I'm more of a technician than an actual musician,

One guy in the band has this skill or talent, he takes a song, let's say it has 3 chords. like something like "Happy Birthday"
He has the ability to add chord changes to make the song more than what it is, it's like chord improvising, but I know it's more of a theory road map that he follows,.

I know that one way would be using roman numeral chord progessions to change form ke to key, but is there a cheat sheet or a place on the net that I can go to that shows, when going from the root (c) (I) to the fifth (G) (V) you should use this and this to give it more of a flow or tension, or to jazz it up?

Anybody understand my babble?

I should have practiced when I was younger

hi frankieve,

hm, maybe you should take a look at http://www.completechords.com, maybe this: http://www.completechords.com/Pages_Side..._Work_Index.htm

I'm just going a little bit into bar piano playing and improvising - they explain a lot about chords there, especially about the "seconds down", "fifths down" and so on things that make chords sound as they should - then put yourself some 6's, 9's and 11/-9/+5's together and that's all - just like mr. ellington did :-)))

regards
Christoph

Band in a Box is a music program that has several features you will find helpful. You can enter chords as "C-F-G" or as "I-ii-V-I" and it wil display them in any of these modes. If you change the key of the song the chords will change appropriately. There is a "Substitutions" command which will suggest varieties of chords that can be used to create the kind of variety you are talking about. Every musician needs this program anyway, so go ahead and buy it.

Douglas Wolfe

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frankieve,

Sometimes I try these. Not that it always work. It really depends on the tune, but your ear will tell. For simplicity let's say you are playing in C. You can transpose it to any key you want.

In key of C.
* If the chord is G, try substituting part of its measures (mostly the former part) by Dm.
* If you substituted former part by Dm, try Dm7 before going to G.
* If you about to change from C to F, try Em or E, at the latter part of the measure you would otherwise play C.
* If from F to C, try Dm during the latter part of otherwise F.
* Try switching between C and Am during the measures of C or Am.
* If the progression is C-G-Am try bass of B when you play the G.
* F#dim sometimes sounds good when you transit from F to G.
* When you are about to change from G to C try this. Play Gsus4 then back to G and then C. G7 and G7sus4 in place of G and Gsus4 sometimes work better.
* sus4 and add9 played for a beat or two while staying in a particular chord also sound nice sometimes. Sometimes accentuating these chords off beat sounds even better.

Hope this helps

Shiral

Frankieve, keep in mind the key you are playing in. Say the key is "C," some substitutions for C are Am, C6, Cmaj7, even an occasional Ab. Substitutions for the "F" chord might be a Dm, Dm7 or Gsus, etc. In addition to the key signature, follow the melody and see which chord in that key signature fits best. As you get better, you will find even more substitutions.

thanks guys