New answers tagged chord-progressions
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if there is a C Mixolydian(or F major scales), is the key considered as F major or C major?
C major and F major are keys in the major/minor system.
Modal music is a different system, and there are a few different modal styles.
For practical purposes you can think of major and minor keys as "major mode" or "minor mode." In fact in theory ...
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If you feel the tonality of a piece is C Mixolydian, and you want to talk or write about that tonality, the most concise thing to say is that it is in C Mixolydian.
Simply saying that it is in F major will imply that F is the tonic, and if you say it's in C major, you lose the information about the mixolydian tonality.
One of the unfortunate things about ...
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I’m going to answer solely based on your chord progression of C to Bb. If that’s all there is the ear will likely hear the C as the I tonic chord and the Bb as the bVII. There is no F chord in sight so there’s no reason to think of this as V to IV. This chord progression sounds like it is derived from the C Mixolydian scale.
You can’t necessarily say the ...
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Am7 - D7sus4 D7 - Gmaj7 - E7sus4 E7 x 2
Diatonic to a key signature of one sharp, G is a reasonable tonic. The E7 is a secondary dominant to the Am7, assuming x 2 means the progression repeats. Root progression by fifths.
Am7 Bm7 - Cmaj7 D7(9) - Gmaj7
Also a tonic of G. Note the root progression by steps, not fifths, I think that may be relevant to the &...
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There is a lot of good advice here already. I have one piece to add: keep sight of the "big picture." Often we can tie ourselves in knots as we try to hyper-analyze small details of chords and progressions, but if we've already identified the broad outlines of where the music is going, we can more easily explain the minute details. To use an ...
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It doesn't! It moves to the 4th in bar 2!
Or at least is you are playing a 12 bar pattern that uses the Fast Four device.
I think your question is motivated by an oversimplified view of the Blues as a musical style. While it is true that many blues and blues rock tunes might have 4 bars on 1 that is not the only standard way to play the blues.
8 bar and 24 ...
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Assuming all the chord progressions you provided are correct, and without listening to the piece...
The chord progression Am7 - D7sus4 D7 - Gmaj7 - E7sus4 E7 x 2 Am7 Bm7 - Cmaj7 D7(9) - Gmaj7 - Fmaj9 is actually in A minor, not G major. The E -> Am general chord progression at the E7 x 2 Am7 section and the fact that the chord progression starts with Am7 ...
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So this is somewhat the harmonic structure of the piece:
[INTRO]
Gmaj7(7) Cmaj7(3)
Gmaj7(7)/7 Cmaj7(3)
Bm7(3) em7(7)
Bm7(5-3) GP C/Em
[VERSE I]
Am7 D[4-3](9-8)
Gmaj7(7) E7[4-3]/7
Am7(7) D[5-8][4-3](5)
Gmaj7 E7[9-10]
Am7 D7
Gmaj7 E7[4-3][5-7]
Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7
Gmaj7 → Fmaj7,9→Fo
Cm7,9 F7(6)
Bfm7,9 Ef7(6)
Am7,9 D7
[VERSE II]
Am7 D[4-3][9-8]
Gmaj7(7) E7[4-3]/...
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Let's stick with, for now, the 6 main chords used diatonically. I, ii, iii, IV, V and vi - omitting the not-so-common viio.
Establishing the I is the most important start, and we're looking for the chord that sounds like the piece has come 'home' - to a place where it could end satisfactorally.
Back to the start of the piece - which most often is I. Contnue ...
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A lot of music relies on repetition - of notes, and of timings. There's a lot of Blues that uses a two bar phrase that gets repeated. Playing over the same two bars worth of chords, and repeating necessitates four bars of that same chord - generally I. Then continuing the process, the same phrase (two bars again) can be repeated, but a 4th higher over the IV ...
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Why is it so common to hold the I Chord for 4 bars?
You give a link to variations on the blue chord progression, so obviously you know that the blues does not necessarily start with four bars on the tonic.
Maybe your question is "why hold the tonic for so long?" Or something like that.
Many blues songs are just riffs that repeat over all three ...
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It's probably more useful to reverse things, asking why it's got any harmonic variation at all. I mean, many times in modern music, you hold on one or two chords so that whatever is important at that time can do what it wants. You can reference modal jazz like A Love Supreme, but I'm thinking that metal riffage is sitting on one chord, and John Lee Hooker ...
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This is a case where the question is probably more interesting than the answer. The answer, loosely speaking, amounts to "because that's just how it is." A similar question that comes to mind is "why is blues so often twelve bars?"
That said, being a folk form, blues, like much folk music, adheres to fairly simple chords and form — so it'...
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Stacking fifths up from F you get FCGDAEB.
These are notes in Cmajor.
Write down each note's position. 4-1-5-2-6-3-7.
Note that the first three are 4-1-5 ... why?... because they are the most consonant from F. And as you move up fifths you the notes/chords relative to C become more dissonant. The next three up are 2-1-5... and that's why it's so common in ...
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To answer the question, it is important to go back to some basic ideas. The invention of Jazz. Basicly, it's an improvisational platform. The 2-5-1 progression incorporates the strongest cadence i.e. the 5-1 and allows for relatively easy modulation and returns between keys. It serves as a means of letting several musicians employing a variety of melodic, ...
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Can any diminished chord be used as V anywhere?
In tonal harmony you can play a diminished chord on any root any time and have it act as a dominant (better to call it a dominant and not a V, it's Roman numeral should always be viio) to some tonic. But that statement is broad to the point of not being useful.
You asked about "anywhere?" What do you ...
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No, you cannot use any diminished 7th chord as a dominant-function chord and get away with it.
Any diminished 7th chord that does not include the home key's leading tone and is immediately followed by a tonic chord is a common-tone diminished 7th chord instead. This is called that because it shares at least one chord tone with a neighbouring chord. Common ...
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4 things:
Barry Harrisy chord right there. Could think of it as resolving to Cmaj6/E spelled (E G A C). Sounds very nice when approached with a Ddim7.
That Ebdim is a #superhip way to spell a g chord that gives jarring bright results
As suspension rather than dominant, because Ebdim7 spelled (Eb Gb/F# A C) is like just a C6sus where the 5th and 3rd are ...
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Chords can 'go together well' in many ways. Here are some of them.
If they are all constructed from notes of the same scale. (Beginners sometimes think this is the only one. But there's LOTS more possibilities!)
If both chords have one or more notes in common.
If a tension in the first chord is resolved, the surrounding notes can be pretty well up for ...
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This relationship of chords in minor third distance was already used in Renaissance music: it is called in German QUERSTAND and in English FALSE RELATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_relation
like Aaron mentions the music theory and harmonic analysis for the common practice period doesn't fit to explain all Pop music and neither the early music of ...
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"Music Theory" — or more specifically, "Common Practice" or "Tonal" Theory — isn't designed with popular music in mind, and popular music frequently isn't constructed with music theory in mind.
View #1: Voice leading
In the case of this particular chord progression, I find it productive to consider it in terms of voice leading. ...
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Chromatic Mediant!
Take any two major triads with roots a major or minor third apart. They will always share one note between them. They have a very distinct, fresh, fantastical sound. The last four chords are all chromatic mediants.
C# to A#. Common tone is E#
A# to G. Common tone is D (spelled C double sharp in the A# chord)
G to B. Common tone is B.
...
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As a practical matter I think it has to do with range. If you need to stay within a certain range (singer's range, fingering requirements, timbral reason like muddy bass region, or contrapuntal reasons like trying to keep voices from crossing) you might choose accordingly.
What type of emotion or feel would be conveyed either way?
There are some emotional/...
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You are going on the assumption that chords have to be played from the root up. This is not the case at all. When moving from one chord to another the most common and most logical thing to do is to use inversions of chords — so as not to have large jumps from one to the other. In case you’re not familiar, an inversion of a chord is when the notes are the ...
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E, Bm7, E, Bm7, C#, A#, G, B
E Bm7 that's a root progression by fifth, ordinary, just as you said. Eventually the B chord returns to E, and the melody dwells on E. We could say it's nominally in E, but with all the chromaticism, it isn't strictly E major.
The progression repeats so write that out for clarity...
E Bm7 E Bm7 C# A# G B | E...
The progression ...
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First two bars are built from Bb7b13 scale, fifth mode of harmonic minor. Next bar is an A diminished scale sound. Then a simple Eb/Bb chord. Next three bars are a minor ii-V-I progression, where the ii chord is a c half diminished with the b5 in bass (fairly common jazz voicing) and the F is an F13 chord.
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It is indeed the NNS - Nashville Number System. Each chord in a key is given a number, corresponding to the note number in that key. Here, in D♭ - D♭ =1, E♭ = 2, F = 3, G♭ = 4, A♭ = 5, and B♭ = 6.
That may seem to be extra stuff for little purpose - just write the perishing chords, please!
But, the idea is far reaching. In the recording studio, for example, ...
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This is Nashville chord notation system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Number_System
The numbers refer to the scale steps on which the chords are built.
The song is in the key of Db major. 1 means chord built on the first step, Db major. 1/3 means Db chord with 3rd scale degree in bass, F. 3m is a minor chord built on the 3rd scale degree, F minor. ...
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By "unique" chord progressions, I would argue that he's saying that they're unique in comparison to other rock musicians. Because most of his progressions are, frankly, relative "classical" in nature.
And so this is the trick: knowing that Elton is a classically trained musician, study some of the music that he would have studied to get a ...
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In a melodic line progressing in 2nds (stepwise) a tone altered by a flat "wants" to lead downwards (e.g. b7, b6), when altered by a sharp it leads upwards (e.g. augmented 2nds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths).
In your exampel the tritonus Fa Ti produces a strong dissonance with two tendings: Fa resolves down, Ti is leading tone and resolves upwards. ( B is ...
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When we speak of music theory, we tend to mean "common practice era" theory — the theory of Mozart, Beethoven, and their peers up until the twentieth century. However, jazz and popular music, while they do often adhere to the same theoretical ideas, they also tend to depart from it, and this would seem one of those times. Jazz and popular styles ...
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I view this as a modification of the progression from "Puff the Magic Dragon."
The progression from that song, I–iii–IV–I, would be A–C♯m–D–A in the key of A. The only difference between this progression and your progression is that you replace the opening A chord (I) with F♯m (vi). And this is a very common substitution: theorists since at least ...
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It's ultimately a question of your reference point when you use the term "dissonant": in other words, when you say a particular pitch is dissonant, be mindful of what you're saying it's dissonant against.
When we say that dissonances typically want to resolve down, we're specifically talking about dissonances in relation to the current chordal root....
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This type of rule is based on the observation that most composers (from about 1400 to 1900 and continuing in popular music in the 2000s) have tried to maintain the coherence of musical lines. In the case mentioned (dissonant fourth against the bass), the notes of the dissonant fourth tend to move to the nearest notes that give a resolution.
Let's look at a ...
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You're overthinking it. Notes that are a 1/2 step from notes in the I chord like to move to the notes in the I chord. That's all.
So in an E7 chord:
E - G# - B - D
moving to an A chord:
A - C# - E
The G# goes up to A, and the D goes down to C#. Change "goes" to "resolves" and you're set. They want to do this because they are close.
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The whole thing of Functional Harmony is that some notes are stable (in the most simplistic terms these will be the three notes of the tonic triad of the key, with the actual tonic note - C in C major - being the most stable), the others are to some degree unstable - they'd like to move to the more stable ones. Combine more than one unstable note in a ...
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Your progressions re-written with capitol letters and Roman numeral analysis after...
G Em C Cm --- G:I vi IV iv
B F# G♯m E --- B:I V vi IV
G D C Cm --- G:I V IV iv
D G Em7 A7 --- D:I IV ii7 V7
I assume all of these get repeated.
There are some similarities between them.
The only one that jumps out as having a sort of name is B F♯ G♯m E, that's the I ...
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