Marilee’s Qchord Chord Substitutions

This is all about how to make substitutions for chords that are called for in a song that the Qchord can’t supply. These

are the ones it CAN supply, and some of those are abbreviated by not supplying the 3rd note in a 4-note series:

Chord Name Examples Full Chord Notes Qchord Buttons to Press

Major C, A, F# 1-3-5 1-3-5 Major Minor Cm, Am, F#m 1-3b-5 1-3b-5 Minor 7th C7, A7, F#7 1-3-5-7b 1-3- -7b 7th Minor 7th Cm7, Am7 1-3b-5-7b 1-3b- -7b Minor + 7th Major 7th Cmaj7 or CM7 1-3-5-7 1-3- -7 Major + 7th Diminished Cdim or C°, Adim or A° 1-3b-5b 1-3b-5b Major + Minor Augmented Caug or C+ 1-3-5# 1-3-5# All three buttons*

For chords the Q doesn’t supply, sometimes I’ll use two chords to replace one. I also came up with the following

patterns or substitutions. These are not perfect substitutions, but are worth a try (they’ll work better in some songs than

others). The Qchord can only provide a 3-note chord so the best you can hope for is 3 out of 4 notes in any of these

substitutions, but often, that works to give flavor, movement and melody elements to the song. To identify the chord to

substitute, I use the note number from the Given Chord (i.e. 1, 4, 5 or 6):

Given Chord Notes Example Easy Substitution Easy Example

Go For It! Go for it Example Matches to Given

7sus 1-4-5-7 A7sus Play 3 instead of 4 A7sus -> A7 5m7 A7sus -> Em7 4-5-7 7#5 1-3-5#-7b G7#5 Ignore the #5 G7#5 -> G7 1aug G7#5 -> G+ 1-3-5#

6 1-3-5-6 Eb6 Ignore the 6 Eb6 -> Eb 6m Eb6 -> Cm 1-3-6 m6 1-3b-5-6 Ebm6 Ignore the 6 Ebm6 -> Ebm 6dim Ebm6 -> Cdim 1-3b-6

7-5 or 7b5 1-3-5b-7b C7-5 Ignore the -5 C7-5 -> C7 1Dim C7-5 -> Cdim 1-5b Sus or sus4 1-4-5 Asus Play 3 instead of 4 Asus -> A 4 or 4m Asus -> D or Dm 1-4

5m7 Asus->Em7 4-5

1. The 7sus chord (e.g. A7sus) provides the notes 1-4-5-7. You can substitute the 5-note’s minor 7th (e.g. Em7):

A7sus gives A-D-E-G, while the Qchord’s Em7 gives E-G-D, a 3-note match.

2. The7 #5 chord (e.g. G7#5) wants you to sharpen the 5-note in the 7th chord, but you can pick up that sharped 5th

by simply playing the augmented chord (giving up the 7th note), so G7#5 becomes Gaug or G+.

3. The 6 chord (e.g. Eb6) wants you to play the 6-note in addition. You can either:

a. Use the relative minor chord using this pattern: I6 -> VIm (e.g. Eb6 -> Cm). These two chords contain

the same notes (Eb6 contains Eb-G-Bb-C and the Qchord’s Cm contains C-Eb-G).

b. If it’s already a minor chord, try Im6 -> VIdim (e.g. Ebm6 -> Cdim). Ebm6 contains Eb-Gb-Bb-C, while

Cdim contains C-Eb-Gb, 3 of the 4 notes.

4. The 7-5 chord (e.g. C7-5) wants you to flatten the 5-note of the chord (e.g. C7-5 contains C-E-Gb-Bb), so if the

flatted 5th is really important to the song, try the diminished chord (e.g. Cdim or C°) because this supplies the 1-

3b-5b notes (C-Eb-Gb), providing two out of four notes that the C7-5 chord would have given.

5. The sus (or sus4) chord (e.g. Asus) wants the 3-note of the chord to be replaced with the 4-note. You can either:

a. Substitute I -> IV or IVm (e.g. Asus ->D or Dm). Asus contains A-D-E notes, while D has D-F#-A and Dm

contains D-F-A. In most cases, the D and the A are so important that either will work fairly well.

b. Substitute I -> Vm7 (e.g. Asus -> Em7). Em7 contains E-G-D, another two-note match.

*Augmented Chords are special because you can pick one of 3 depending on where you want your fingering on the

Qchord and which one you want for the base note (they contain the same notes, just in a different order):

Db+ F+ A+ Ab+ C+ E+ Eb+ G+ B+ Bb+ D+ F#+