Passing Chords

In my last post I talked about how Leif Vollebekk uses passing chords to add variety to a basic chord progression. This video on YouTube is one of the best descriptions on how to build passing chords that I’ve been able to find. The author describes 2 types of passing chords:

This type of chord is built by taking the 5th of the target chord and using that as the root of a dominant chord that can be used to “set up” the target chord. This works because the dominant chord has a sound that strongly wants to resolve to the target chord.

Let’s take a look at what that means for All Night Sedans. So, the progression of the song is Db Eb Fm Ab (IV-V-vi-I in the key of Ab). Sometimes, Leif will add an Ab7 at the end of the progression, which is the secondary dominant of the first chord, Db. For each of these chords, the secondary dominant → target chord would be:

• Ab7 → Db
• Bb7 → Eb
• C7 → Fm
• Eb7 → Ab

This is a very similar idea, but instead of playing a dominant 7 chord a 5th above the target chord, we’re going to play a dominant 7 chord a half step above the target chord.

• D7 → Db
• E7 → Eb
• F#7 → Fm
• A7 → Ab

For reference, here are the chords in the key of Ab