The Pineapple Chord

I spent years playing and listening to blues music and one thing I grew weary of was the rudimentary harmony that characterizes over 90% of the genre and, especially, the standard uses of the V7.

One way to spice that plain old V7 is to substitute the "pineapple chord" for the V7 or in conjunction with the V7. The pineapple chord is a #V7. Instead of, e.g., the simple D7 to G (in the key of G) you can use D#7 to G. You can also use the #V as a segue into the V or the V as a segue into the #V

You can experiment with further weirdness by trying a few altered 7th tritone substitutes for the #V7 (e.g., A13b9 to Gmaj7).

My favorite pineapple chord is the augmented pineapple triad.

See also: The Mu Chord