At some point (or, at several points) in your musical career, you’ll get tired of one thing:

Your “sound.”

Sure—this can come down to tone, timbre, inflection, etc. But what many musicians really “itch” for (that they can’t scratch) is something that goes beyond a new guitar, amp, keyboard, or other instrument.

It has to do with the chords you play.

By nature, musicians yearn for innovation—that “new” or “different” sound. It’s what gives us artistic satisfaction and, in some cases, a unique artistic identity. And for church musicians, especially those who mainly play modern CCM, the “same chords” can be monotonous…

And sometimes being an absolute drag.

But what if I told you there’s another approach that is simple to use but gives the impression of sophistication and high artistry?

There Is Nothing New Except the Old

The adage, “There’s nothing new under the sun,” rings true in nearly every area of life, and music is no exception. Nearly all music is derivative; those who are seen as innovators are really just borrowing from the past and transforming it for their present audience.

Look at beboppers like Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. They are considered two of the most innovative musicians for their development of jazz, bringing the music out of mainly a dance form to a high art, “listening” music. Their unique blend of popular music idioms, “blues” language, and harmonic sophistication catapulted jazz into serious and long-lasting aesthetic values.

But here’s the thing: Much of that music was informed by looking back to classical composers like Stravinsky, Ravel, and Debussy. In fact, Monk, Parker, and their contemporaries would get together for score study session of many classical composers and transform their harmonic concepts by fusing them with the melting pot of American musical expressions.

Looking back, borrowing, and transforming the music of the past is fundamental for innovating the present, and there’s a wealth of ideas that modern worship musicians can use to freshen up their sound.

One in particular, like I said before, is incredibly simple but gives you a sound that is compelling, sophisticated, and is as much to play as it is to listen.

The 6th Diminished Sound

This approach largely comes from jazz pianist Barry Harris, a bebop pioneer who was in the same cohorts in likes of Monk and Parker.

He synthesized a sort of “bebop method,” which relies on adding one or more chromatic notes to a standard major or minor scale to line up chord tones on strong beats (the hallmark of the bebop sound). This particular pattern is what he calls the “6th diminished scale”:

It’s the flat6 that gives this scale its ability to line up chord tones on strong beats, depending on where you start. If we build chords by starting on a base and stacking every other note, here’s what we get:

Let’s put this in the key of C major:

A little complicated at first, right? But do you remember what I said about this being simple?

Here it is: No matter where you start, if you stack the notes in 3rds (every other note in the scale), you always arrive to the same fundamental chord, either Chord 1 or Chord 2.

That’s because respective for each chord, each collection of notes as they’re stacked belong to the same “sound”:

As you play through each stack of chords, a really cool effect happens: Chord 2 always wants to “lead” into Chord 1. Try it out:

In theory, this is cool, but what about a real application?

Example: “There Is No One”

One of my favorite new songs is “There Is No One” by The Belonging Co., featuring Natalie Grant.

Aside from Natalie’s vocal chops (😮‍💨), this song brings back a familiar, Gospel style that relies heavily on the 6th diminished sound.

Take a listen:

OK—let’s establish a few ground rules.

This song is in the key of D major, but the moments we are focusing on are actually around the G and Em chords, where we’re going to briefly think of them as “Chord 1.”

The song opens up with a familiar D–G–A–D progression on the first line of the verse. But the second line is where it gets interesting (0:22):

Here, the organ player walks through a G – F♯dim7 – Em, which directly uses the 6th diminished concept of “leading” from Chord 1 (G) to Chord 2 (F♯dim7) and back to a variation of Chord 1 (Em).

Even the Pre-Chorus and Chorus use the same device (0:40):

Here, the F♯dim7 is traded out for a D♯dim7: Em – A7 – D – D♯dim7 | Em . . . |

Different place within the scale, but it’s the same sound, applied the same way, where Em (Chord 1) is “led into” by Chord 2 (D♯dim7).

What is happening here is called tonicization. In this case, we take a diatonic chord (but not the original tonic chord, which is D major) and briefly give the impression that it’s a “new” tonic chord. However, when we arrive to it, it reverts back to its original function in the established key.

Cool… What Makes This Useful for Me?

Alright—there was a lot music theory in all of that. Here’s how you can make it useful:

It’s as simple as that. You can “preview” the target chord before it arrives by playing the diminished chord, or you can toggle back and forth between the target chord and diminished chord. The key is to make it work within the melody of the song, so use your ear to make it fit right. (There will be some cases where, unfortunately, you might not get to showcase this concept.)

Happy practicing!

Be blessed 👊✌️