Chords for Passing Chords and Passing Notes
Tempo:
104.4 bpm
Chords used:
G
C
Dm
D
Am
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Dm]
Welcome back.
In this lesson I'd like to talk about the importance of where you're going to relative to where you're at when playing music.
This is a kind of a philosophical topic.
I'll keep it short just by giving an example or two.
So the point is that in many many contexts it's more important where you're going to, what's the chord you're trying to resolve to, rather than what's the chord you're currently playing.
And the listener or the listener's ear will be many times very forgiving for many many different combinations that you play, or even welcoming as long as you resolve it to a, say, non-conflicting harmonic solution.
Big words.
Let's have an example so you'll see exactly what I mean.
Let's take the basic II-V-I progression.
So a D minor chord, [G] to [C] a G, to a C.
[Dm] So really what I'm playing [D] is just the bass in my left hand, [G] D, [C] G, and C.
[Dm] And then in the right hand I have D minor, so it's D, [G] F, and A.
C it's G, B, and [C] D.
And C is C major chord, that is the C, E, and G.
[D]
Now I'm actually going to play a different, nicer voicing for this.
[Am] So here's my D minor chord, which is now a D minor 9th chord.
I'll show you the voicing in a second.
[G] Here's my G, 7th chord now, [C] and C major 7th chord.
[D] So just to give you the voicing, [Am]
[D] I have a D and an A in the left hand, and then in the right [Am] hand I have a [F] C, E, F, and A.
For the G I [G] have a G and a G, and maybe also a D, you can omit it really, in the left hand.
And a B, D, F, G, B in my right hand.
And [C] then for the final chord I have a C and a G, and then I have in my right hand a D, E, G, and B.
Or I might play it like this.
[B] I might also add this B in my right hand.
[G]
[D] So now I'm going to do, or try out an exercise.
I'm going to play the same bass notes [G]
[C] [D] in my left hand.
So I'm going to go from a [G] D, to a [C] G, to a C.
Maybe play fifths.
So I'm going to maybe go [D] from a D [G] to a G, D.
So I'm playing the G here by the way, and you can fifth above [C] it, and then back to a C.
A C and a G, together.
Playing the C and the fifth above [B] it.
So my left hand is going to remain fairly uncomplicated.
Now in my right hand I'm going to replace the middle G chord with something completely different.
What do I mean by completely different?
Well, we're going to just randomly guess out notes.
I'm completely honest, I'm guessing out or just picking some weird notes right now with you.
I have never tried this progression in my life.
These notes have nothing or little to do with the original G chord voicings.
So let's pick.
Let's take a
I want to keep the third, because that really gives the G its character.
So I'm going to keep that one in there.
Now let's take an [Em] E.
Let's take a C [C#m] sharp maybe.
And then [F#] maybe an F sharp.
And then an A sharp.
So this sounds nothing, absolutely like a G major chord.
And I'm going to substitute my G major chord in the middle for this thing in my right hand.
[Am] So we're doing an experiment now.
I've never heard this before, but I'm going to play it.
I'm going to play the D minor, then this monstrosity, and then the C major seventh.
Let's see how it sounds.
[C#]
[C]
[G]
So not too bad actually.
Not too bad.
Not exactly the perfect voicing [Am] I'd choose, but it has some actually nice [G] tension.
[C]
[F#] So the point I'd like to make here is that even though this has nothing to do with a G major chord really,
it still sounds almost passable.
[G] Or actually probably for some of you passable.
It's interesting enough.
[B] Maybe I'll [Gm] take this one down a semitone.
[Am] So now it sounds
[G] [C]
And my point is that really what your listener wants to hear is this final chord,
the C chord to which the progression resolves.
You [D] have the two, then he [G] knows there's a five coming in there,
but he's willing to forgive you if you don't really [C] play a five, as long as you go back to the tonal center of your progression,
to the chord that your listener expects you to resolve to.
And this is also what allows I think many sort of pieces or voicings in jazz to really pass off as acceptable.
I can take the [Am] same progression, D minor ninth, then I can play for the [G] G chord [C] this thing, then back to C major ninth.
[Am]
[G] So in the middle here I'm playing a G and a G, but in the right hand [E] I'm really playing an E major, a B, E and G sharp,
which again has nothing to do or very little to do with a G chord.
[C]
[F#m] And it works mostly because the listener doesn't really care about this passing chord.
He only cares about the chord that you're resolving to.
The same sort of concept can be applied to soloing as well.
[Dm]
So let's say you're playing a jazz solo, or any solo, [Em]
again on the same II-V-I [Dm] progression,
[G]
[C] and in the right hand you're going over scales or arpeggios or you're just making up a melody in your head,
hopefully you're doing that, [Dm] and for the first chord maybe you're playing something traditional,
so you're just, say, arpeggiating D minor, [G] and then for the middle chord you can really play whatever you want,
[C]
as long as you resolve to the C major scale, and hopefully to one of the C major chord notes.
Another weird example, I'm just gonna really randomly play out stuff on the G major [Dm] chord.
[G] [C]
[Dm] [G#]
[C]
[N] Okay, so I really did the maximum I could to not play the G major scale, the G minor scale, the G dominant 7 scale,
or anything that has to do with G there in the middle,
but in my opinion at least it still sounded acceptable.
Some might say even interesting.
So this is the sort of insight I'd like to leave you with in this lesson,
that in many harmonic situations try to think about which of your chords are passing chords and are less important,
and give you more freedom to play with them in terms of soloing and voicing and so forth,
and which of your chords are the chords that you're resolving to.
And you know that you don't want to mess with those.
You really want to play them, let's say, uncomplicated as possible,
unless you're really going for an avant-garde sort of thing, and in that case all bets are off.
That's it.
I hope you've learned something interesting,
Welcome back.
In this lesson I'd like to talk about the importance of where you're going to relative to where you're at when playing music.
This is a kind of a philosophical topic.
I'll keep it short just by giving an example or two.
So the point is that in many many contexts it's more important where you're going to, what's the chord you're trying to resolve to, rather than what's the chord you're currently playing.
And the listener or the listener's ear will be many times very forgiving for many many different combinations that you play, or even welcoming as long as you resolve it to a, say, non-conflicting harmonic solution.
Big words.
Let's have an example so you'll see exactly what I mean.
Let's take the basic II-V-I progression.
So a D minor chord, [G] to [C] a G, to a C.
[Dm] So really what I'm playing [D] is just the bass in my left hand, [G] D, [C] G, and C.
[Dm] And then in the right hand I have D minor, so it's D, [G] F, and A.
C it's G, B, and [C] D.
And C is C major chord, that is the C, E, and G.
[D]
Now I'm actually going to play a different, nicer voicing for this.
[Am] So here's my D minor chord, which is now a D minor 9th chord.
I'll show you the voicing in a second.
[G] Here's my G, 7th chord now, [C] and C major 7th chord.
[D] So just to give you the voicing, [Am]
[D] I have a D and an A in the left hand, and then in the right [Am] hand I have a [F] C, E, F, and A.
For the G I [G] have a G and a G, and maybe also a D, you can omit it really, in the left hand.
And a B, D, F, G, B in my right hand.
And [C] then for the final chord I have a C and a G, and then I have in my right hand a D, E, G, and B.
Or I might play it like this.
[B] I might also add this B in my right hand.
[G]
[D] So now I'm going to do, or try out an exercise.
I'm going to play the same bass notes [G]
[C] [D] in my left hand.
So I'm going to go from a [G] D, to a [C] G, to a C.
Maybe play fifths.
So I'm going to maybe go [D] from a D [G] to a G, D.
So I'm playing the G here by the way, and you can fifth above [C] it, and then back to a C.
A C and a G, together.
Playing the C and the fifth above [B] it.
So my left hand is going to remain fairly uncomplicated.
Now in my right hand I'm going to replace the middle G chord with something completely different.
What do I mean by completely different?
Well, we're going to just randomly guess out notes.
I'm completely honest, I'm guessing out or just picking some weird notes right now with you.
I have never tried this progression in my life.
These notes have nothing or little to do with the original G chord voicings.
So let's pick.
Let's take a
I want to keep the third, because that really gives the G its character.
So I'm going to keep that one in there.
Now let's take an [Em] E.
Let's take a C [C#m] sharp maybe.
And then [F#] maybe an F sharp.
And then an A sharp.
So this sounds nothing, absolutely like a G major chord.
And I'm going to substitute my G major chord in the middle for this thing in my right hand.
[Am] So we're doing an experiment now.
I've never heard this before, but I'm going to play it.
I'm going to play the D minor, then this monstrosity, and then the C major seventh.
Let's see how it sounds.
[C#]
[C]
[G]
So not too bad actually.
Not too bad.
Not exactly the perfect voicing [Am] I'd choose, but it has some actually nice [G] tension.
[C]
[F#] So the point I'd like to make here is that even though this has nothing to do with a G major chord really,
it still sounds almost passable.
[G] Or actually probably for some of you passable.
It's interesting enough.
[B] Maybe I'll [Gm] take this one down a semitone.
[Am] So now it sounds
[G] [C]
And my point is that really what your listener wants to hear is this final chord,
the C chord to which the progression resolves.
You [D] have the two, then he [G] knows there's a five coming in there,
but he's willing to forgive you if you don't really [C] play a five, as long as you go back to the tonal center of your progression,
to the chord that your listener expects you to resolve to.
And this is also what allows I think many sort of pieces or voicings in jazz to really pass off as acceptable.
I can take the [Am] same progression, D minor ninth, then I can play for the [G] G chord [C] this thing, then back to C major ninth.
[Am]
[G] So in the middle here I'm playing a G and a G, but in the right hand [E] I'm really playing an E major, a B, E and G sharp,
which again has nothing to do or very little to do with a G chord.
[C]
[F#m] And it works mostly because the listener doesn't really care about this passing chord.
He only cares about the chord that you're resolving to.
The same sort of concept can be applied to soloing as well.
[Dm]
So let's say you're playing a jazz solo, or any solo, [Em]
again on the same II-V-I [Dm] progression,
[G]
[C] and in the right hand you're going over scales or arpeggios or you're just making up a melody in your head,
hopefully you're doing that, [Dm] and for the first chord maybe you're playing something traditional,
so you're just, say, arpeggiating D minor, [G] and then for the middle chord you can really play whatever you want,
[C]
as long as you resolve to the C major scale, and hopefully to one of the C major chord notes.
Another weird example, I'm just gonna really randomly play out stuff on the G major [Dm] chord.
[G] [C]
[Dm] [G#]
[C]
[N] Okay, so I really did the maximum I could to not play the G major scale, the G minor scale, the G dominant 7 scale,
or anything that has to do with G there in the middle,
but in my opinion at least it still sounded acceptable.
Some might say even interesting.
So this is the sort of insight I'd like to leave you with in this lesson,
that in many harmonic situations try to think about which of your chords are passing chords and are less important,
and give you more freedom to play with them in terms of soloing and voicing and so forth,
and which of your chords are the chords that you're resolving to.
And you know that you don't want to mess with those.
You really want to play them, let's say, uncomplicated as possible,
unless you're really going for an avant-garde sort of thing, and in that case all bets are off.
That's it.
I hope you've learned something interesting,
Key:
G
C
Dm
D
Am
G
C
Dm
[Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Welcome back.
In this lesson I'd like to talk about the importance of where you're going to relative to where you're at when playing music.
This is a kind of a philosophical topic.
I'll keep it short _ _ just by giving an example or two.
So the point is that in many many contexts it's more important where you're going to, _ what's the chord you're trying to resolve to, rather than what's the chord you're currently playing.
And the listener or the listener's ear will be many times very forgiving for many many different combinations that you play, or even welcoming as long as you resolve it to a, say, non-conflicting harmonic solution.
Big words.
Let's have an example so you'll see exactly what I mean.
_ Let's take the basic II-V-I progression.
_ So a D minor chord, [G] _ _ to [C] a G, to a C.
[Dm] _ So really what I'm playing [D] is just the bass in my left hand, [G] D, [C] G, and C.
[Dm] And then in the right hand I have D minor, so it's D, [G] F, and A.
C it's G, B, and [C] D.
And C is C major chord, that is the C, E, and G.
_ _ [D]
Now I'm actually going to play a different, nicer voicing for this.
_ _ [Am] _ So here's my D minor chord, which is now a D minor 9th chord.
I'll show you the voicing in a second. _
_ _ _ [G] Here's _ my G, 7th chord now, [C] _ _ _ and C major 7th chord.
_ [D] So just to give you the voicing, [Am] _
[D] I have a D and an A in the left hand, and then in the right [Am] hand I have a [F] C, E, F, and A.
_ _ _ For the G I [G] have _ _ a G and a G, and maybe also a D, you can omit it really, in the left hand.
And a B, D, F, G, B in my _ right hand.
And [C] then for the final chord I have a C and a G, and then I have in my right hand a D, E, G, and B.
_ _ Or I might play it like this.
[B] I might also add this B in my right hand.
[G] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ So now I'm going to do, or try out an exercise.
I'm going to play the same bass notes [G] _
[C] [D] in my left hand.
So I'm going to go from a [G] D, to a [C] G, to a C.
Maybe play fifths.
So I'm going to maybe go [D] from a D [G] to _ a G, D.
So I'm playing the G here by the way, and you can fifth above [C] it, and then back to a C.
_ A C and a G, together.
Playing the C and the fifth above [B] it.
So my left hand is going to remain fairly uncomplicated. _
Now in my right hand I'm going to replace the middle G chord with something completely different.
What do I mean by completely different?
Well, we're going to just randomly guess out notes.
I'm completely honest, I'm guessing out or just picking some weird notes right now with you.
I have never tried this progression in my life. _ _
These notes have nothing or little to do with the original G chord voicings.
So let's pick.
_ Let's take a_
I want to keep the third, because that really gives the G its character.
So I'm going to keep that one in there.
Now let's take an [Em] E. _ _
Let's take a C [C#m] sharp maybe.
_ And then [F#] maybe an F sharp.
_ And then an A sharp. _ _
_ So this sounds _ _ nothing, absolutely like a G major chord.
And I'm going to substitute my G major chord in the middle for this thing in my right hand.
_ _ [Am] _ So we're doing an experiment now.
I've never heard this before, _ but I'm going to play it.
I'm going to play the D minor, then this monstrosity, and then the C major seventh.
Let's see how it sounds.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C#] _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G]
So not too bad actually.
Not too bad.
Not exactly the perfect voicing [Am] I'd choose, but it has some actually nice [G] tension. _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] So the point I'd like to make here is that even though this has nothing to do with a G major chord really,
it still sounds almost passable.
[G] Or actually probably for some of you passable.
It's interesting enough.
_ [B] Maybe I'll [Gm] take this one down a semitone.
[Am] So now it sounds_ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ And my point is that really what your listener wants to hear is this final chord,
the C chord to which the progression resolves.
You [D] have the two, then he [G] knows there's a five coming in there,
but he's willing to forgive you if you don't really [C] play a five, as long as you go back to the tonal center of your progression,
to the chord that your listener expects you to resolve to. _ _
_ _ _ And this is also what allows I think _ many sort of pieces or voicings in jazz _ to really pass off as acceptable.
I can take the [Am] same progression, D minor ninth, then I can play for the [G] G chord _ [C] this thing, _ then back to C major ninth.
_ [Am]
[G] So in the middle here I'm playing a G and a G, but in the right hand [E] I'm really playing an E major, a B, E and G sharp,
which again has nothing to do or very little to do with a G chord.
[C] _
_ [F#m] And it works mostly because the listener doesn't really care about this passing chord.
He only cares about the chord that you're resolving to.
_ _ The same sort of concept can be applied to soloing as well.
[Dm] _ _ _
So let's say you're playing a jazz solo, or any solo, [Em] _
_ again on the same II-V-I [Dm] progression,
[G] _
[C] _ _ and in the right hand you're going over scales or arpeggios or you're just making up a melody in your head,
hopefully you're doing that, [Dm] _ and for the first chord maybe you're playing something traditional,
so you're just, say, arpeggiating D minor, _ _ _ _ _ [G] and then for the middle chord you can really play whatever you want,
_ _ _ _ [C] _
as long as you resolve to _ the C major scale, and hopefully to one of the C major chord notes.
_ _ _ _ Another weird example, I'm just gonna really randomly play out stuff on the G major [Dm] chord.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [G#] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ Okay, so I really did the maximum I could to not play the G major scale, the G minor scale, the G dominant 7 scale,
or anything that has to do with G there in the middle,
but in my opinion at least it still sounded acceptable. _
Some might say even interesting.
_ So this is the sort of insight I'd like to leave you with in this lesson,
that in many harmonic situations try to think about which of your chords are passing chords and are less important,
_ and give you more freedom to play with them in terms of soloing and voicing and so forth,
and which of your chords are the chords that you're resolving to. _ _
_ And you know that you don't want to mess with those.
You really want to play them, _ let's say, _ uncomplicated as possible,
unless you're really going for an avant-garde sort of thing, and in that case all bets are off.
_ That's it.
I hope you've learned something interesting,
Welcome back.
In this lesson I'd like to talk about the importance of where you're going to relative to where you're at when playing music.
This is a kind of a philosophical topic.
I'll keep it short _ _ just by giving an example or two.
So the point is that in many many contexts it's more important where you're going to, _ what's the chord you're trying to resolve to, rather than what's the chord you're currently playing.
And the listener or the listener's ear will be many times very forgiving for many many different combinations that you play, or even welcoming as long as you resolve it to a, say, non-conflicting harmonic solution.
Big words.
Let's have an example so you'll see exactly what I mean.
_ Let's take the basic II-V-I progression.
_ So a D minor chord, [G] _ _ to [C] a G, to a C.
[Dm] _ So really what I'm playing [D] is just the bass in my left hand, [G] D, [C] G, and C.
[Dm] And then in the right hand I have D minor, so it's D, [G] F, and A.
C it's G, B, and [C] D.
And C is C major chord, that is the C, E, and G.
_ _ [D]
Now I'm actually going to play a different, nicer voicing for this.
_ _ [Am] _ So here's my D minor chord, which is now a D minor 9th chord.
I'll show you the voicing in a second. _
_ _ _ [G] Here's _ my G, 7th chord now, [C] _ _ _ and C major 7th chord.
_ [D] So just to give you the voicing, [Am] _
[D] I have a D and an A in the left hand, and then in the right [Am] hand I have a [F] C, E, F, and A.
_ _ _ For the G I [G] have _ _ a G and a G, and maybe also a D, you can omit it really, in the left hand.
And a B, D, F, G, B in my _ right hand.
And [C] then for the final chord I have a C and a G, and then I have in my right hand a D, E, G, and B.
_ _ Or I might play it like this.
[B] I might also add this B in my right hand.
[G] _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ So now I'm going to do, or try out an exercise.
I'm going to play the same bass notes [G] _
[C] [D] in my left hand.
So I'm going to go from a [G] D, to a [C] G, to a C.
Maybe play fifths.
So I'm going to maybe go [D] from a D [G] to _ a G, D.
So I'm playing the G here by the way, and you can fifth above [C] it, and then back to a C.
_ A C and a G, together.
Playing the C and the fifth above [B] it.
So my left hand is going to remain fairly uncomplicated. _
Now in my right hand I'm going to replace the middle G chord with something completely different.
What do I mean by completely different?
Well, we're going to just randomly guess out notes.
I'm completely honest, I'm guessing out or just picking some weird notes right now with you.
I have never tried this progression in my life. _ _
These notes have nothing or little to do with the original G chord voicings.
So let's pick.
_ Let's take a_
I want to keep the third, because that really gives the G its character.
So I'm going to keep that one in there.
Now let's take an [Em] E. _ _
Let's take a C [C#m] sharp maybe.
_ And then [F#] maybe an F sharp.
_ And then an A sharp. _ _
_ So this sounds _ _ nothing, absolutely like a G major chord.
And I'm going to substitute my G major chord in the middle for this thing in my right hand.
_ _ [Am] _ So we're doing an experiment now.
I've never heard this before, _ but I'm going to play it.
I'm going to play the D minor, then this monstrosity, and then the C major seventh.
Let's see how it sounds.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C#] _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G]
So not too bad actually.
Not too bad.
Not exactly the perfect voicing [Am] I'd choose, but it has some actually nice [G] tension. _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] So the point I'd like to make here is that even though this has nothing to do with a G major chord really,
it still sounds almost passable.
[G] Or actually probably for some of you passable.
It's interesting enough.
_ [B] Maybe I'll [Gm] take this one down a semitone.
[Am] So now it sounds_ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ And my point is that really what your listener wants to hear is this final chord,
the C chord to which the progression resolves.
You [D] have the two, then he [G] knows there's a five coming in there,
but he's willing to forgive you if you don't really [C] play a five, as long as you go back to the tonal center of your progression,
to the chord that your listener expects you to resolve to. _ _
_ _ _ And this is also what allows I think _ many sort of pieces or voicings in jazz _ to really pass off as acceptable.
I can take the [Am] same progression, D minor ninth, then I can play for the [G] G chord _ [C] this thing, _ then back to C major ninth.
_ [Am]
[G] So in the middle here I'm playing a G and a G, but in the right hand [E] I'm really playing an E major, a B, E and G sharp,
which again has nothing to do or very little to do with a G chord.
[C] _
_ [F#m] And it works mostly because the listener doesn't really care about this passing chord.
He only cares about the chord that you're resolving to.
_ _ The same sort of concept can be applied to soloing as well.
[Dm] _ _ _
So let's say you're playing a jazz solo, or any solo, [Em] _
_ again on the same II-V-I [Dm] progression,
[G] _
[C] _ _ and in the right hand you're going over scales or arpeggios or you're just making up a melody in your head,
hopefully you're doing that, [Dm] _ and for the first chord maybe you're playing something traditional,
so you're just, say, arpeggiating D minor, _ _ _ _ _ [G] and then for the middle chord you can really play whatever you want,
_ _ _ _ [C] _
as long as you resolve to _ the C major scale, and hopefully to one of the C major chord notes.
_ _ _ _ Another weird example, I'm just gonna really randomly play out stuff on the G major [Dm] chord.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [G#] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ Okay, so I really did the maximum I could to not play the G major scale, the G minor scale, the G dominant 7 scale,
or anything that has to do with G there in the middle,
but in my opinion at least it still sounded acceptable. _
Some might say even interesting.
_ So this is the sort of insight I'd like to leave you with in this lesson,
that in many harmonic situations try to think about which of your chords are passing chords and are less important,
_ and give you more freedom to play with them in terms of soloing and voicing and so forth,
and which of your chords are the chords that you're resolving to. _ _
_ And you know that you don't want to mess with those.
You really want to play them, _ let's say, _ uncomplicated as possible,
unless you're really going for an avant-garde sort of thing, and in that case all bets are off.
_ That's it.
I hope you've learned something interesting,