Chord substitutions on turnovers

A turnover is usually denoting a chord progression of four chords, returning to the first chord. For example we might play a turnover like this:

Cmaj7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7#9 -> Cmaj6

In our example, the turnover is comprising the first four chords. Now, the second chord can be substituted to make a smoother move into the third chord. A usual trick is to replace it with a diminished chord, in-between the first and third chords, in this case:

Cmaj7 - C#dim - Dm7 - G7#9

If we play the turnover repeatedly, we may substitute the first chord with a chord built on the third. This was often done at the last section of the song, which then started over from the beginning (i.e. da capo). In our example, that would result in:

Cmaj7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7#9 -> Em7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7#9 -> Cmaj6

As you might have noticed, Em7 in root note relation to Dm7 is a whole note apart, which opens for a similar diminished chord substitution as we did earlier. Here we would replace Am7 with Ebdim or Ebm7, and get:

Cmaj7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7#9 -> Em7 - Ebdim - Dm7 - G7#9 -> Cmaj6

It is also possible to substitute G7#9 (dominant) to D#dim, which would lead, by bass leading note, to either Em7 or C/E.

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