Harmonic Colors
Expand simple changes into richer harmony, without ever losing the song.
$39.99
You learn a tune from a fake book, play the chords exactly as printed, and it sounds exactly as printed. Over thirteen videos Tim takes that same plain harmony and expands it one operation at a time, working from ideas he learned studying with Ted Greene, until simple changes carry real color and motion.
What it's all about...
Why you'll love it...
Nothing arrives out of order
Each lesson assumes the one before it. Color first, then inversions, then substitution, so every new sound lands on ground you have already covered.
The song stays recognizable
This is expansion, not replacement. However far the harmony travels, the melody stays clear and the tune still sounds like itself to anyone listening.
Straight from Ted Greene
Bounce back dominants, companion minors, the expanded key. Tim uses the terms Ted Greene taught him, and passes on the reasoning rather than just the label.
Your ear makes the call
Every idea comes with a test rather than a rule. Theory is there to organize the experiment, and whether you like the sound is the final word.
Built on tunes, not drills
It Had to Be You, Danny Boy and Lady Be Good carry the concepts, so you hear each idea inside real music and can use the early ones the same evening.
The notation follows the video
Every example runs in our own player, so the tab scrolls in time with Tim, and the full transcript sits alongside it with every line clickable.
What's inside
- 13 videos, 5 hr 10 min: a short introduction and 12 modules
- Scrolling notation and tab for every example, in our own player
- A full transcript of every video, with every line clickable
- A written PDF for all 12 modules
- Harmonic enhancement: 6, 9, 11, 13 and the altered dominants
- Diatonic substitution, secondary dominants and companion minors
- ♭5 substitution, and approach from above and below
- Leading tone and common tone diminished, plus further dim7 sounds
- Expanded key: borrowing from parallel major, minor and the modes
- One melody harmonized sixteen ways, then Danny Boy and Lady Be Good
What You'll Learn
1Adding Color to Basic Changes
The difference between enhancing harmony and replacing it, and why that distinction shapes everything after it. Sixths, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths on chords you already play, the altered dominant colors, and the awkward cases where an extension collides with the melody note or simply muddies the chord.
2Inversions
Most piano players invert chords from their first week and most guitarists never start. Applied to a ii-V-I-vi, inversions let the voices move the shortest distance from chord to chord, which cleans up your comping and leaves a bass player room to do their job.
3Diatonic Substitutions
Every chord in a key is built from the same seven notes, so chords in the same family can stand in for one another. The tonic, subdominant and dominant groups, how to swap within them, and the new bass motion that appears when you do.
4Secondary Dominants and Companion Minors
Any chord can be preceded by its own dominant, which is where the bluesy forward pull in American songbook harmony comes from. Then the companion minor, the minor seventh partner every dominant has, an idea Tim traces back to Wes Montgomery.
5The Bounce Back Dominant
Ted Greene's term, and Tim's from him. When a chord sits still for a bar or more, you can lean briefly to its own dominant and fall straight back, filling the space without disturbing the progression underneath. Worked through It Had to Be You.
6♭5 Substitutions and Approaches
Two dominants a tritone apart share the same essential notes, so either can stand for the other. Tim explains why he calls it a ♭5 sub rather than a tritone sub, then widens the idea into approaching any chord from a half step above or below.
7Diminished Colors: Leading Tone and Common Tone
A diminished seventh a half step below any chord pulls you into it. Because dim7 repeats every minor third, one shape hands you four approaches. Then common tone diminished, which sits still underneath a chord and colors it from the inside.
8More Dim7 Sounds
The same approach applied systematically to major seventh, dominant, minor seventh and m7♭5 chords, across several string sets. How a single diminished chord relates to four different dominants, and how that becomes rootless 7♭9 voicings you can drop into a ii-V-I.
9The Expanded Key
Another idea Tim learned from Ted Greene. Borrowing from the parallel major, harmonic minor, melodic minor and the modes, while the borrowed chord still behaves as tonic, subdominant or dominant underneath. This is where reharmonization stops feeling arbitrary.
10Harmonizing a Chromatic Scale over One Bass Note
Two fixed points, a G in the bass and a melody note on top, then every chromatic note in between. Each note narrows or opens the chord choices available, and working through all twelve shows you exactly how much harmonic room one melody note leaves you.
11Sixteen Ways to Harmonize One Melody
One simple melody, sixteen harmonizations, starting from a plain I-V-I in C. Diatonic substitution, added color, inversions, ♭5 subs, borrowed chords, chromatic bass lines, passing diminished and deceptive cadences, each version built on the one before.
12Danny Boy and Lady Be Good
Everything applied to two tunes you already know. Danny Boy takes gentle enhancement, Lady Be Good goes considerably further and picks up the Tadd Dameron turnaround along the way. Charts are analyzed so you can see which concept produced each sound.
Is this for you?
Yes, if…
- You can play basic seventh chord voicings and read a chord chart
- You know a few standards and want them to sound less plain
- You comp in a band, play solo guitar, or both
- You would rather understand why a substitution works than memorize it
- You are happy to work through twelve modules in order
Maybe not, if…
- You are still working on open chords and your first barre shapes
- You want tab to copy without the thinking behind it
- You are after single-note soloing and improvisation lines
- You want a quick set of licks rather than a way of hearing
Where these ideas come from...
Open a fake book. There is the melody, and underneath it a row of chord symbols someone reduced to the bare minimum. Play them exactly as printed and the tune sounds exactly as printed. Most guitarists reach the point of wanting more from that page, and very few are ever shown a route.
Harmonic Colors is that route, taken in order. Tim starts with the smallest change available, adding a ninth to a chord you already know, and finishes with a full reharmonization of Danny Boy. Nothing in between arrives without the ground already under it.
The point is not to lose the song
Reharmonization has a reputation for being clever at the tune’s expense. This is the opposite of that. Every operation here is measured against whether the melody still sings and whether a listener would still recognize what you are playing. You can travel a surprising distance from the printed chords, as the sixteen-harmonization lesson shows, and still land somewhere the song accepts.
Where the vocabulary comes from
Tim studied with Ted Greene, and it shows in the language. Bounce back dominants, companion minors, the expanded key: these are Ted’s terms, taught the way Ted taught them, with the reasoning attached rather than the label alone. Wes Montgomery turns up in the companion minor material, George Van Eps in the chord streams, Tadd Dameron in the Lady Be Good turnaround.
All you have to do is determine whether or not you like the sound. That’s really the ultimate decider.
That line is the method in one sentence. Tim gives you the theory to organize the experiment, names the places where a choice usually goes wrong, then hands the decision back to your ear. It is why the material keeps paying out long after the twelfth module is finished.
Questions, answered
Do I need to read music?
No. Everything is demonstrated on the guitar and explained by name and function. The notation and tab scroll along with the video if you want them, there is a PDF for all 12 modules, and a full transcript you can read instead of listening.
How much theory do I need before I start?
Enough to know your seventh chords and what a ii-V-I is. Tim defines every term he uses, including the ones he borrowed from Ted Greene, so no prior study of substitution or modal interchange is assumed. The first module starts from plain extensions.
Do I have to work through it in order?
Yes, and that is rather the point. Each module assumes the vocabulary of the one before, and the later lessons combine tools introduced separately. Revisit any module as often as you like, but starting at the diminished material will not go well.
Will this help my soloing or only my comping?
Both, though the emphasis is firmly on harmony rather than single-note lines. Tim covers voicings that suit playing with a bass player and voicings for unaccompanied solo guitar, and he points out which is which as he goes.
Is this included in the membership?
Yes. It runs as the Harmonic Colors pathway inside the Workshop, so members already have it along with everything else. Buying it here is for players who want this one course outright rather than a membership.
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