What are chord substitutions and how can they be used to spice up your Jazz chords and solos let's
talk about five different kinds of jazz chord substitutions you need to know so what is a
chord substitution so a chord substitution simply put is when you take a chord and you replace it
with another chord but of course this happens in the context of a chord progression there'll be a
chord within a chord progression that you may want to sub out with a different chord to add harmonic
interests and to add excitement you can add more color to your comping and voicings and you can
add different harmonic contexts for your Jazz improvisation so take a look here at this very
basic jazz chord progression it's called the 1625 chord progression and it sounds like this [Music]
and this chord progression can be found all over Jazz standards think about Rhythm changes like I
got rhythm or Olio or really just an abundance of jazz standards out there will have the one
1625 chord progression in it but the secret that jazz musicians know is that while this is the
chord progression they can actually do a bunch of different things to this chord progression
to again add different colors to their comping or voicings or add different harmonic context
to their improvisation so let's start going over those number one is called diatonic substitution
now diatonic means it's within the key Center and so in this particular case we're playing a
one six two five chord progression in the key of concert C and when we're talking about the chords
that are diatonic to C Major seven we're talking about the one which is C major the two which is
D Minor the three which is E minor the four which is F major the five is G7 the six is a minor seven
and the Seven is B half diminished so diatonic substitution would imply that we can actually sub
out some of other diatonic chords within the key of C four different chords within this progression
the most functional and common example of this is crossing out here this C major this one one
chord and instead turning it in to a three chord and the three chord in C Major seven would be E
minor seven so now the chord progression would sound like this [Music] and let's say we resolve
back to the C Major seven again so now we have a three six two five chord progression subbing out
the three for the one but another example would be adding more chords to the chord progression
while subbing them out at the same time so a great example would be to cross out this six
chord here and instead add the three right there as well so now we have an E minor seven however
we also want to add some chords before and after that so for example we might want to add here the
IV chord which is F major seven so now we have C Major seven F major seven E minor seven and then
we'll add the sixth chord the a minor seven right here so now in totality we have a one
four three six two five chord progression which sounds like this
[Music]
so diatonic substitution taking other chords within the diatonic key Center and replacing
them for other ones in the chord progression number two is secondary dominance so taking a look
back at our 16251 a secondary dominant essentially when we substitute a chord for a dominant seventh
chord that tonicizes the chord after that I know a lot of fancy terms there so let me show
you looking at this six chord right here the a minor seven I actually want to cross this out
and instead over top of this put an A7 chord so now the chord progression sounds like this
so it's that dominant six chord which adds a totally different flavor there and does
something really important and what it does is it actually tonizes this D minor seven chord tonicize
means you're making that chord sound like a new one chord even though we know that it is
actually the two chord when we add that A7 which is the five chord of D minor seven chord for one
second makes our ear feel like we're in the key of D minor and when we do this it changes the way we
think about how to improvise over top of this song So now instead of a minor we're thinking about
different ways [Music] to arrive at D minor seven right the tension that that A7 chord gives to the
chord progression when it resolves to D minor seven and this is probably the most common chord
substitution you'll find in jazz jazz musicians all the time will look at chords and turn them
into dominant seventh chords they'll turn the two chord into a dominant seventh chord you could
actually do that as well and turn this D minor seven in to a dominant seventh chord and what that
essentially is doing is tonicizing the G7 which is the V chord and so for this one we would call it
the five of two and for this one we would call it the five of five so we're Tana sizing the two and
we're tonicizing the five so in totality this chord progression now sounds like this [Music]
so that's secondary dominance number three is diminished substitution so Jazz musicians will
oftentimes use diminished chords to substitute out for different dominant seventh chords so for
example remember we talked about how this a minor seven we could actually turn it into a secondary
dominant so an A7 chord well Jazz musicians sometimes will look at that and ask themselves
well what diminished chord could replace that chord and in this particular case it's a C
sharp diminished seventh chord and so now the chord progression would sound like this [Music]
so it's that one to the sharp one diminished arriving to the two and then going to the five
it creates a nice tension and release sound from that sharp one diminished to that D minor seven in
the same way that an A7 to a D minor seven would and why is that well one particular alteration
we can do to a five chord especially when it's resolving to a stable chord would be to add the
flat nine so this is an A7 flat nine I'm playing right this is the five of six but with a flat nine
in it well when we look at the C sharp diminished chord it's essentially the exact same chord there
really is no difference so you can substitute out that diminished seventh chord for that dominant
seventh chord one way you could think about this is whatever the third is of the dominant seventh
chord you're playing so in this case it'd be C sharp you can play a diminished seventh chord of
that third so kind of C sharp diminished seventh is essentially the same as playing an A7 flat 9.
the cool thing about doing this of course is the bass movements from C to C sharp chromatically
to D minor and so this creates a different frame of mind and even a different thought
process for how you might improvise over top of this chord progression so that's a diminished
replacement now before we keep going if your brain is starting to churn into mush because I'm using
all these music theory terms and it sounds all confusing and overwhelming don't worry at all
please stick around to the very end of the video because I'm going to share with you a resource
that will help make Jazz Theory a lot simpler for you and go back to some of the basics that
I'm kind of skipping over here so stick around to the end number four is back door dominance
now quite frankly backdoor dominance are often times baked in to the chord progression of the
Jazz standard rather than used as a substitution so for example the tune ladybird has a backdoor
dominant just in the composition of the chord progressions that being said you can absolutely
still superimp pose this concept over top of any chord progression Now by definition a backdoor
dominant is when you substitute a v chord for a dominant seventh chord that is a whole step below
the chord you are arriving to so let me explain instead of this G7 which inevitably is going to
resolve back around to here if We're looping this chord progression which we have been and so the
question would be what is the backdoor dominant of G7 so an easy way to think about that is if
we're playing a C Major seven what is a whole step below that so a whole step would be B flat
so what we can play here instead is a B flat seven chord and this is what it would sound like foreign
now let's take this a step further let's say that we've subbed this a minor seven
for an A7 but let's say we want to do a backdoor dominant of the secondary
dominant so let's cross out the A7 and add a whole step below D Minor is C so
let's turn this into a C7 chord so now the chord progression sounds like this [Music]
and to be honest that sounds a little bit weird because oftentimes in the practice of
using backdoor dominance it's again baked into the composition itself and oftentimes there is
actually a two chord in front of that back door dominant that leads into the one so quickly let's
recompose this chord progression all together and actually use the chord progressions that
are used in Tad dameron's ladybird so in Tad damron's ladybird we actually have C
Major seven for two bars but then it actually goes to an F minor seven to a B flat seven now
we already discussed that the B flat 7 is the secondary dominant but essentially what we're
doing is we're throwing a 2 in front of that dominant seven so it sounds like this [Music]
like that and that's the more practical application that you'll see backdoor
dominance being used in jazz standards number five is tritone substitution now
the definition of a tritone substitution is it's where we sub a dominant seventh
chord for another diatonic chord in the key Center a tritone interval away
now again if that kind of blows your mind let's just pay attention here really quick let's focus
in here on this G7 chord right here that's the V chord and so what I'll do is I'll ask myself
what is a tritone interval away from the note or the bass note G so a tritone is the flat five
or the sharp four and in this particular case it is a C sharp or since the D minor seven is
coming before it let's call it a d flat and harmonically so tritone substitution States
let's sub this G7 for the other dominant seventh chord a tritone interval away and
so that would be a d flat seven chord so now the chord progression sounds like this [Music]
now that automatically gives it a lot more of a spicy a lot more tense sound it almost sounds like
it turns that G7 chord into an alter dominant chord which essentially is what it's doing now
we would call this one in particular tritone sub of five because we're substituting the V
chord for a tritone substitution but again let's look back at the sixth chord remember that if we
want to add a secondary dominant to this we can turn this into an A7 chord and then let's
go ahead and cross out that A7 chord and ask ourselves what is a tritone away from A7 and
that would be in this particular case E flat so now let's add an E flat seven chord here
and this would be called a tritone sub of six and so now it sounds like this [Music]
what's going on here but remember we talked about also on this two chord we
could also use a secondary dominant so let's turn this chord back into
a D7 chord which is again the five of five but let's cross this out for its
tritone substitution and a tritone away is a flat so now instead of this chord we have
an A flat seven chord here and so now the chord progression sounds like this [Music]
and by the way this exact chord progression is the turnaround to Tad damron's ladybird so I did
mention if any of this music theory is going way over your head and you're like Brent let's step
back for a second and understand the basics then check out this video out on the screen right now
it's called Jazz theory in 15 minutes I really just break it all down to the simplest of terms
so you don't have to waste your time reading through a million different Theory books and
by the way one of the best ways to get used to these different substitutions and chord
progressions is by simply just learning more and more Jazz standards where you're going to
see these repeated time and time again that's exactly what we do every single month in my
inner circle membership is we learn one new Jazz standard a month and make it super easy
with a bunch of other musicians so check it out in the description down below or I'll have it up
here on the screen as well if you like this video and found it valuable please hit the like button
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