Tired of Boring Chords? Try This.

If you’re like me, you sometimes get a little weary of playing the same old chords to the same tunes Sunday after Sunday.

Luckily, staying locked into the same progressions doesn’t have to be the case.

Here are some tricks to bring some freshness to your sound.

The Secondary Dominant

OK—what I’m about to show you has a lot of music theory behind it, but it’s actually a simple, step-by-step sequence that’s easy to put into your arrangement.

Many worship/CCM songs use three, four, or five chords from the major scale to create progressions for any musical phrase. In the major scale, there are seven qualities that correspond to each note within the scale (I’ll highlight the most commonly used chords, using the Nashville Number System here):

• 1 = major

• 2 = minor

• 3 = minor

• 4 = major

• 5 = major

• 6 = minor

• 7 = diminished

• back to 1 (octave up)

Now, here’s an example of a chord progression you’ll likely see in any given song:

• ||: 1 . . . |1 . . . | 5 . . . |5 . . . | 4 . . . |4 . . . | 1 . . . |1 . . . :|| 

To me, this about as plain vanilla as it gets: Nothing wrong with it, but nothing very exciting, either. The first trick I’ll use to make it more interesting comes from Gospel, R&B, and jazz musicians, where they change the 5 chord up to make the 4 chord sound a bit stronger. The trick goes like this:

When you get the 5 chord, play it as normal. In the second half of its duration (let’s say, two measures), make it a 5 minor and throw in a 1 dominant 7th just before arriving to the 4 chord.

Here are the numbers, along with an audio example, using a vocal melody over a piano:

• ||: 1 . . . | 1 . . . | 5 . . . | 5m . 1⁷ . | 4 . . . |4 . . . | 1 . . . | 1 . . . :|| 

What we’re doing here is using a secondary dominant progression to make the 4 chord feel like another “home” chord, similar to the 1 of the original phrase. We briefly step outside of the established key to add color and strengthen the arrival of the 4.

Now, this is cool and all—but can we make it even more interesting?

The Backdoor Dominant

Let’s take another page from the Gospel/R&B/jazz playbook to add more color and interest to our progression. We’ll the first modification in place, but this time, we’ll also change the 4 chord before arriving back to the 1 chord; we call this the backdoor dominant, because it approaches the 1 chord from a whole step below. The trick goes like this:

When you get to the 4 chord play it as normal. In the second half of it’s duration (two measures), change to a flatted-7 dominant, and then proceed as normal to the 1 chord.

Here are the numbers, along with an audio example, using a vocal melody over a piano:

• ||: 1 . . . |1 . . . | 5 . . . |5m . 1⁷ . | 4 . . . |♭7⁷ . . . | 1 . . . |1 . . . :||

OK, now we’re getting somewhere—but wait! There’s more!

The Tritone Substitution (Or, ♭5⁷)

Alrighty, the last trick up my sleeve is to go WAY outside the key and modify one of our previous tricks, the secondary dominant approach. Here’s how you pull it off:

When you arrive to the 1⁷ in a secondary dominant progression, replace it with a ♭5⁷.

What we’re creating is a chromatic progression from the 5m down to the 4 chord, passing through the ♭5⁷ on our way. In music theory, the ♭5 is an interval of a tritone (6 half steps) from the 1 chord, so when we replace the 1 chord with a ♭5, we have what is called a tritone substitution. (A lot of jargon, I know—but it sounds really cool!)

Here are the numbers with what we have so far, along with an audio example:

• ||: 1 . . . |1 . . . | 5 . . . |5m . ♭5⁷ . | 4 . . . |♭7⁷ . . . | 1 . . . |1 . . . :||

TL;DR

Here’s the need to know summary of the tricks you can use to spice up your progressions:

• Secondary Dominant: When you get the 5 chord, play it as normal. In the second half of its duration (let’s say, two measures), make it a 5 minor and throw in a 1 dominant 7th just before arriving to the 4 chord.

• Backdoor Dominant: When you get to the 4 chord play it as normal. In the second half of it’s duration (two measures), change to a flatted-7 dominant, and then proceed as normal to the 1 chord.

• Tritone Substitution: When you arrive to the 1⁷ in a secondary dominant progression, replace it with a ♭5⁷.

You can mix and match these all over the music you choose for Sunday morning worship, but REMEMBER: It has to fit with the melody!

Now, go be creative!

Be blessed 👊✌️