How To Make Musical Chords Sound More Complex

Here is a transcript of the podcast in case you want to follow along:

Hi, this is Duane again. Back with some more good stuff you really ought to know about musical chords. This is so embarrassingly simple that I hesitate to mention it and I wouldn’t except I have people come up to me all the time when they watch me play and they say, “What chord are you playing?” I’ll say, “It’s a C chord.” They’ll say, “My C chord doesn’t sound like your C chord.” I’ll have to explain that’s because I play it inverted and I add a color tone to it. I can see the light bulb come on in their head when about 30 seconds later I show them how easy it is to do that. It’s amazing the change in sound you get when you just do something simple like that.

I’ve titled this little card, “How to Make any Square Chord Sound Cool.” (Not available anymore – sorry!) A lot of people play like this. (Duane is playing piano) That’s fine except it doesn’t really sound like (Duane is playing piano) that. The only difference between that (Duane is playing piano) and that (Duane is playing piano) is that I’ve inverted the C chord, I broke position in the first version I’ve added a sixth and a ninth. Big difference right?

If you use some techniques such as arpeggio where you break up the chord or some blue notes (Duane is playing piano) and a little dynamics, I’m peddling (Duane is playing piano). A few techniques like that and it’s amazing you can go from (Duane is playing piano) to this (Duane is playing piano).

I was using a whole bunch of different techniques but each one of them was simple in itself. If you’re where a lot of people that ask me that question are, if you want to start making your chords sound a little more complex, start with just turning them upside down, getting them out of root position immediately makes them sound better. (Duane is playing piano) Makes them sound different anyway. They’re not so square.

Turn your chord up into first inversion or second inversion, then add a sixth or a major seventh or a ninth or if it’s a bluesy situation, a seventh, maybe a seventh and a ninth. (Duane is playing piano) Sometimes I play sixth, seventh and ninth all together. It’s kind of a (Duane is playing piano) tone cluster but you see how much it adds to it.

That’s more good stuff you really ought to know. We’ll see you again. Bye. This podcast is also available on YouTube – go to musical chords.