Using “Odd” Chords
Question: For example if we make an example using the Key of C Major, for simplicity.
I know that the only chords derived from a major scale are Major, Minor, and Diminished. Would it ever sound good to use a Fdim or G aug etc, even though these chord types are not derived directly from this scale? Are they only used with keys/scales that they are directly derived from or can they be used as alterations/substitutions for other chords no matter what?
Answer: Of course they can be used as alterations, and you're not bound by the theoretical guidelines.... If you can make it sound good, then it IS good.
I just had a rather interesting conversation with a jazz dude on another forum and he was saying that in jazz they are taught that there are no "out of key notes" and that anything can be resolved and be theoretically “in key”. That was rather interesting, because I typically come at it from the angle that you can go out of key and sound good doing it, but I still consider those notes to be taken from outside of the key.... It’s a semantic thing I guess, and as long as it sounds good then who cares what you call it?
Certain things I learned in theory class to “theorize” notes outside of the key are you can borrow chords from outside keys (like the parallel minor key) and use passing tones which move through notes that are not in key on your way to another note that is in the key, things like that. Of course this class used a lot more strict guidelines as to what you can and cannot do, which doesn't really apply to the music world today. I typically use a lot of chords/notes outside the key without trying to theorize it too much. I mainly just use my ears and make sure what I’m doing sounds good.
Jazz seems to be more like you can use whatever you want as long as it flows from one chord to the next, causing and resolving tension chords, etc. There isn’t so much a set structure of I ii iii IV V vi viio chords that it is based on. Jazz players use dominant 7 chords for a lot of different chords other than just the V chord, however when basing chords off the harmonized major scale, there is only one dominant 7 chord (hence why it’s called a “dominant 7”, because the 5th note in the scale is called dominant).... I’m sure you’ve tried this (if you haven't, then try it
) and it sounds really cool. Something you can try along with this is replacing dominant 7 chords with diminished chords, because they both are very (very) similar....
G7 = G B D F
Bdim = B D F
As you can see, the only difference is the G note. So any place you would use a dominant 7 chord, try substituting a B diminished chord and see how it works. That’s a cool use for a diminished chord.
The augmented chord is an odd one, I can’t think of many songs off hand that use that chord. lol I find it works really well as a passing chord from one chord to the next. For instance play a D chord and add the #5 just before you move to a Bm chord. That puts some attention on the 5th right before it moves up to the root of the Bm chord (which is the 6th).
There is a worship song called “let my words be few” that uses the augmented chord also and it has a nice sound to it.
G Gaug Em C
.....I just noticed that they used it in the same way that I did above, going from a I to a I aug then to the vi chord, which is funny because I didn’t plan it that way when I came up with the previous example.
For sus chords, I use the sus2 in replacement for major and minor chords all of the time, especially on A position barre chords. You can substitute the sus2 for basically any major or minor chord, because there is no 3rd in the chord, it is sort of a universal position chord (like a power chord).
I generally use Sus4 chords to alter chords and create a little movement within a chord without changing it. To get a feel for suspended chords, the D chord is a great way to experiment with them. Adding the pinky onto the 3rd fret of the 1st string gives a sus4 and playing the first string open gives a sus2 chord. So start out with a D major then just experiment with those two Dsus chords (Dsus2 and Dsus4).
Hopefully all that rambling helps a little.
