Tag: astor piazolla

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Hi Guys,

Today, a look at the amazing minor flat 6th chord as used in the compositional styles of Carlos Jobim, John McLaughlin, Astor Piazolla and Al Di Meola.

PART 1:

Most people seem to have a preference for the minor 6th chord, [which in this case has the F# or the Major 6th].

But, the minor flattened 6th chord [F natural in this case] has an amazing character of its own, [especially when it resolves to the first inversion, as we will see].

PART 2:

What makes the minor chord with a flattened 6th work really well is to move down to a first inversion chord.

EXAMPLE:

Here, we have a Db minor chord moving down to a 1st inversion Ab Major chord:

Notice the flattened 6th note of A at the top moving down a semitone to the Ab note:

This smooth chordal transition works beautifully when creating melodic sequences.

Let’s now add some more first inversion chords:

Here, we employ F#m/A with the bass resolving a half step down to the G # note.

Once again, we have a wonderful melodic transition, this time going to the E first inversion chord.

In order to move away from cliche-dom we will now alter the harmony a bit.

Here, we will add a chord of D9/F# [1st inversion] and let the bass move down a semitone to a chord of F7 [but with a Maj7th also and a #11th].

To complete this example, we will exploit chains of 7 Sus4 chords: Here, are the first three chords moving up in semitones.

Here are the next three chords moving up in semitones :

Finally, we come to a conclusion and rest on an E/F# Chord, up a semitone once again.

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