Spicing up chord changes

[Jeralya]

Hey guys, I do a large amount of writing in my new band, but it seems like every chord progression I come up with is too obtuse, and my songs only really sound the way they do because my guitarist has such fantastic voicings.

So I guess I am looking for some advice to break away from my largely modal writing and break into new scale types- any advice?

[KayCee]

Originally Posted by Jeralya

Hey guys, I do a large amount of writing in my new band, but it seems like every chord progression I come up with is too obtuse, and my songs only really sound the way they do because my guitarist has such fantastic voicings.

So I guess I am looking for some advice to break away from my largely modal writing and break into new scale types- any advice?

Not sure what you mean by "too obtuse", but if you study jazz theory (with a focus on bebop) you will be introduced to many chord/scale options that you might not currently have in your vocabulary.

[IconBasser]

try this: find obscure modes of your modes, so that it breaks away from the orginal chord structure.

Dunno if that helps, good luck

[m0nst3r]

There's plenty of ways you can spice up chord changes: applied chords, tritone substitutions, reharmonization/substitutions, and modal mixture just to name a few.

Personally, my favorite thing to do is to substitute chords that act as dominants with their appropriate diminished chords. They both have the same function, but it spice things up. For instance, if I'm writing a ii7-V7-I-VI7, in the key of C Maj, I'll replace that A7 with a C#*°7 because that A7 is acting as a dominant to the Dmin, and diminished chords can act as a substitute for dominant chords. So my chord progression goes from being:

Dmin7 - G7 - C - A7

to

Dmin7 - G7 - C - C#°7

I think it's more of knowing what the function of a chord is and how you can interchange them with other chords of the same function. You can get some pretty gnarly, but very cool sounding chord progressions if you know how to use them.

[DocBop]

Again what do you mean by obtuse? Then you say your mainly writing Modal tunes, modal implies few chord are you sure you mean modal? If your writing modal you can pull other chords out of the harmonized mode.

Have you explored Modal Interchange and Parallel key that is another way to add different chords. You can alway take melody and write a new bass line. Then figure out the relationship of the melody note to the new bass note to decide what chord to use.

[m0nst3r]

By obtuse, I'm pretty sure he means dull.

[Jeralya]

Originally Posted by m0nst3r

By obtuse, I'm pretty sure he means dull.

Yup. My jazz theory is pretty garbage, so I guess I will start there- my theory teaching is almost entirely classical.

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by Jeralya

Yup. My jazz theory is pretty garbage, so I guess I will start there- my theory teaching is almost entirely classical.

Quick explanation you if interested you can find more info on the inet.

Parallel key and Modal Interchange is simply borrowing chords from another scale of the same parent. Parallel Minor lets say you are writing a song in C Major you borrow chords from C Minor.

C major chords
Cma7 Dmi7 Emi7 Fma7 G7 Ami7 Bmi7b5

C minor chords
Cmi7 Dmi7b5 Ebma7 Fmi7 Gmi7 Abma7 Bb7

As you can see some chord change families, and others the root is lowered a half-step.

Modal Interchange is same type thing except instead its a Parallel Mode so in C major borrow chord from C Dorian.

I won't go into explaining it here grab a theory book for Secondary Dominants. Quickly setting up a chord with its V7 chord. So in C major the song is going to a Dmi7. Before the Dmi7 play a A7 to set it up.

One last fast one. Change minor 7 chords to dominant 7 chords. So instead of Ami7 then use a A7.

But remember theory is mainly a way analyze or put labels on things so they can be remembered and used again. But when writing it's important to forget theory and just try things. If that isn't working then pull out the theory to get ideas to try. Theory isn't rules that must be followed, it is another tool to use as necessary and a lanuage to communicate with.