Palette Surfing 2

Substitutions

You can add variation to a progression by substituting chords by functionally related chords that sound different. One hint to find these replacements is their harmonic function.

According to the Theory of Harmonic Functions, secondary functions can be derived from primary functions by appending the letters P, p (Parallel) or G, g (Gegenklang). Lowercase letters stand for Minor and uppercase for Major.

When you play the sequence below in a palette, you will notice there are multiple chords for the same function that you can choose from.

 tP – sP – dP - t 

The fundamental cadence Tonic – Sub-dominant – Dominant – Tonic is still maintained, even when the original chords are replaced with chords that have a similar harmonic function.