Hot answers tagged chord-progressions
39
There are a ton of easy and great-sounding substitutions, and you can use them in the turnaround or anywhere else you want. Here are a few of the most common:
ii-V sub: Substitute ii for IV, so that you have a ii-V turnaround. For example, if you're playing in the key of C, the V chord is G7 and the ii chord is Dm7. So instead of C-F-G7, play C-Dm7-G7. ...
38
There are formulas and sets of harmony formulas that musicians know of. ie. Chord Formation. I, IV, V7 sets of harmony; Chord Substitution; Fifth Motion, Dominant motion; Diatonic Cycles of Fifths, Chord Tone Substitutions, etc.
Each chords in each set have their own characteristics that you need to know what they represent. I can be indicative of what each ...
18
There are three possibilities:
The musicians are "faking it" based on their knowledge of theory. This notion may be romantic but in my experience it is rather unlikely. There's simply too much that could go wrong. This isn't a jam session or a concert, it's a TV performance to showcase a singer. That said, in other situations they might be perfectly ...
15
The ♭III is a borrowed chord from the parallel minor.
A bit more info: The bIII is commonly followed by the IV, giving it something of a subdominant function relative to the IV. The ii here is acting as a IV (it's the relative minor of IV) in a plagal cadence, so functionally what we have is more similar to I bIII IV, a common rock progression.
Also, the ...
14
There are, of course, an enormous variety of chord progressions used in jazz. That said, here are three you should know:
12-bar Blues
The basic 12-bar blues as played in jazz (not as played in blues) usually goes something like:
I-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-vi-ii-v-i-turnaround
In blues, all these chords would be dominant sevenths. Jazz players, however, ...
12
Why?
It sounds good.
Music would sound boring after a while if all you played were the notes in the scale.
I would be hard-pressed to find music that doesn't have notes outside of the scale--scales are just the basis for melodies, and the home base from which you can stray in creative ways.
In this particular context (and your chords would be better ...
11
Assuming they don't already know the specific song (it's quite likely they do), it's possible it's a contrafact: a song based on the chord progression of a jazz standard; e.g. 12-bar blues or rhythm changes. Or a pop song using a common progression with just 3 or 4 chords; e.g. I I IV V or I V IV V or I IV vi V or I iii IV V, etc
11
Start out by learning the characteristic sound of a V-I progression. Play only the guide tones (3rd and 7th) and note how the 7th of the V moves down a half step to become the 3rd of the I. Then do the same for the ii-V, noticing how the 7th of the ii moves down a half step to become the 3rd of the V. Then put them together. There are many possible ...
10
That is a very complex question. If you are just looking for simplicity, you could follow some fairly straight-forward guidelines though.
Choose some "candidate" chords. I would think I, ii (minor), iii (minor), IV, V, and vi (minor) are all very good candidates for a nice sounding progression. vii° could be a used very sparingly (it would be a ...
10
Yes, there is a very good explanation. The III chord can be much better expressed as a secondary dominant. Basically, III happens to be the V of vi.
A secondary dominant is using a non-diatonic chord (in other words, a chord that does not naturally belong in the scale, containing an accidental, like the G#) to provide a means to change key or shift to ...
9
Here are quite a few standard substitutions take from page 36 of the free PDF you can download here:
http://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/download/FQBK-handbook.pdf
9
TV-show bands research the music of guest artists beforehand, including the keys in which they work. They do this for a few reasons, not the least of which is the off chance that there is an improvized request for a tune. But on the whole everything is staged including what looks to be a spontaneous jam. The best perfomer in the world will sound bad with bad ...
9
The short answer is - because they can hear how the song goes, and they know how to translate those pitches into a chord progression on their instrument that quickly. Because they went to music school or because they have many years of experience or both.
It's not faked or rigged or a trick.
While it does look like magic, it is a surprisingly common skill ...
9
Well, the I-IV thing is in a sense problem-complete of the question. It shows the relationship of the chords to the tonal center (the key). So we have to do some harmonic analysis just to do this translation.
I'll do House of the Rising Sun because that's the one I know. The Am is the root chord i (but the proof is really in the second and fourth lines of ...
9
Here are some (partly overlapping) suggestions on how you can vary the sound of a iii-vi-ii-V-I progression:
Use different additional chord tones (sevenths, extensions, and alterations) for your chords such as flat and augmented 5ths, 6ths, (major and minor) 7ths, (sharp, flat, and regular) 9ths, (sharp and regular) 11ths, (flat or regular) 13ths, and also ...
8
Be careful with the Maj 7 on I chords (ie DMaj7), which will quite often conflict with the root (D) played in the melody : you tend to get a b9 interval between the 7th (left hand) and the root (right hand) with sounds very bad. In that case, substitute DM7 with D6 which will sound smoother.
The IVM chord (GM in our case) can often be replaced with a IIm7 ...
7
Both progressions contain two subsequent major chords, the first one one whole step below the second. That step is classically reserved for IV - V, as in the cadence I - IV - V - I; and classically, it's among the most "mandatory" things that after this V there be a I. But in both examples that's not what happens! In Karazhan, Bb - C would in fact be the IV ...
6
You can make a pleasing accompaniment to most melodies using three chords: I, IV, and V.
The reason this works is that between them, those chords have all of the notes in a standard scale.
For example, if the song is in the key of C major, then the I chord has the notes C, E, G, the IV chord has the notes F, A, C, and the V chord has the notes G, B, D. ...
6
There are a few observations that can be made here. First, as others have noted, the sonority is the dominant. Always make sure to take the entire context (including both staves as well as the surrounding sonorities) into account when determining what to call a sonority. In the first movement, as @moberhau mentioned, you do have all members of the ...
6
When writing down progressions in the roman numeral system, most of the time you'll simply be writing the chord relative to the tonal center.
Thus, in the examples you mention, a B chord would be III and an F chord will be a bVII. In the first case, you are altering the modality of a chord that is already in key (Bm to B). In the second instance, you're ...
6
Consider how the key change is approached.
In Bb, the chord progression is just going from I to IV and back again, i.e. Bb - Eb - Bb - Eb.
The key change comes right off of one of those IV chords, so you get a movement from Eb to Eminor.
This sounds like a key change up half a step, which is rather common in this genre--this hides the fact that the tonic ...
6
Try playing a sequence C - F - G - F in a loop. Think of it as the basis of a song. This is probably what you'll hear on your play-along CD.
Now see what happens if you simply stop after the final F.
Most people would agree that it hasn't ended properly. It's hanging; the listener expects something else. It is unresolved.
Now try ending by adding that ...
6
Your question covers several different topics but I think what you're interested in is Harmony. This is a very vast subject. As for the importance of what you lack as a rhythm guitarist, it largely depends on the style you play.
Lots of artists just don't know what they're doing when writing stuff and just happen to know empirically what goes well with ...
5
If it is not yet part of your "II-V-I" variations, you want to learn about the tritonic substitution concept, which consists in changing a V7 chord in a progression with a bII7 chord. The interval between V and bII is 3 tones == 1 tritone == diminished 5th == augmented 4th. The progressing IIm7 -> bII7 -> IM7 adds some nice chromaticity opportunities.
Try ...
5
Use the chord ladder to determine your chord progression. There's a thorough explanation of it here, but basically, you want to move down the ladder.
So the iii goes to the vi, which can go to either the ii or the IV. Note that in the last measure, you can either resolve to the I, ending your progression or you can go back to the second rung and play the ...
5
Before you replace chords with 3 or 4 notes with those with 5 or 6 notes (or even more), re-harmonize a melody by applying these 2 complementary strategies recursively (i.e. each is applicable to the result of applying them, so you can do it in many passes) to chord changes:
1) replace one chord with two (duration of 2 chords in new version =
duration of ...
5
It could be the case that the Andalusian cadence is attractive precisely because there is a certain amount of ambiguity to it (i.e., it can't be pinned down as either perfect or half cadence). If I may trust my own instincts on the matter, the cadence exhibits neither the "completeness" of a perfect cadence, nor the "incompleteness" of a half cadence; its ...
4
The earliest two references I can find of what are now known as deceptive cadences originate with Josquin des Prez's Missa Una musque de Buscaya (listed without a date on Wikipedia, which only fleetingly mentions it under a different spelling, suggesting that his authorship is doubtful) and Francesco Spinacino's arrangement of Fortuna dun gran tempo. I was ...
4
In (2) the E and A chords constitutes dominants for respective following chord. Especially with the scales you mention which entails the minor sevenths. The E7 is a secondary dominant and the A7 is the dominant of Dm.
Dominants are associated with a strong urge to resolve to their next chord in the circle of fifths. This particular sequence, E7 A7 Dm (or ...
4
Just as a note, these chord progressions are not universal at all times and in all cultures. In the 14th century the Landini Cadence was the thing. Play a chord of G, B and E. Hold the G and B but move the E to D. Now play F C F (no A). That was the way to end a song.
To us it sounds weird and unsatisfying. We like our IV - V7 - I. To them the V7 ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
