Chord changes in "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

Filed in Free Lessons on August 17, 2009



Here is a quick little demonstration of some reharmonization that you might enjoy.  Yes, I know that it is July, but I am going to use the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." 

I am going to be changing chords, but don't look at it as chord substitutions.  I am actually going to be changing chord progressions.

Here are the first two phrases from the song with traditional harmony.



I want you to notice the boring chord progression (I - V) that happens in each phrase. 

How do you change a I - V progression into something more interesting?  One solution is to change it into I - iii - (flat)iiidim7 - ii - V7(b9). 

There are very logical reasons that this works that I will go through quickly.  First of all, in the first measure, I am changing the C chord to a progression (C - Emin7 - Ebdim7).  It is very common to substitute a progression of chords for a single chord and it sounds great as long as progression moves in a functionally correct way and leads nicely into the following chord. 

Why did I choose these chords?  First, the Emin7 works because a iii chord is functionally equivalent to a I chord.  So that one is a straight substitution. 

The Ebdim is more tricky.  That chord is actually also a substitution--for a A7.  A7 (VI7) would be a logical place for Emin to resolve to because it is down a fifth.  But I happen to know that a (flat)iiidim7 substitutes beautifully for a VI7 chord for certain melody notes. 

The second measure is G7.  I am going to substitute a progression consisting of Dmin7 - G7 instead.  Doing a ii7 - V7 substitution for a V7 chord is something I do constantly.

So, when you put both of those substituted progressions together, you end up with one progression that works functionally.  Here is how I might play it.



What is the takeaway?  Start thinking about progression changes rather than chord substitutions.  Learning to replace V7 chords with ii7 - V7 progressions will by itself help your music dramatically.


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Danny Gardner
8/18/2009 7:50:03 AM

Great post Mr. Howlett. I really like this concept of changing complete progressions. Would you please take another post to elaborate on the (flat)iiidim7 substitution? It appears to be a tritone sub but I'd really like to see what you have to say. Thanks!

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Daniel Blomdahl
8/22/2009 9:18:07 PM

Wow. Great! I love this lesson.

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