Hi Alec,

You hit the nail on the head as well! Sadly, most of today's so-called "music" is shallow. Shallow in that it is all too often just three chords with a rhythm backing and some so-called vocalist screaming three words over and over in sync with the rhythm. What a pity when beautiful music could be created instead. But, the trash produced today is what sells. I'll never understand why.

Now, back to harmony and chords. This is for those who like to dabble in harmony and chords and are looking for an easy chord substitution rule to apply to their music. If you are faced with a G7 chord and wish to reharmonize the melody note, play Dminor7 instead. So the rule is: when faced with a dominant chord, count UP a fifth (G, A, B, C, D) or DOWN a fourth (G, F, E, D) and play the resulting root note (in this case D) in a minor seventh form. It will not work with all melody notes but is frequently useful and surprisingly nice to the ear. So the next time you face a dominant chord, do your counting, play a minor seventh chord, and enjoy the difference in the sound.

Chuck