to spice up your chords, and it doesn't involve chili powder or coriander. Today I will teach you how to start adding complexity and "spice" to your sound. The first way is to add notes or alter the notes in your chords while the second is to substitute the actual chords being played (we'll get to this later).

Let's start with a basic blues progession using 7th chords in the key of G.
The progression will use the I, IV, and V chords in the key of G. If I've lost you already, the Roman numerals refer to the scale degrees for the key of G. Here is the G major scale with the I, IV, and V notes highlighted:
G A B C D E F# G

So to play a I-IV-V blues in G our chords would be: G7, C7, D7. Pretty straightforward, huh? Sounds like your standard blues jam. Maybe you want a "hipper" sound. When the bluesmen migrated from the Mississippi Delta to urban areas like Chicago, they did the same thing. Adding one note to these dominant chords and makes them 9th chords. This refers to the 9th degree of the major scale. But wait aren't there only 8 notes in the scale? The 9th is the second octave of the II note. So, in the key of G the 9th would be the A note in the second octave.

Here are some common 9th chord voicings in relation to their corresponding major chords:

Remember that all these shapes are moveable for use in all 12 keys!
So, back to our blues progression. Our new progression is G9, C9, D9. Hear the difference? There are other extensions we can use besides 9ths. We can add 11ths, 13ths, or make any of these added notes sharp or flat. If you are unfamiliar with these chord voicings there are many resources available. Any decent online chord finder should suffice, and I regularly check out this great jazz site.

Next scenario: say you are playing indie rock and don't want the sound of the blues/jazz idiom. Lets go back to our G major scale and harmonize the scale in 7th chords. The chord-scale would be as follows: Gmaj7 Amin7 Bmin7 Cmaj7 D7 Emin7 F#m7b5 G. Say we were rocking out on a root chord of G. Instead of a G5 power chord you could play a Gmaj7, a G6 or any other color that you deem appropriate. One of my favorite moves is to end a pop tune on a major 6th chord for a very Beatlesesque vibe. Try this progression: Gmaj7, Cmaj7, D7, G6 letting that last chord ring out with this voicing for the G6:

Slightly changing that last chord from a G to a G6 gives the tune's resolution a very different feel. Try to come up with your own variations.

George Benson keeps it spicy!

That will do it today for altering chords. You can find many in-depth lessons on this at this instructional jazz guitar site. In the next lesson-oriented post we'll work through some chord substitutions for a different type of spice!

In other news, if you are in the Charleston area you should try to make it to the Pour House Thursday night for my friends the Red Birds. They sound kind of like a 2-piece version of the National, and are playing a show with local favourites the Explorers Club. On October 9-12 Rocktoberfest will go down at the Awendaw Green with many of the areas' best acts performing. As always, thanks for reading and support your local music scene!