If you are anything like me you love to hear people that play with rich, full, and colorful chords. Chords that are not muddy or thin but just right. Here are a few things that I do to create nice sounding chords.

The First thing that I do is to ask myself am I playing the chord that I am playing in the best place on the keyboard. Sometimes moving the chord up or down an octave can completely change the sound or effect of the chord. I like to call this the sweet spot for the chord. Try it different places on the keyboard and see what sounds the best.

The second thing that I do is to observe what I am doing with my left hand. What you do with your left hand will many times give you the body or meat of the chord. It can make your chord sound full or even muddy if too much and too low.

It is usually pretty safe to play a perfect 5th interval with your left hand. A Perfect 5th interval is the 1st and 5th note of the major scale of whatever the chord is.

For example say that you are playing a C major seven chord. Since the chord is some sort of C chord then you would use the C major scale to figure out the perfect 5th interval.

The C major scale would be CDEFGABC. The 1st and 5th notes are C and G. So a C and G played at the same time would be a perfect fifth.

This is common to do with your left hand on many chords. It won’t work as well on minor 7 b5 chords or altered dominants like G7#5.

The third thing is I sometimes add the ninth to the chord to add color to the chord.

The ninth of the chord is simply the second note of the major scale of that particualr chord or a whole step up from the root of the chord.

For example if you are playing a F minor chord the ninth would be the note G.

The F major scale is FGABbCDEF. The second note of this scale is G. Remember that the second and ninth note of a scale is exactly the same note.

So F minor is F Ab C. With the added ninth it will be FGAbC. This adds color to the chords or gives the chord a more jazzy sound.

Try adding the ninth to some of your chords.

The fourth thing I do is rearrange my chord. I rearrange the notes of my chord by moving the notes around.

For example if I am playing a Cmajor 7 chord like this.

C/CEGB

To make it sound better I will try all of the above techniques mentioned.

and move the notes around like something like this.

CG/BEG

CG/BDEG

CG/DEGB

CGE/DGB

Try these techniques and see if it helps to add flavor to your chords.

Kenny Hollins