Chord Substitutions – 3- Major Chord Substitutions

[Duffy P]

Major Chord Rule 1 – For a major chord you can substitute the relative minor chord.

Lets take as an example a C major chord. It has the notes C E and G. It’s relative minor chord is a minor third below it, or three frets back on the guitar. So A minor is the relative minor to C major. It has the notes A C and E. The relative minor has two of the notes of the major chord. These are the root and the third, the most important note. That makes this substitution very strong, meaning that it is highly likely to sound good.

Another way you can look at this is that an Amin7 chord contains the notes A C E and G. The C E and G are simply a C chord. So an A min 7 chord can also be seen as a C triad with an A in the bass. Both ways of looking at it show that this is likely a strong substitution.

Major Chord Rule 2 For a major chord, you can substitute the minor chord at the third scale degree.

Again lets use C major as an example. The third scale degree of a C scale is E, and an E minor chord contains the notes E G B. Again, this chord has two notes in common with the C major chord, this time the third and the fifth. The fifth is not as strong as the root, so this substitution may not be as strongly related as the relative minor sub, but it is still highly likely to work.

Another way to look at this is that a Cmaj7 chord is C E G and B. Get rid of the root and you have an E minor triad. This means that this substitution is much more likely to work where a major7 chord is appropriate, and less likely to work on a dominant chord. More on this below.

Major Chord Rule 3 Major chord substitutions are reciprocal.

This means that if you can substitute chord x for chord y by one of these rules, you can also substitute chord y for chord x. The reciprocal nature of substitutions works for any substitution that does not imply a direction. Thus, the extension rules are reciprocal. We will later encounter some rules that are not. For major chord substitutions, it also means that, if you have an A minor chord, you can theoretically substitute a C major chord for it, as the relative minor chord. You might also substitute an F major chord for an A minor chord, by reciprocity and the second rule.

Conservative Major Chord Rule For any major chord, you can substitute the chords in that key which have the same function.

This means that you can substitute any tonic chord for any other tonic chord within a key, and you can substitute the subdominant chords for each other, and you may substitute the dominant chords for each other. This is more limited than the above rules, and these substitutions will almost always work. Thus, in the key of C, the chords C, Amin and Emin are interchangeable. So are F and Dmin, and so are G and Bdim.

This rule means that if you understand the function of a chord, you will also quickly be able to decide what substitutions will work well for it. And as we pointed out above, substituting the 3minor of a dominant chord is less likely to work because the 3minor chord will contain the maj7 of the dominant chord, which clashes with the dominant seventh. There are places where this substitution would work, but its best to avoid it.

Remember, the ultimate rule is what sounds good, and what sounds good is up to you. These “rules” give you options that are likely to work, and whether they do work will depend on your taste, and on how you use the chords.

As an example for this, I’ve included the simple chords for Amazing Grace, which are a little simpler than Brian used in EP007, and also a sheet that uses (and probably overuses) these major chord substitutions.

[Don D.]

Hello Duffy, thank you for all the time and energy you’re putting into this. It’s nice that it will become a permanent part of the website.

I have a concrete question about a substitution used in bar 10 of EP094 (it’s bar 12 on the tab), the V chord continues where we’d expect to find a IV. I asked my question in detail in the comments to Patrick van Rijn’s EP094 video. Thanks for taking a look at this.

Don D.

[Duffy P]

I’m putting the answer in the comments to Patrick’s EP094 video.

[richard c]

I know this an old thread, but it explains major chord subs in a concise, simple way that a beginner like me can understand. Thanks!!

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