Songwriting: Chord Substitution - Series 2 - Lesson 8

In this lesson, we learn which chords can be substituted for which other chords by exploring chord families. This enables us to take any plain chord progression and spice it up with new chords that we may not have thought about using. We take our cycle of fifths and spice it up with chord substitutions. We learn where the common pop chord progression vi-IV-V-I came from. We also learn about the subdominant chord and the general rule for all chord substitution: chords can be substituted if they have 2 or more notes in common.

[KennyGrylls]

I really enjoy your videos. I'm self taught in music theory and you have answered alot of questions I've had in just about an hour.
I hope you keep sharing your approach to theory so other creative people can express themselves.
the tonal gravity video is top notch!

[nightscriber]

FINALLY thankyou i am beginning to understand

[lovexxxice]

Hmm recently I've been intrigued by Ben l'Oncle Soul's cover of Barbie Girl. He turned something stupid and super poppy to something tasty and soulful. He prolonged melody lines without changing the actual melody and he turned a 4-chord song to a many chord song. I'm just wondering if you could break down the specific techniques he used into making this cover "his own" so that we can apply this to when we do covers ourselves, or use existing songs as inspirations for our originals. Especially on how he changed the chords entirely making it soul style without changing the melody. That would be amazing.

[henrikkraght]

When you substitute chords I assume you suggest to keep the original Bass note. A I can be substituted by iii and iv. Ex.. C/c, Em/c, Am/c

[reubentrapp]

Awesome series but it's hard to find all ur videos