Enjoy,

Cooper
GuitarSongsMasters.com

How to Substitute Simple Chords with SEXY

Chords in YOUR Favorite Songs
The ability to spice up your favorite rock & pop songs (or in song from any
other “simple” genre) with some sexy sounding chords has the potential to
make you an unforgettable player.
Here are a few things to remember about it:
The most important thing to remember is – do it tastefully, and trust your ears – they
are always right.
The rules below are just general rules of thumb. Often they will work out (especially
when you start getting “good ears” for these chords, and not just mixing them in because
you read about it) – but often they won’t.
It might be because the melody of the song is “colliding” with one of the extension notes
of the chord, or that this chord “color” just sounds out of place in this song, but simply
remember that your ears are always right. Keep the ideas that are working and sound
good to you, and dump the ones that don’t.
The “good ears” for these chords come from listening to a lot of music with colorful
chords. Then – your ears “are asking” for these special sounds. Refer to the listening
recommendations PDF at the beginning of the course for ideas on inspiring music to
check out.
Trying to look for the "daring" covers that include
a lot of spicy chords is the way to go in order to to
open up your ears - so that these chords will ask to
come out of your hands as well. (The next step is
to learn how to play the covers that you like best,
note for note) In page 5 you will find 2 playlist
recommendations for such covers

Over time and experimentations on different songs – you’ll get much better at doing
this and you’ll find your own substitutions preferences!
Some songs simply sound nicer with just the regular cowboy chords. Some will be
greatly enhanced when you add just one colorful chord, and in some of them it can work
beautifully when you completely convert them to jazz chords. Try and see for yourself!
When you substitute campfire chords with jazz chords (that are usually only played on
4 strings, sometimes with muted strings in the middle of the chord) – notice that the old
campfire strumming patterns will not sound great with these chords. Instead, a better
choice that usually works is to opt for a finger-picked pattern, something along the lines
of the patterns that you learn in the songs section of the course.
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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet
 The General Rules of Thumb:
Simple minor chords are the easiest to replace with fancy chords. Converting a minor
chord to a minor 7 chord is highly likely to sound great in most songs. If you want to try
and make things even more spicy – try substituting simple minor chords with minor 9 or
minor 6 chords.

Minor Chords: Examples for Sexy Replacements That You Can Try
(match them to the chord that you are replacing – for example: Em9 instead of Em):

With major chords it is a bit more complex, and you have to figure out if the major chord
that you want to substitute functions as the dominant chord in this song (the “V” – fifth
degree) or not. (Further explanation below)
If the major chord you are substituting is NOT the dominant chord, you can try substituting
this chord with a major 7 chord - good chances that it will sound good. If you’re feeling
more adventurous, try the major 9, major 6, (marked in diagrams simply as “6”) or the 6/9.

Major Chords: Examples for Sexy Replacements That You Can Try

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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet
If the major chord you are substituting is INDEED the dominant chord (for example, it is a
G chord, in a song that is in the key of C), so you can try the dominant 7 chord (highly likely
to work).
If you want to be more adventurous – you have a lot of options here that might sound
fantastic. Try the dominant 9 chord, (marked in diagrams as “9”), the dominant 13, (marked
in diagrams as “13”), the dominant b13, (marked in diagrams as “b13”) or the 6/9.

Major Dominant Chords: Examples for Sexy Replacements That

You Can Try

Summary - How to Add Jazzy Chords to Regular Songs:

Less likely to work, but has the potential

Which simple chord you are substituting? Highly likely to sound good: to sound very interesting and spicy when
it does:

Minor Chord Minor 7 Minor 6, Minor 9

Major Chord That is NOT the

Major 7 Major 9, 6/9, Major 6
Dominant Chord

Dominant 7, Dominant 13, Dominant

Major Dominant Chord Dominant 7
b13, Dominant 9, 6/9.

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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet
 Important Point About Dominant Chords
So what is the deal with “instead of a major chord you would see a major 7th, instead of
a minor chord you would see a minor 7th, instead of a dominant chord you would see a
dominant 7th”?

This point might seem confusing, because we are sort of “mixing” the chord quality (major /
minor) with the chord function. (Tonic / super-tonic / dominant / mediant, etc.)
To learn more deeply about chord functions – I recommend going here.

But if you are at least somewhat familiar with the topic (which seems likely, since you are
here on a pretty advanced course) – let’s quickly remember what it’s about, so we can move
forward regarding our dominant chords.

Chord Families Chord Degree Theoretical Name Example

I Tonic C

Tonic IIIm Mediant Em

VIm Submediant Am

IV Subdominant F
Sub - Dominant
IIm Super Tonic Dm

V Dominant G
Dominant
VIIo Leading Tone Bo

Each chord has its function in a song, and the most dominant sounding chord of all – is… you
guessed it – the dominant, which is the V (5) chord in the scale!

The dominant chord sounds like it has the most “tension” in its sound, and it wants “the
most” to be resolved back to the I chord.

So while inside a simple song, it might seem like another simple major chord - for example
in “Let It Be”, which is in the key of C, and also contains a simple G chord…

… The point is, when you want to “convert” the dominant chord to a 7th chord, even if it
seems like it’s a major chord and it should be converted to a major 7th, it’s NOT! And it
should be converted into a Dominant 7 chord.

It might still be a bit confusing, but you’ll see how it sinks in as we keep going in the course
and you’ll see these examples happening in more. The section on how to add fancy chords in
regular songs will show it to you in action in a bunch of songs)

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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet
Anyway – to cap it off, here is a table that will show you the dominant chords in all of the
major keys, and you can refer back to it later.

Key The I Chord The IV Chord The V Chord

Function Tonic Sub Dominant Dominant

C Major C F G

Db Major Db Gb Ab

D Major D G A

Eb Major Eb Ab Bb

E Major E A B

F Major F Bb C

F# Major F# B C#

G Major G C D

Ab Major Ab Db Eb

A Major A D E

Bb Major Bb Eb F

B Major B E F#

A great playlist of jazzy covers of popular songs.

(If you don't use Spotify - look up "jazz covers" on
YouTube and you'll find many other playlists as well)

A great playlist of some bossa-nova ("Brazilian jazz")

covers of popular songs.

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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet
 Example #1 – Hallelujah (Using jazzy chords)
I play this whole example at the end of the 1st lesson in the section

C6 Am9
I heard there was a secret chord
C6 Am9
That David played and it pleased the lord

Fmaj7 G13 Cmaj7 G13

But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Cmaj7 Fmaj7 G13
It goes like this the fourth the fifth
Am7 F6/9
The minor fall and the major lift
G13 Em7 Am7
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

F6/9 Am7
Hallelujah, hallelujah
F6/9 Cmaj7 G13 Cmaj7
Hallelujah, hallelujah

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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet
 Example #2 – Ain’t No Sunshine (Using jazzy chords)
As featured in the video example in the 2nd lesson in the section.

Am7 Em9 G13 Am7 Em9 G13 Am7

Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
Am7 Em9 G13 Am7 Em9 G13 Am7
It’s not warm when she’s away

Am7 Em9
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
Dm9
And she’s always gone too long
Am7 Em9 G13 Am7
Any time that she goes away

Example #3 – You Are My Sunshine (Using jazzy chords)

As featured in the video example in the 3rd lesson in the section.

C6 C6
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
F6/9 C6
You make me happy, when skies are grey
F6/9 C6
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you
G13 F6/9 C6
Please don’t take my sunshine away

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Substituting Chords Cheat Sheet