How do these substitute chord examples work?
How do the 2nd and 3rd examples work?
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The first example is three chords, all of which could be considered substitutes for the others. They have notes in common, they have broadly the same degree of harmonic tension.
The second example has F major acting as a pre-dominant, Dm also acting as a pre-dominant, then the dominant (G). Dm could be considered a substitute for F major.
The third example has C major moving to A minor (which could be considered substitutes) via G major. Tonic - dominant - substitute for tonic. Sort of. I'm not sure what point is being made here. Was there any explanation given with the examples?
A substitute chord is usually a chord that has some same notes with another chord.
From wikipedia:
In music theory, chord substitution is the technique of using a chord in the place of another - often related - chord, in a chord progression.
So, let's take your examples:
The vi is a substitution of I, because these two chords, out of the 3 notes, have 2 in common.
The C major chord (I) has: C, E, and G
The A minor chord (vi) has: A, C and E
So, these two chords have a similar sound (not the same, but not that far apart). If you play these two chords on the piano, you'll see that you can hear that yourself.
Similarly for you second example (the common tones are F and A). The third though, the substitution is on the third chord. It's basically the same as the first example; again here, the I is substituted for the vi. It's pretty common after the V, instead of a perfect cadence (V resolving to I), to resolve to a Interrupted cadence, where the V is resolved to vi. But, because the vi is a substitution for I, it doesn't sound harsh. It gives a quite a pleasant result, and thus this cadence is pretty common in music.
Not sure what you ask in 'how do they work', but 2nd example, the ii is a v of V, leading to it being an imperfect cadence. It's a typical move up a fouth, which happens frequently in music. Take ii-V-I - both jumps up a fourth. The last example is an interrupted cadence, where the V often leads to I (perfect cadence), but here, goes to the relative minor.
I don't get what you mean with your second example being weird. It's just a straight C'Dm'G. In the second example you have a base note that does not start with the note of the chord. This is somewhat uncommon in popular music, but it's still pretty popular. It creates a different sound that can sound good in some music. A good example of this is Edelweiss. That song uses a lot of third notes as the base, and it sounds really good. A lot of older songs do that. It's not so popular nowadays ... but it's a very good technique.
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