Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I spend a lot of hours in my room writing music on the guitar. I like to lay down a chord progression with a drum loop, write some lead guitar/bass and go from there. One thing that has puzzled/plagued me for years is coming up with creative chord progressions. I feel like once I learned to utilize the 7 common chords in a key to create progressions, I've felt locked in and limited. I remember the days before I decided to learn theory basics and I would just jam and come up with interesting riffs/progressions on my own, not knowing what I was doing but at the same time I felt more free and creative. Does anyone have any tips/tricks on busting out of coming up with chord progressions using the 7 common chords in any key? Since getting my triad shapes down, I like to voice lead and create progressions using triad inversions. This has helped me break out of using power chords constantly but I just feel like there has to be a more creative way to approach a progression then just looking up a key and using common combinations of chords in that key. Thanks for reading!

Tyler

Extend diatonic triads by adding a 7th, 9th,11th etc. Many lessons on the site will use 7 chords and point in this direction. This has helped me expand my chord vocabulary. You can also stay within the scale using more sus2 and sus4 chords.

Take small steps outside of diatonic suite. For example use a Cm in place of a C. Small changes can dramatically transform the sound without interfering with your current studies. In your melodies, use more chromatic runs.

hey tyler,

i don't know if you need to extend to those 9th and 13th chords yet, although they can definitely help if you're venturing towards jazz and more complicated chord structures.

the only reason i say that is because i think you could be jumping ahead of yourself. the language used can be confusing if you don't have the fundamentals down.

i can't remember exactly which video this was, but tomo explains his ideas in 3 levels. there's level 1 (basic chords), level 2 (some chord variations with different rhythmic patterns), and level 3 (lots of variations and in-between chords played). pretty sure it's on youtube somewhere...

if you want to go towards more complicated chords, i'd also recommend you check out the music theory i videos and watch the ideas tomo shares towards the end! he gives you a lot of different chords you play that utilize 9th, 13th, and 7th chords. if you aren't already familiar with the major/minor scales, then definitely going back and learning them will help you understand the chords better.

so those are a couple ideas you can do to break out of whatever box you feel stuck in.

there's a lot of different ways you can still use the basic chords without feeling limited by it, too. just something to think about...

you can learn different chord patterns and practice with different scales. you can practice different rhythmic patterns. you can practice incorporating more triads into your solos.

perhaps it's just in your head that you feel limited :)

Hey Tyler, what you’re looking for to get beyond diatonic progressions, is the idea of secondary dominant chords. Paul Davids does a useful intro to this vast topic. Paul explains it well. Definitely worth a look:

my two cents is that it's easier to start off simple (like messing around with triads ) and then making it more complex by moving up or down some notes (use your ear and don't thinking too deep, just listen). Also, keys and scales are distinct! For example, if the key you're messing around with is C Major, what that really means is C is home. That doesn't necessarily mean you HAVE to only use the chords found in the C major scale :)

Some things I've found out using this approach (that I can think of off the dome):
-Bb Dom 9 going to C sounds cool (bVII to I or Imaj7)
-fmi or fmi6 to C so (iv or iv6 to I)

If you're going to take away something from this comment please realize keys and scales are distinct!
also, never lose that curiosity you had in the beginning, keep messing around, don't think too much about theory when you're writing, use your ears and your taste :))