

Because of this, there are a number of different ways to analyse the same chord progression. And in order to do this, they come up with various ideas and concepts. A musician writes a particular chord progression that happens to sound good, and then it’s up to the theoretician to figure out why it sounds good. It’s important to remember that: first came music, then came theory. There are many ways of analysing the same chord progression. To others the Em7 will be a half-bar chord substitution of the CMaj7 chord. Let’s again take the chord progression: | CMaj7 – Em7 | Dm7 ||

We will come across many theoretical concepts that try to explain the same chord in different ways. You will also notice that one of the passing chords is a Secondary Dominant (the subject of our next lesson).Īt this point it is worth noting that there is more than one way to analyse a chord progression. For example, the Diatonic Approach Chord of Em7 is also a Median Note substitution of CMaj7. You may have noticed some of the above approach chords are also chord substitutions. I will have more to say about this in future lessons. Note: That both the chord and the bass-line movement are important when transitioning between chords. The most widely used passing chords are shown in the below table. We can insert a passing chord between the CMaj7 and the Dm7. Let’s take the following chord progression: | CMaj7 | Dm7 || This is a passing chord that is either 1 ( chromatic) or 2 ( diatonic) semitones away from the next chord.

Because they are played quickly (they generally never last more than 1/2 a bar), they are not harmonically important. They are chords you pass through quickly on your way from one chord to the next in the chord progression. Passing chords are literally that, chords that you pass by.
