Cool Sub

August 23, 2008

Filed under: Subs — M.Warnock @ 10:43 am

Hey Everyone,
   I discussed some little known subs in an earlier blog and have received some great comments
on that lesson.  In this blog I want to talk about reversing those subs to add some variety to your
solos.

In the first lesson we talked about dividing the octave into three and four equal parts.  So if you
were playing over a F7 chord you could use the notes:

 
F A C# or F Ab B D

 
Then we harmonized each note with a triad, any of the four triad types will work.  We can also
harmonize these notes with four note chords, we’ll try 7th for now, like this:

 
F7 A7 C#7 or F7 Ab7 B7 D7

 
We then applied it to a blues chord progression to see how it fit into a practical situation.  In this
lesson I want to do the same thing but now we’ll reverse the order of the chords, so we’ll start on
the #5 of the augmented division and the diminished 7th of the diminished 7 division.  Here’s
how it would look on the first four bars of an F blues:

 
F7/Bb7/F7/F7 would become C#7/A7/F7/F7

 
so it’s like the F augmented triad but starting on the #5 and moving down.

 
We can also do this with the diminished 7 division:

 
F7/Bb7/F7/F7/ would become D7/B7/Ab7/F7

 
 

This last example also works well as a turnaround, which can be heard in Joe Henderson’s tune
Isotope.  You can start on the Root and then reverse the diminished 7th chord to end up at the
Root again at the top of the form like this:

 
Gm7/C7/F7 D7/Gm7 C7/ would become Gm7/C7/F7 D7/ B7 Ab7/ and back to the top of the
form on an F7.

 
Give these new subs a try I’m sure they will add some interesting inside/outside lines to your
playing. 

 
Enjoy! 

Matt