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I don’t really know what to title this but I am an avid collector of guitar tutorial books etc and eventually I get round to looking at them, the latest being Rhythm Mastery (sic)
It goes through all the standard stuff like chord progressions based on the Major and minor scales 1,4,5 -1,6,2,5 progressions and the like but then came progressions based upon intervals.. blown my mind, a progression based on a minor third a perfect fifth and a perfect fifth.
First thing that struck me was in A that resulted in a progression A, C, G, D which isn’t A Major scale harmonisation, much thought has deduced it’s probably A Mixolydian harmonisation because the mixolydian scale would produce those chords?The scale progression as I am playing it is Asus2, CMaj7, Gadd9 and D/F# which is extremely pleasant.
The question Brian or anyone else is is there a lesson covering this bit of theory because I want to expand my repotoire and know more about it.
I would like to know how you choose the intervals to arrive at a chord progression?
I also know it isn’t beginners theory but anyone want to give it a go -
Hi,
Chords and chord progression don’t make sense in isolation – even when they “sound good”. Chord progressions are always meant to support a melody. I know guitarists are often obsessed with “chord progressions”, but music simply doesn’t work like that.
So, the place to start when creating a chord progression is the melody.But it just so happens that within a key, the same note can always be harmonized with several chords. So over the course of several centuries, musicians have debated over the best choices, and that has resulted in so-called “rules”.
A safe place to start is the circle of fifth. For example, starting from C, a “circle of fifth progression” is C F Bm7(b5) Em Am Dm G C
You can take any sub-sequence in that sequence, for example: C Am Dm G and rotate it as you see fit, the result will sound good. Pop music doesn’t do anything else than that.
This is a first “rule”.You will notice that the example above (C Am Dm G) is your “1 6 2 5” case… Also note that when you go to from C to Am, the root descends by a (minor) third. This leads to a second “rule”: chord sequences sound best when the roots go up a second, or down a third or down a fifth. The “2 – 3 – 5” “rule”.
But musicians always want to break the rules (and invent new ones). So they invented the concept of “harmonic sequences”. For example, consider the chord progression:
|Am – E7 – |G – D7 – |F – C7 – |
It doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it?
Each bar in isolation consists of an ascending fifth (i.e. the root go up a perfect fifth), but the first chord of each bar is one tone lower than the first chord of the previous bar. And that’s the sequence. It’s OK, provided that it fits the melody.
There are many examples of that: “Hotel California” uses it, the Pachelbel Canon uses it, the Andalusian cadence i sbased on it, J.S. Bach used it a lot, etc.
There are of course endless possibilities.So, the short answer to your question is: there is no set process to arrive at a chord progression. There is a melody that you want to harmonize, and a (large) list of “best practices” that will help you in your creative journey.
And that’s the best I can offer… -
…and one more thing:
the other example you give is: A C G D
Please note that the roots of those chords follow the “rule” of “up a second or down a third or down a fifth”. That’s what ties together this progression.But that “rule” doesn’t specify the quality of the chords. They can be anything.
If the A is minor, then this progression suggests D Mixolydian.
If they are all major, then there isn’t one single natural mode that fits them all. Not even A Mixolydian since A Mixolydian has a C#.The “progression” might in fact be truly modal, in which case the “rules” of tonal music don’t apply. This, only the melody can tell.
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Jean-Michel
I am more than interested in the comment the place to start when creating a chord progression is the melody.
Of which I am not going to argue but make the comment ‘is normal teaching convention in music to teach scale’s chords and their construction before melody’ after all the majority of lessons in active melody come with a backing track so is the backing track an after thought?
The rules in music are also thought provoking take a minor scale the 5 chord is minor but the tune resolves better if it’s Major and in blues the 5 chord is invariably dominant 7.
Has anyone ever written a book covering all the rules and why. The problem with theory is it always creates more questions than answers. I don’t like learning parrot fashion I like to know why one thing sounds better than another and there has to be an element of following the rules like your quote of Hotel California and Pachebel Cannon (Streets of London) being classical in origin.
Thanks for the response I look forward to others
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I am more than interested in the comment the place to start when creating a chord progression is the melody.
Of which I am not going to argue but make the comment ‘is normal teaching convention in music to teach scale’s chords and their construction before melody’ after all the majority of lessons in active melody come with a backing track so is the backing track an after thought?
I never suggested that harmony is an afterthought. What I am saying, is that harmonic progressions rarely, if ever, make sense in isolation. They almost always serve the melody, whether that melody is composed first or last.
Yes, lots of guitar-oriented books and tutorials focus on chords, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s probably partly due to the fact that it is a lot easier to talk about chords than to talk about melodies.Originally, there was no such thing as “harmony”. Music was conceived as a number of independent voices progressing simultaneously. As styles evolved, these voices more and more came to a rest – and that’s how chords were born, and the subsequent “rules” to handle them. Those “rules” ultimately stem from correct melodic voice leading practices. So, if you want to understand why some progressions sound better than others, I suggest you have a look at the art of melodic analysis and voice leading.
That being said, “stealing” existing chord progressions and putting a different melody on top is extremely common in pop, rock, jazz, and it was even done during the Common Practice Era. That doesn’t change the fact that the harmony supports a melody.
This site is about learning how to improvise, which is “composing melodies on the fly”. I am not in Brian’s head and I don’t know his thought process when composing his lessons, but I guess it’s a mix of “melody first” and “harmony first”. It probably depends on what he wants to teach.
The rules in music are also thought provoking take a minor scale the 5 chord is minor but the tune resolves better if it’s Major and in blues the 5 chord is invariably dominant 7.
The V chord in minor keys is only minor in the natural minor mode, which is actually closer to modal music than tonal music. For tonal music, musicians almost always sharpen the seventh degree, thereby getting a leading tone and (bonus!) a major V7 chord. In doing so they create the harmonic minor scale, which is a different from the natural minor scale and built intentionally to support better harmonic patterns.
They also create the melodic minor scale, which is yet another scale that better accommodates the melodic requirements.In blues, all the chords are dominant 7th chords, not just the V, and the blues cannot easily be handled with the “rules” of tonal music. In fact, the fundamental cadence in blues is IV7 – I7 rather than V7 – I7.
Has anyone ever written a book covering all the rules and why. The problem with theory is it always creates more questions than answers. I don’t like learning parrot fashion I like to know why one thing sounds better than another and there has to be an element of following the rules like your quote of Hotel California and Pachebel Cannon (Streets of London) being classical in origin.
There are thousands of books out there dealing with these things in a very comprehensive way. This stuff is also taught in conservatories and music schools, in harmony and composition classes. But they are usually not taught as “rules”, but rather as best practices resulting from hands on musical experience. But a Master degree in Harmony and Composition takes at least two years.
In the past four years that I have been on ActiveMelody I have tried to share some of my knowledge; I don’t find this easy because either I start from basic principles and most people don’t read it because it isn’t “practical” enough, or I discuss more advanced topics and people also don’t read it because it’s too high level, theoretical and equally useless…
Anyways, all those posts are there for you to read and you should be able to find at least a few of the answers you are looking for.I even posted a list of books and online resources that I consider of value.
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