Chord Substitution:
I for vi. Two Chord Types For The Price Of One.
The hardest part about playing chords on the guitar is getting the
chords “under your fingers”. Using Chord Substitutions you will
expand your guitar chord vocabulary without having to learn new
fingerings!
If you have been working with Yellow Guitar
Books Volume I, you have acquired a lot of knowledge about Chord
Construction and Chord Inversions. The next step is to use chord
substitutions to create other chords using the very same guitar
chord fingerings.
If you took the Dominant 7th Chord
Inversions in Yellow Guitar Books, Volume I (chapter 25) and raised
each of the b7s a half step, you will get the Major 7 Chords shown
below. Remember a Major 7 Chord contains 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the Major
Scale. Because these are E Major 7 Chords, consider these Chords as
the I in the key of E Major.
Below are the very same guitar chord
fingerings except now the vi (C#) is considered the root. As you can
see, instead of the Chords containing 1, 3, 5 and 7, relative to the
new “Implied Root” you now have b3, 5, b7 and 9 of C# Major (C# is
the Relative Minor or vi of E Major). There is no actual root in the
new Substituted Chord, however in many situations the root is not
needed because the Bass player would play them or you may just be
using one of the Inversions to add color to a measure of a Minor
Chord in a tune.
The Chords on
the first guitar fretboard shown below have the roots added in, so
you can play them if you want. These first two guitar chord
fingerings are commonly used fingerings for Minor 9 Chords. Try
moving through all four of these guitar chord fingerings and listen
to them as vi Minor 9 Chords. Because there is a Minor 9 occurring
on the ii and the vi in Diatonic Harmony you can use any of these
for a ii Chord or a vi Chord in any song
By using chord
substitutions you can create different chord sounds with the same
guitar chord fingerings. Expand your chord vocabulary even
more…….
Expand your chord vocabulary even more……Learn how to play guitar with Yellow Guitar Books.
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