Playing Cooler Chords Pt. 3

Reharmonizing with Minor iv Chords

Play Video

Playing Cooler Chord progressions, doesn’t always mean using some kind of bizarre diminished chord. In this case, I’m going to talk about using just a plain of minor iv chord. So you can take a progression in D Major like this, D, A, Bm, and G, which all come from the key of D Major. So it’s typical to refer to this chord progression as a I-V-vi-IV (1-5-6-4) progression, because those are the scale degrees from which these chords are built within the key of D Major. 

But what we’re going to look at is instead of having a major IV, we’re going to have a minor iv. So, this is just as simple as going from a G Major chord to a G minor chord. And then putting that back into context with our I-V-vi-IV… you wind up with D, A (or A7 in this key), Bm and then G minor. It’s a great way to just kind of change up the way that your chord progression ends. It’s a really simple but also interesting way to end your chord phrase.

Check out Part 1 of this series about Reharmonizing with Half-Diminished vii Chords

Also, check out Part 2 of this series about Reharmonizing with Fully Diminished Transition Chords

Reharmonizing with Minor iv Chords

Play Video

Playing Cooler Chord progressions, doesn’t always mean using some kind of bizarre diminished chord. In this case, I’m going to talk about using just a plain of minor iv chord. So you can take a progression in D Major like this, D, A, Bm, and G, which all come from the key of D Major. So it’s typical to refer to this chord progression as a I-V-vi-IV (1-5-6-4) progression, because those are the scale degrees from which these chords are built within the key of D Major. 

But what we’re going to look at is instead of having a major IV, we’re going to have a minor iv. So, this is just as simple as going from a G Major chord to a G minor chord. And then putting that back into context with our I-V-vi-IV… you wind up with D, A (or A7 in this key), Bm and then G minor. It’s a great way to just kind of change up the way that your chord progression ends. It’s a really simple but also interesting way to end your chord phrase.

Check out Part 1 of this series about Reharmonizing with Half-Diminished vii Chords

Also, check out Part 2 of this series about Reharmonizing with Fully Diminished Transition Chords