Mixing It Up
In the last issue, I showed you some LH chord inversions. This time
I'm going to show you some RH chord inversions and how I applied them
in my song "Nawty Nuff." The audio is an excerpt from the end of the
song and lines up with the sheet music after 24 seconds.
Chord chart: nawtynuff.pdf
Audio: nawtynuff.mp3
The first RH chord, in the first measure, is F major. More specifically
- F major / 2nd inversion - written as F/C. So why does it say Dm7
above the chord? Good question. Let's look at the bigger picture. The
RH plays an F/C triad (F-A-C), which combines with a single D note
played by the LH. The result is D-F-A-C. Dm7.
Looking at the music, you will find eight unique chords. Each RH chord
is an inversion on its own, but when the LH bass note is added - the
chord names change. Let's look at the rest of them.
| Em7 | G/D + E bass | G B D + E = E G B D |
Sometimes chords like these would just be named C/F or G/C, because the 11th is specifically stated.
|
C(11)/F G(11)/C |
C/E + F bass G/B + C bass |
C E G + F = C E G F G B D + C = G B D C |
Another name for the half-diminished (Ø7) is minor 7b5.
|
DØ7 C#Ø7 |
Fm/Ab + D bass Em/G + C# bass |
F Ab C + D = D F Ab C E G B + C# = C# E G B |
This chord has the same spelling as Am7/C, but since the chords are shifting stepwise and the song ends on a C chord - we name this C6.
| C6 | A7/G + C bass | A E G + C = C E G A |
Even though the RH plays an inversion, the bass redefines the chord name.
| C | C/E + C bass | C E G + C = C E G |
Using the RH inversions the way I did provided the character I was
looking for. Determining a chord name isn't always easy, but
experimenting is. You can try playing any bass note and then find
RH chords that don't clash with it. Or you could play a RH chord
and find bass notes that work. When you find some you like - write
them down. Here are few to get you started. The RH plays the chord
named before the slash and the LH plays the solitary bass note named
after the slash:
Gm/G, Gm/Ab, Gm/Bb, Gm/C, Gm/D, and Gm/Eb
See which combinations you can discover using major, diminished, and
augmented RH chords.
Chris
www.ChrisCrain.com