Theory Of The Month

Play diatonic chords in a major key area with the mighty Joe Hubbard

Hello there! Learning to play through chord changes is a skill that requires you to be able to understand and hear how chords work when progressing from one to another. Exercises that outline all the diatonic chords with chord tones are great for exposing your ears to hearing the sound of the key you’re playing in, but do little for understanding how you would learn to play lines through the changes. Let’s fix that!

Indulge me for a moment. Have you ever played through the diatonic chords of a key centre with chord tones only? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of bass

Example 1

lessons on the internet that show this approach. They’ll take the key of C and ask you to play Cmaj7, D-7, E-7, Fmaj7, G7,

B-7(b5)

A-7, and back to Cmaj7. This can serve as a drill to help you to hear the key you’re playing, for sure, but unfortunately it is often sold as an exercise that will help you to navigate your way as you improvise through a set of chord changes. In that form, it just doesn’t work.

However, by adding just one scale passing tone to this sequence, it will suddenly work as an improvisational enabler straight out of the box. In the following exercise, we’re going to play diatonic chords from the key of C major, and when ascending, we’re going to add a 4th between the 3rd and the 5th. Then, when coming back down, we’re going to add a 2nd between the 3rd and the root. You will immediately hear how these lines sound like musical phrases that play through the changes with a much more real-world outcome.

Don’t get me wrong: this is still an isolated key-related exercise, but what it adds is a more realistic outcome that you will be able to start using immediately over standard chord progressions. Practise smart, work hard and play creatively!