I am trying to write a song in G major and I am wondering if it would be ok to use this chord progression in G major:
G - Em - D - Am
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Sign up to join this communityI am trying to write a song in G major and I am wondering if it would be ok to use this chord progression in G major:
G - Em - D - Am
Of course, In the key of G major the following chords are part of the scale:
G Maj, A min, B min, C Maj, D Maj, E min, F# dim.
That pattern is valid for any Key, {I, IV, V} are Maj, {ii, iii, vi} are minor, vii is diminished.
Your progression is a I --> vi --> V --> ii.
On another note you can use any chords you want if they sound cool.
Of course you can use any sequence of chords that you want.
...in G major?
This is more specific as you want the music to identify as being in a major key.
The traditional way to define a key is with the dominant chord V
. People often think - very naturally - it's the tonic I
chord which defines a key. Of course the tonic chord defines the tonic, but we need more harmony information to know if the music is in a major key rather than being in a mode. For example the difference between the key G major and the mode G mixolydian. The dominant will define that.
All your chords give the tones for the G major scale and you have the dominant chord D
so it is clearly in G major
. If you had omitted the D
chord, the tonality would be a little ambiguous.
Also, compare this with saying the chords are from E minor. You have the right set of tones for the key signature of E minor. But the dominant of E minor would be B
. It isn't there, so this isn't E minor. You could call it E aeolian in that case.
Once you have a key established you are not precluded from using chords outside the key signature! That's fine too. It would be called chromatic harmony. There are many ways to do it.
V iV I
over and over except that part that goes bVII I
. To the extent that a rock song can be in a key, it's in G major.
Dec 27, 2018 at 18:40
Sure. G, Em, Am, D7 is the cliché progression, but you can put them in your order if they fit the melody.
You could also use Bb, A7, Ab7 or just about anything else and still be 'in G major'. The scale is a framework, not a restriction.