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A massive deep dive into the Minor 4 chord. Much like the Spicy 3 chord, the Minor 4 chord is not only a very common transitional sound, it is also a portal into a bunch of other sounds/tactics that we can use to enhance various areas of our writing and playing.  

This video is in six sections, all of which are chaptered out in the youtube timeline. I have a feeling many people will have follow up questions in regards to this video (probably for parts 5 and 6). If you are one of those people, come hang out in the discord as I will be available this week to discuss these sounds. Hope you enjoy!

Songs Discussed:

"Wake Me Up When September Ends" - Green Day (key of G)
https://youtu.be/rdpBZ5_b48g?si=QACd-TCH0bLGhtB2

"Creep" - Radiohead (key of G)
https://youtu.be/XFkzRNyygfk?si=3HX8gg1mRdqj7Bk4

"In My Life"  - The Beatles (key of A)
https://youtu.be/YBcdt6DsLQA?si=CX2FunjjcRQq8O09

"Open Arms" - Journey (key of D)
https://youtu.be/3ByIYof4mqo?si=oMG48OVRPykxF4Zg

"You Are Good" - Israel Houghton (key of E)
https://youtu.be/TQlonCcalI8?si=TIcmHgVNG4FLTQd1

"Best Part" - Daniel Caesar (key of D)
https://youtu.be/vBy7FaapGRo?si=_hvTmisVZ_5PUgnQ


Lesson Mp3 (was too big to attach):
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7yq9xyqnviti6ln7gaenx/Building-Chords-Transitions-Part-11-Journey-into-the-Minor-4.mp3?rlkey=08wa0lg7fuo3c9tbgig0dn5vn&dl=0

Files

Previews only

Building Chords - Transitions | Part 11 (Journey Into The Minor 4)

A massive deep dive into the Minor 4 chord. Much like the Spicy 3 chord, the Minor 4 chord is not only a very common transitional sound, it is also a portal into a bunch of other sounds/tactics that we can use to enhance various areas of our writing and playing. This video is in six sections, all of which are chaptered out in the youtube timeline. I have a feeling many people will have follow up questions in regards to this video (probably for parts 5 and 6). If you are one of those people, come hang out in the discord as I will be available this week to discuss these sounds. Hope you enjoy! Intro (0:00) 1 - The Basic Sound (1:50) 1 - The 4-min4-1 Move (5:03) 1 - Resolving to 6 (9:48) 1 - Moving On (14:16) 2 - Using Minor 6, Dorian (15:13) 2 - Hidden Diminished Triad (23:36) 2 - The Out Of Key Notes (25:40) 2 - Moving On (36:54) 3 - Parallel Keys (39:04) 3 - Common Replacement Chords (43:40) 3 - Using Two Chords (57:08) 3 - Other Replacements (1:01:46) 3 - Using a Bunch of Chords (1:10:06) 3 - Moving On (1:12:45) 4 - Using Melodic Minor (1:13:23) 4 - Why This Sound is Common (1:18:08) 4 - Simple Demonstration (1:23:59) 5 - Melodic Minor Chords (1:26:56) 5 - Recap (1:40:08) 6 - All Of This But Moving to 6 (1:42:22) 6 - Minor 4 Instead of Spicy 3 (1:50:39)

Comments

Corin

pure gold

Jody

Unreal! Amazing content!

Michael Pautz

I like the connection you made at the very end, hinting to the altered scale. Would love to hear more about that world. You might have mentioned it before, but why don't you use #4 on the minor 4 chord? That note would be the major 7th of the tonic, (and is part of the melody of the Journey song), so I feel it would fit better? Im assuming it comes from the harmonic minor scale because the distance between the b3 and #4 is a minor 3rd.

LoG's Guitar Extravaganza

Get ready for altered, you'll see it soon as you continue. You definitely can use #4 over the minor 4 and it can sound cool for sure. Let's say we're in key of D (the key for Open Arms): If you play a Gm (minor 4) and play #4 over it, to me that does two things. First, it somewhat loses the "minor" flavor of the chord because you don't have the normal 4, which (to me at least) is a strong note in a minor context as it is part of minor pentatonic. And secondly, it starts to sound more like you are playing Gdim7, which in reality starts to sound more like you are playing F#7, or spicy 3. This is as you said, it would be the exact same note pool of B harmonic minor, tonicizing b6/F# phrygian major (or what I call F# spicy), tonicizing b2. Not a bad sound at all, but also a slightly different flavor that what the normal 4 would bring. #4 is also in the key (as you said, it's the 7 of the key), so even though it might sound more exotic as a scale, in the flow of the progression it's a more "in" choice than playing normal 4. Also remember, while the melody of Open Arms sings a C# (on "pen" of the word "open") the actual chord underneath is C9, one of the replacements for Gm. So technically we are hearing more C than C#, as the C# lasts for just a moment.