Fake Ending Through Chord Subs

Good morning this is Duane. We’ve been doing a series of videos about music theory, which I’ve called “Good Stuff You Really Ought to Know About Music.” One minor point you really ought to know about music is that there’s such a thing as fake endings. Fake endings are formed by using substitute chords on the final, or next to the final chord. Let me just illustrate, let me, say I’m playing Misty, the very end, you expect it to go here. What if I do this, that’s called a false ending, because I didn’t go to the tonic chord, I didn’t go to the home-based chord. I went to a substitute chord.

The way you pick a substitute chord is really pretty easy. The first thing you ask yourself is to what other chord is this noted. The final note of Misty is “C”, right, if you’re playing in the key of “C” obviously, the tonal center. I asked myself into what other chord will “C” fit beside “C” chord. It will fit in the “F” chord won’t it? I could use that as the substitute chord. It’s also in the “A” minor chord, it’s also in the “A” flat chord, and that’s the chord I picked to use. Let me do it with the “F” chord. See, I went to the “F” chord, and then I walked down “F” to “C” to “F” to “C”. It’s simply in my left hand I’m going “F”, “E”, “D”, “C”. My chord is going “F”, “C”, “F”, “C”, very simple.

I disguise it a bit by putting in some color tones, and some right hand straddles, or whatever. Let me do it again. See there’s “F”, “C”, “F”, “C”, but I could have gone to “A” flat, couldn’t I? When I went to “A” flat then I followed “A” flat with “D” flat, which is just a half step above “C”, and then slide down to “C”. Of course, there’s other ways to end it, but you can always use a false ending if you want to, to kind of delay the ending, or throw a curve ball at your listeners. You eventually though end up on the tonic chord, almost always.

That’s the idea for today, so hopefully you enjoyed this little series. If you do come over to playpiano.com, and sign up for our series of free videos and tips. Hope to see you there. Bye, bye for now.

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJX_G2lD6k&feature=youtu.be

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