5 D'Angelo Chord Changes Every Songwriter Should Know

if you're a songwriter looking to add more soul to your music stick around because today I'm breaking down five of D'Angelo's sickest chord changes off his album Voodoo by the end of this video you'll not only learn the chords to these progressions but more importantly you'll understand the hidden techniques he's using to get that rich colorful tasty stanky Neo Soul sound hey everybody Jeff Schneider here back again with more chord Theory and soloing tips for jazz R&B and gospel musicians we're going to jump right into Voodoo one of my all-time favorite albums with track number three left and right now I'm going to play for you in just a sec but first take a look at those chords any idea what key we're in it's a little tricky right maybe we're in the key of F minor or F major but then there's the G7 and the g flat major 7 and they don't fit into either of those keys take a listen and see if you can figure out why these four seemingly random chords work so well [Music] [Music] together so there are a couple techniques at Play here the first of which I like to call the waterfall Baseline take a look at just the roots of these chords they're moving down in half steps like a waterfall and the magic of that halfstep motion is that it instantly creates smooth voice leading the other technique here is something I like to call the sticky top it's where the top note of each voicing stays the same as the chords change below now D'Angelo isn't the first guy to use this progression another artist that comes to mind is well take a listen in case you didn't know that's the intro to overjoy by Stevie wonderer and the next D'Angelo track we're going to cover is also influenced by a pre-existing song but let's be clear D'Angelo is anything but unoriginal even if the chords are familiar his unique sound always shines through Oh and before I forget the key to left and right is F major with that let's dive into track five off Voodoo this one's called send it on all right so that's actually a song called Sea of Tranquility by cooling the gang here's sended on by D'Angelo for real this [Music] time the chords for this one are a minor 7 G minor 11 C13 sus and F major 9 and here the music theory makes a lot more sense than the chords in left and right if you strip away all the fancy extensions we've basically got a three minor chord A two minor chord a five sus chord and then we resolve to the one but even though these chords are all dionic meaning they fit within the scale there's there's still a subtle twist in there and that is that the progression doesn't start on the one instead we kick off with a cousin of the one the three Minor 7 chord and this is a technique I call the 3-foot sub let me explain whenever you want to add some variation or interest to to a chord progression you can pick a chord go up or down a third and use that chord as a substitute for the original so a minor 7 Subs in for F major 7 as it's a third up from F and check out the notes in each chord there's a ton of overlap but by starting on the three chord instead of the one you get a much more interesting sound it's kind of like dropping into the middle of a story listen to the difference here it is starting on the [Music] one and here it is starting on the three [Music] now just just to see let's try that three-foot sub technique but starting three steps down from F which gives us a D minor chord check out how that [Music] sounds kind of cool by the way if you want to download these charts you can get them for free at the link in the description below I have them in every key major and minor and they make understanding music theory so much easier check them out moving on to track seven this one's called one moin now the chorus to This song also drops in on a non-one chord but that's not what I want to focus on in this progression there's something else going on here that we haven't touched on yet take a listen and see if you can figure out which of these chords stands out from the others and [Music] [Music] why if you guest F7 altered you're right it's one of those VX gas cords now what on Earth is a VX gas cord it's a colonas inhibitor stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within 30 seconds okay not not quite that intense in this case the VX stands for five of X and the gas well that's there because these chords are just so stanky but seriously 5 ofx is how I like to think about chords that are more commonly known as secondary dominance X is whatever chord you're going to and the secondary dominant chord is the five of X chord so in this case B flat minor is X and F7 is the five of X but we're not going to B flat minor are we we're going to d flat major 7 so what's going on there well for those of you paying attention you'll recognize that we've got another 3-foot sub the d flat major 7 is subbing in for the B flat minor three steps away all right we've got two more songs to cover today and they're my favorites on the album the first is Feel Like Making Love a cover of the original by Roberto Flack it uses a lot of the techniques we've discussed so far see if you can spot [Music] [Music] that what did you notice well once again we're not starting on the one chord instead it's the two chord that kicks things off there's also a VX gas cord remember that's five of X and B7 is the five and E minor is X but all of this is in Roberto flax version so what makes D'Angelo's cover stand out well it's all about the chord that lands after the chorus can you figure out what it is [Music] that's an E7 and since we're in the key of B major E7 is a two dominant chord and it adds a heavy dose of bluesy Vibes but maybe you're thinking what about the other dominant chords don't they add bluesy Vibes too not really C7 and B7 are passing chords they're transitional but E7 we stay there a while now the last progression we're going to cover today is from the most famous track on Voodoo Untitled how does it feel and the lesson within this chord progression is so simple yet took me ages to figure out take a [Music] listen we've got a D major 7 a minor 7 G minor 7 and C7 and sure the hippest chord in there is probably that C7 but I want to focus on the a minor 7 going to G major 7 so what's so special about that well when I was younger and pretty much only listened to Jazz I thought D'Angelo made a mistake here I figured he forgot a chord I thought it should be a minor 7 D7 G major 7 which gives you a true 25 resolving to the G but as I dove deeper into R&B and neo soul I realized that skipping the five chord skipping that D7 creates a much smoother sound the bass moves more smoothly going down one step instead of Leaping from a to d to g and by skipping the D7 you avoid that harsh trone sound inherent in all dominant seventh chords does this mean D'Angelo doesn't use two fives not at all but it opened my eyes to the fact that it's okay to go directly from the two to the one chord there's a ton more to analyze within this song and I do a full analysis in my course chord theory for R&B piano which is linked in the description below also remember that waterfall Baseline technique I mentioned earlier in this video where the base goes down in half steps well if you want to hear me push that tool to the max check out this video here where I transform the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness by using the waterfall Baseline technique to reharmonize every single note in the melody it's epic see you over there

Channel: Jeff Schneider

Views: 46,984

Keywords: music theory for beginners, how to write songs, music theory piano, jazz piano, music theory explained, music theory lessons, songwriting tips, dangelo how does it feel, dangelo, dangelo feel like making love, dangelo left and right, dangelo one mo gin, dangelo send it on, jeff schneider music, how to write a song on piano, rnb chords, r&b chords, r&b chords piano, r&b piano, r&b piano chord progressions, neo soul chords, piano lesson

Id: JCsbLFkiqlU

Length: 8min 29sec (509 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024