Chords for Mini Lesson: Passing Chords

Today's mini [F] lesson is brought to you by Music Play.
[Bb] In this video, we'll be using the chords [Db] of You Are Great by [G] Juanita Byton.
So before we jump into [D] different ideas and concepts,
let's just quickly go over the chords we'll [B] be using as our foundation.
_ _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ [Eb] _
_ [Abm] _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [B] _ [E] _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Dbm] _ _ _
[E] _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Okay, now let's say I wanted to approach our second chord, which is the [B] Bb minor.
Now, the most common and traditional way to approach a Bb is through its fifth, which is F.
So after I decide on the letter name of the passing chord, which in this case is F,
the next step is figuring out the harmonic qualities of that chord,
whether it's going to be an Fmaj7 or an Fmin7 or an _ Fmi7b5 or an F dominant.
It's also very important to be aware of the different effects and functions the harmony will have on the listener's ear.
For example, if I play a passing chord that's very out of the key,
it will stand out more than if I play a passing chord that's more diatonic and in the key or tonal center.
So I want to stay as diatonic as possible to our tonal center, which is B major.
And so the F chord that will get me closest to that is Fmin7b5.
In the Fmin7b5, all the notes are in the key of B major except the F.
And so that's really as close to B major as we can get with an F chord.
So we'll use the _ Fmin7b5 as a passing chord to get to Bbmin7.
_ _ _ [F] _
_ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Abm] _ _ So what I did the second time when I changed the phrasing was I used one note from each chord as my target
and connected them with a passing tone.
The target notes were the Eb from our _ Fmin7b5 and the Db from our Bbmin7.
[C] And the passing tone was D.
What's also cool about this is that when we resolve to the Db, that's also where the melody of the song is.
So check it out in context with where the melody lands.
[F] _
_ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
[Bb] _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ Let's take it one step further.
We'll approach the _ [Eb] Fmin7b5 with its own passing chord.
The most common way to approach an F is with its fifth, which is C.
So just like before, I have to decide on the harmonic quality of that C chord
while also being aware of the effects and functions it may have on the listener's ear.
We'll stay diatonic with this one.
We'll use a _ _ C7sh9b13.
Notice all of the notes are in the key of B major except for C.
We'll also use a rootless voicing for this chord. _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Abm] _ _ [Bbm] _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
Let's now take the same concepts and ideas we used to approach the Bbmin7
and use them to approach the Fmin7.
We'll also slowly get less diatonic and more out of the key as we go.
We'll approach the Fmin7 with its fifth and we'll use a _ C7sh9.
_ And we'll add a b13 in there, which is that A natural, just to make it a little less diatonic.
Also because I just [Db] like the way it sounds. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _
Now let's use the same concepts to approach the Abmin9.
We'll use its fifth, which is Eb.
Keep in mind we're still slowly getting less diatonic, so we'll use an Ebmin11.
That natural 9, which is F natural, kind of gives it that subtle out feel.
[Eb] _ _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [Ab] We'll take it one step further and approach the Ebmin11 with its fifth, which is Bb.
We're still slowly getting less diatonic, so we'll alternate between a _ Bbmin11 and a _ Bb7sus4.
We'll also use a few rootless variations of the Bb chord going to the Ebmin11.
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [B] _ _
[Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dbm] _
_ [Abm] Another voicing that I use often are drop 2 voicings,
which is simply when you take the second highest note and play it an octave lower.
It's very important to learn your drop 2s in every inversion.
Here's an example of an _ Fmin7b5 drop 2 voicing.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Something that I like to do is create a melody to lead me to my target chord
and harmonize the melody with drop 2 voicings.
Let's do an example using the same passing chords from earlier.
We'll use Bbmin7 as our target and use _ _ Fmin7b5 to harmonize the melody. _ _
[Dbm] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ [Bbm] Let's [Gb] create a second melody.
This time we'll use Eb7 as our target and harmonize the melody with a Bbmin9 drop 2 voicing.
Also note that our Bb chord is functioning as the fifth of Eb.
_ _ _ [Db] _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ [Bbm] _
_ _ [Eb] _ [Abm] _ _ Now as I mentioned before, we're getting less diatonic and more out of the key as we go.
So this last example is a mixture of everything we've covered thus far.
Passing chords, drop 2 voicings, rootless, and more.
In our earlier example of concepts and ideas towards approaching the Fmin7,
we left off at Bbmin11, going to Ebmin11, going to Abmin9, going to Csharp7, sharp9, flat13,
and then going to our Fsharpmin7.
In this example, we'll approach the Bb harmony with its fifth, which is F,
and we'll approach the F with its fifth, which is C.
So we'll go C triad, then we'll go Fmin9, drop 2, then we'll go Bb7, flat9, drop 2,
and then we'll go Ebmin7, and then we'll go _ _ Ebmin11, rootless,
then we'll go _ Abmin9, and then _ Csharp7, sharp9, flat13, and finally our _ Fsharpmin9.
_ [Bbm] _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ Join me next time where I show you guys some cool ways to get in and out of the key using minor triads.
_ _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ [E] _ [Gb] _