- [Julian] How's it going guys?

Julian Bradley here from TheMusicalEar.com.

In today's video I'm gonna share with you

my chord progression of the week.

I'm gonna start by playing the original version,

and then I'm going to share a couple

of other variations, which you can do

on the same chord progression.

So here is the original version.

(piano music)

So the chords start on C-minor-Seven,

and I'm using an interesting voicing.

It's called an open voicing,

where you skip every other note.

So you play C, you skip the Third,

play G, skip the root,

play E-Flat, skip G,

and play B-Flat.

This is a nice open voicing.

It sounds very clean when you play it.

And then what we're going to do

is just take the bottom Fifth,

and we're going to slide it down a half-step

to B and F-Sharp.

That is a B-major-Seven.

So it goes C-minor-Seven, B-major-Seven.

And then you're gonna take both hands down and reset.

Play B-Flat and F, and D-Flat and A-Flat in the right.

Which chord is this?

That's right, it's a B-Flat-minor-Seven chord.

And then we're going to do the same pattern.

We're just gonna slide the left hand

down a half-step.

And which chord do we end up playing here?

Well this is an A-major-Seven chord.

Root and Fifth in the left,

C-Sharp, the major Third, and G-Sharp, the major Seventh.

So those first four chords.

C-minor-Seven, B-major-Seven,

B-Flat-minor-Seven, going to A-major-Seven.

And then here's the nice part.

You play a C-Sharp-minor-Nine chord.

This is how I'm voicing it,

but you can voice it any way you like.

We could voice it just simply with the same voicing.

Root, Fifth, Third, Seventh.

Or you could switch these the other way around

and play Seventh, Third, that would be nice.

So ...

(piano music)

You could just play that.

However, I'm adding the Ninth and the Fifth.

And this is one of the most common voicings I will play

for a minor Nine chord, or a minor Seven chord.

This is C-Sharp-minor-Nine.

(piano music)

Okay, so here's the first variation

on this chord progression.

First three chords are going to stay the same.

C-minor-Seven, B-major-Seven, B-Flat-minor-Seven,

but then instead of playing A-major-Seven,

we can change this to an A-dominant-Seven.

However, if we just play the literal chord voicing

it doesn't sound great.

So really, we're going to revoice it,

and play this voicing, which has G, the minor-Seventh,

B the Ninth, C-Sharp the major Third,

and F-Sharp the 13th.

And then this chord resolves really nicely

to the same C-Sharp-minor-Nine chord.

And I'm going to voice it like this.

I'm just going to play an E-major-Seven chord

in my right hand, with C-Sharp on the bass.

And that's a simple way to think

of a C-Sharp-minor-Nine chord.

Just C-Sharp and then build a major-Seven chord

from the minor-Third.

So here's how that chord progression sounds.

(piano music)

Okay, and for the final variation,

I'm going to apply the Kenny Barron 11th voicing

to each of these chords.

The Kenny Barron 11th voicing is root, Fifth, and Ninth

in the left hand, or just build a stack of Fifths.

And then in the right hand,

you build a stack of Fifths from the Third.

So if it's a minor chord, then you build a stack of Fifths

from E-Flat, the minor-Third.

Which would give you B-Flat, the minor-Seventh,

and F, the 11th.

And that's a really nice voicing for a C-minor-11.

Or, if the chord was C-major-Seven,

then you would do the same left hand,

but you would build a stack of Fifths

from the major-Third, which would give you

B, the major-Seventh,

and F-Sharp, the Sharp-Four.

So, we're going to apply these two voicings

to the same chord progression.

Every time there's a minor chord

we'll play the minor version,

and every time there's a major chord,

we'll play the major version.

First chord is C-minor-Seven.

Start with this.

Now, the next chord is B-major-Seven,

and we're just going to slide the left hand

down by a half-step.

And the right hand stays in place.

And when the right hand stays in place,

well you end up playing the major voicing anyway,

because this is just a stack

of Fifths built from the major-Third.

And then we're going to reset for the B-Flat chord.

B-Flat-minor-Seven, how are we going to voice it?

That's right, stack of Fifths in the left hand.

B-Flat, F, and C.

And then a stack of Fifths in the right hand

from the minor-Third of B-Flat, which is D-Flat.

That gives you this.

And then we're going to do the same trick one more time.

Just move the left hand down by a half-step.

And the right hand stays in place.

So, that's the first four chords.

(piano music)

And then for the final chord we have C-Sharp-minor-Seven.

Stack of Fifths in the left hand,

and stack of Fifths in the right hand from the minor-Third.

Or you could voice it up here,

if it sounds a bit muddy down there for you.

So, that's the final variation.

Here's how it sounds.

(piano music)

So, thank you very much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed this video.

If you did, I would really appreciate a thumbs up.

Or if you could share this video with a friend.

And, if this is the first video of mine you've seen,

make sure you don't miss out on future videos

by subscribing to my channel.

Now I've actually notated the sheet music

to all three variations on this chord progression.

You can download that for free at the link below.

And, I'm even including five more chord progressions

in a very similar style,

and I'll put them all together into one PDF.

You can download it, print it out,

and then play all of the chord progressions

plus variations at the piano.

So, just click on the link below.

Download the sheet music.

That's it from me, and I'll see you again

in a new video soon.