13th Dimension - A simple progression with a powerful impact:

13^th Dimension -
A simple progression with a powerful impact:

Imagine it’s raining right now and all of sudden a magic ray of sunshine breaks the clouds away. This is how I like to picture another one of my favorite progressions to use in my music. It starts on a minor chord, making us feel a little sad inside and then it ends in a happy dominant chord, but of course with a twist!

On previous discussions I already showed you the power behind the minor 9^th chords, well this time around I will get to another very peculiar sounding chord, the 13^th. This chord is so magical and unique in its own way, that it could be applied from Pop to Jazz and you would still be able to define it easily because it is that obvious. This progression I’m talking about is exploited everywhere. There are songs on the radio right now that include this transition, maybe in simpler forms, but it’s there nonetheless.

Let’s take a classic and catchy song like this one from Boz Scaggs 

titled: Lowdown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-hKBmTAADo). 

As you listen to the song, you can’t help but hear this transition over and over again. It is the core of this song and it maintains it alive throughout, until the bridge when it changes. But for the purpose of this tutorial let’s concentrate on the beginning only.

The chords you’re listening to are E minor 9^th (Emin9th) and A 13^th, and I will give you my favorite way to play these chords which is super easy to remember. We are only going to move one finger from the right hand and we will achieve the effect.

 1-) On the left hand let’s play a minor 7^th interval starting on E, like this:

E + D

2-) On the right hand we will play an E minor 9^th chord, like this:

G + B + D + F#

This is how the chord looks like together:

3-) Now to achieve my favorite effect when using the 13^th chord, I like to include the 9^th in it to make it even more rich and colorful. On the left hand play the following perfect 5^th:

A + E

4-) On the right hand only move one finger from the previous chord note D, half a step down to C# (or Db). Like this:

G + B + C# + F#

This is how the chord looks like together:

As you can hear, we only moved one finer on the right hand to achieve the desired 13^th effect with the added 9^th. It sounds beautiful doesn't it? It sure does! This progression is a very handy trick to keep under our sleeves as musicians, because it saves us time and effort while making our playing smooth, enjoyable and sophisticated.

Carlos Camilo 

(Author)(pianist/singer/arranger/producer/composer from Miami,FL).

www.carloscamilo.com