Turn Any Chord Progression Into Something Amazing

[00:00:00]If your chord progression sounds like this, >> [music] >> but you really wish they'd sound more like this, >> [music] >> then you're probably missing this one powerful concept in your playing that can make almost any chord progression sound richer, fuller, and more emotional. So, in this video, I'm going to show you exactly what it is and how you can use it to make your chords sound more pro in just a few minutes.

[00:00:40]To really understand this idea, we first need to talk about diatonic chords. I know that sounds like a big music theory word, but it's actually really simple.

[00:00:50]Think of a key as a family. Every key has seven chords that naturally belongs together. Those chords are called diatonic chords because they're built using only the notes from that key. No accidentals, no outside notes. That's why they sound so good together. Let's use the key of C major as an example. In C major, we have C, D, >> [music] >> E, F, G, A, B, and C.

[00:01:18]Now, if I build a triad chord on each of these notes using only the notes of the scale, we get C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished, and we're back right here. These are the seven diatonic chords in the key of C major. Now, real quick, instead of naming them by their letter names, musicians usually give them Roman numerals. So, what it is is 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven and back to one.

[00:02:02]Why? Well, it's just because Roman numerals let you recognize the function of the chord instead of just memorizing its name. You'll notice that the same chord progressions show up in hundreds of songs even when they're played in different keys. Let me show you what I mean. If we take the song Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan, we need to first figure out the key. So, when you look at the key signature, we have one sharp. So, that we are in the key of G major. Once we know the key of the song, we can match each chord to its Roman numeral. So, we said we were in G major.

[00:02:38]Now, the chord of Knocking on Heaven's Door are G, D, E minor, and then [music] G, D, and C. So, basically, all we have here is G, D, E minor, [music] and C mixed through the chord progression. So, what are actually the Roman numeral for these chords right here? So, G is the first one. It's the one chord from the G major scale. So, we have one.

[00:03:16]Then, we move to D. D, 1 2 3 4 5 is actually the five of the G major scale.

[00:03:27]So, 1 5. Now, we have A minor. [music] A minor is actually the two. It's a minor chord, a diatonic minor chord of two. And then, we have C.

[00:03:40]C, 1 2 3 4. C is the four. So, in reality, what we have is 1 5 2 4.

[00:03:53]That's the chord of Knocking on Heaven's Door. If we do the whole progression, the progression is 1 5 2 and then 1 5 4.

[00:04:06]That makes it much easier if you want to use this in a new key and in a new scale. Now, you're no longer thinking G, D, A minor, and C. You're actually thinking 1, 5, 2, and 4. And that's much more powerful because those numbers stay the same even if you change key. And by the way, just as a reminder, if you'd like to have the PDF version of this video, you can get it down below in the description for free. All right, now the next step. This is really where the magic starts to happen. So far, we've been building triad chords, which use three notes. But what if we keep stacking chords using only the notes from the same major scale? We're going to get diatonic chord extensions. So, let's go back to the C major scale.

[00:04:54]We said we had this. But what if if I use another one? Let's add another triad on top of it.

[00:05:02]We now get a major 7 chord.

[00:05:06]Let's do the same thing for the next one.

[00:05:09]We get a D minor 7 chord.

[00:05:13]E minor [music] 7, 3 minor 7.

[00:05:17]4 major 7, so it's F major 7.

[00:05:22]The famous 5, so the dominant 5 with the 7 on top.

[00:05:29]An A minor 7, which is the 6 minor.

[00:05:33]We get a half diminished here with the B and back here. But if we push this again, we can add one more.

[00:05:43]And now we're at adding nine. How great is that? And notice something, we never left the key of C major. We're simply adding more notes from the same scale.

[00:05:55]And you can actually do this with every diatonic chord in the key. And D minor, for example, can be D minor [music] seven or even D minor nine. Or a G major can easily become a G seven or G nine by [music] adding more notes from that scale. So, every chord has its own natural extension because they're all built from the same notes. So, now let's go back to Knocking on Heaven's Door.

[00:06:23]And instead of playing simple triad, let's replace some of them with their natural extension. So, G can become G >> [music] >> major seven.

[00:06:34]Then going to D, we can add the seven right here.

[00:06:40]And to the minor, we can have minor seven.

[00:06:44]And for the four, we can add the major seven. So, we could have something like this.

[00:06:55]>> [music] >> So, we're really getting somewhere else and you can hear the difference. We didn't change the progression. We simply gave each chord a little bit more colors. So, the easiest way to practice this is with a chord progression you already know. Play it once using simple triads, then try replacing those triads with their natural diatonic extension.

[00:07:27]Maybe use a major seven instead of a major chord or a minor seven instead of a minor chord. Listen to how the mood change. Once you get comfortable with that, start doing the same thing with real songs. You will be surprised how quickly your playing begins to sound more richer, fuller, and more professional. Now that you understand how to add extension, check out this video for more progression ideas.