hey everybody,

i'm looking for a way to spice up my chords, but i'm having a hard time doing more than extensions....like i have a hard time learning how to alter chords instead of just adding a 7th and a 9th and so on.  anyone have any good or creative ideas to get me on my way to more colorful chords?

chris
There are 3 comments, leave a comment.
maybe try this with dominant 7th chords:

play the third on the bottom, then the seventh, then add a #9 above that.  that'll give it a nice color.

or try the seventh on the bottom, then the third, then add the thirteen.

9 for 1 on the a (3 on bottom) voicing, 13 for 5 on the b (7 on bottom) voicing.

that might be a nice place to start.
!  if your cm chord is moving to an fm chord, then you play notes that help that sound. if it's kind of modal, then you can throw a d, a, f, and other "non" chord tones in.  but if it's moving to a g7, you'd put other tones in to help the sound move to the g7.

this is kind of confusing maybe, but the bottom line is this: don't worry exactly about "number" the notes are that you are putting in your chords, just add notes and see what happens. if it sounds good, remember it, if not move on.

part 2: change voicings.  do stuff like jordo said above.  if you are constantly playing your chords with a certain style of voice, like, an fm always starts with an eb in the thumb, start moving notes around. switch up notes between right and left hand.  play some octaves in the right hand with tighter chords in the left, that is always nice when you want to be heard.

good luck!
If I'm not back in 24 hours, call the president.

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thank you both so much! :)

scot, i take your information as something i will continually use during practice and continue to create my style/colorings!!

jordo, thank you for those great starting points, besides what scot said the mental "push" you gave certainly allowed my creative juices to start flowing!
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