Q. If I have the right thing.. when writing a song on the piano, and you're in a specific key - for example let's say we're in C major - how do you work out which chords you can use? And it's called chord progressions, right? Please tell me if i've gone off in totally the wrong direction. Thanks.
A. Hope this helps! It did with me because I've been wondering the same thing. Look on the website to see the basic things you need to write a song. It helped me so much!
If you havenât understood anything Iâve said, donât worry. Here are some common keys, the chords you can use if youâre writing in that key, and the number that corresponds with the chord (something youâll need later). Key of C major: C major (1), F major (4), G major (5), A minor (6), D minor (2), and E minor (3). Key of G major: G major (1), C major (4), D major (5), E minor (6), A minor (2), B minor (3). Key of A major: A major (1), D major (4), E major (5), F# minor (6), B minor (2), C# minor (3). Key of D major: D major (1), G major (4), A major (5), B minor (6), E minor (2), F# minor (3). If you donât know how to make these chords on your instrument, youâll need to get a chord chartâtheyâre easy to read and they donât require any knowledge of theory!
One last thing before we move on: time signatures. Most popular songs are in 4/4 or 3/4. The bottom number tells you what note gets the beat (e.g., 4 = quarter note) and the top number tells you how many beats are in a measure. Donât worry too much about the bottom number; just pay attention to the top number. In 4/4 there are four beats per measure; in 3/4 there are three. The first beat is emphasized more strongly than the other beats. So in 4/4 you would count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. In 3/4 youâd count: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc. "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat" is in 4/4 time. "Amazing Grace" is in 3/4.
Now that youâre thoroughly confused, letâs move on to writing the melody.
Writing the Melody
The easiest way to write a melody is to come up with the chord progression first and write the melody to fit that chord progression. There are a lot of songs out there that only use three chords: the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and the 5 chord. These three chords can be combined in innumerable ways. Here are a few things to keep in mind: the chord progression typically starts on the 1 chord and goes to the 5 chord before resolving back to the 1 chord; the 5 chord creates tension: it makes the listener want to return to the 1 chord. A typical chord progression might look like this: 1, 4, 1, 5. The chord progression for a blues song looks like this: 1, 4, 1, 5, 4, 1, 5. (Remember, you donât have to stay on each chord in a progression for the same length of time.) Hereâs the chord progression for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (the chord numbers are in parentheses): (1) Twinkle, twinkle, (4) little (1) star, (4) how I (1) wonder (5) what you (1) are.
what are some of the most popular chord progressions?
Q. any help would be useful thank you.
A. If you live in the United States, you have undoubtedly heard kids and teenagers using and abusing Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart and Soul" on the piano. This piece makes exclusive use of the "turn-around progression," consisting of I, vi, IV, and V-seven.
Although this progression was often used in Twentieth Century pop music, it seems to have earlier origins. Schubert's Serenade starts with a turn-around progression in the minor mode.
Another goodie is the "descending minor tetrachord." This consists of i, VII, VI, and V-seven. This is the standard progression for a chaconne or malaguena. The South African folk song, "The Cat Came Back," would be a chaconne or malaguena if it were in 3/4 time.
On this forum, there was a recent question about the progression I-six-four, V-seven, I:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhDtGYWW2asj0lm.GNSh.Zap.Bd.;_ylv=3?qid=20081005113617AAP7Fh8
This progression is good for cadences.
Also good for cadences is a chain of dominant sevenths. A secondary dominant resolves to a dominant, a tertiary dominant resolves to a secondary dominant, and so forth. If you've ever attended a Protestant church camp, you are probably familiar with the song "Tell Me Why," which uses a quaternary dominant:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/pentatonika/tellmewhy.jpg
In the Concone album, op. 24, take a look at #14. In measures 37-40, we see a chain starting on the tertiary dominant. The composer ingeniously arranges the voices so that an agonizing semitone descent appears in the tenor voice.
Concone seems to be good at semitone descents. In the previous four measures in the same piece, there is a semitone descent in the alto voice, and in a completely different progression. Other examples are #17, measures 17-20; #18, measures 25-28; #20, measures 32-34.
We must not forget the semicadence in which the bass moves from the sixth degree to the fifth degree in a minor mode. Concone writes such "Phrygian cadences" in #15, measures 15-16, and in #21, measures 15-16. If this is for a class assignment, see if you can find an example from the work of a more highly respected composer.
In the Burgmuller album, op. 100, I notice the same progression appearing twice. The two occurrences are in "The Wagtail," #11, measures 3-7 and #25, "Spirit of Chivalry," measures 7-8. The progression consists of #iv, iv minor, I-six four, vii diminished seventh, a suspension in #11 but not in #25, V-seventh, and tonic. (Like Concone, Burgmuller seems to like the subdominant minor chord.) I don't know any name for this, so I call it the "Burgmuller cadence."
For some reason, the subdominant chord seems to have the effect of waving good-by and a dominant chord seems to have the effect of saying hello. Mozart appears to be the first composer to recognize this. There are at least two piano sonatas in which Mozart writes a secondary dominant on the subdominant for the first time in the coda. This secondary dominant makes the subdominant chord sound more prominent. Mozart does this in the C major sonata, K 279, second movement, measures 70-71 and the F major sonata, K 280, third movement, measures 178-180. In fact, we see a rarity in the C major sonata, K 545, second movement, measures 65-66. Here we see a secondary SUBdominant!
Beethoven, who copies a lot of ideas from Mozart, seems to be the second composer to notice this effect. In his Gmajor sonata, op. 49 no. 2, second movement, measures 108-109, he writes a secondary dominant on the subdominant for the first time.
Sometimes, a composer saves the subdominant chord itself for the coda. We have already seen such an example in Concone, #17.
I've never before noticed the resemblance between the Clementi sonatina and the pop song originated therefrom. I just gave Gibolespaul a point.
Why do chord progressions have to follow the 'Chart'?
Q. If you have ever studied music theory, you know what I'm talking about (If not, just google "Chord Progression Chart"). Be as detailed as possible. Talk about what would happen if you didn't choose to follow the chart. Don't say, "It has to follow the circle of fifths" without explaining to me WHY that is important.
A. I went through music conservatory as a piano performance major and later did a second upper-level training in theory and composition, and never -- in all that classical study -- ever seen a "Chord Progression Chart."
ADD: I just googled it: this is a form of popular music theory, and specific for guitar playing more than actual 'music theory.' Please Do Not Mistake It In Any Way As Music Theory: what you learn from a chart like that would not qualify you for admittance to or be of any help to you in a freshman college theory 101 class. It may help you learn your way around basic guitar, but if you ever want a handle on music theory, of any sort, I'd ditch it. Thinking in nothing but 'chords' is very "pop theory" and wholly detrimental to your full development as a musician, regardless of musical genre. /// The shock there is another planet of music theory, often at odds with the pop theory terminology, shows up often enough in this category of Y/A, especially when it comes to analysis and identifying chords beyond the basic triads and seventh chords. END ADD
Some chords work, to all ears, better than others going one to the next. Initially, it is what is first learned, classical or other theory, since one has to start somewhere, and from the basics and beginning is almost always the best as well as most logical starting point. I repeat your chord chart has at least as much or more to do with 'the handiness' of playing guitar at a basic level vs. actual theoretic musical use, or other real musical possibility.
After one further investigates theory, there are no 'rules' but only examples of how, formerly, someone else 'made music work.'
If everyone 'followed the chart,' as if it were a law there would be no more music, no need to make anymore, and all listeners would be bored to tears!
Some progressions, within a certain context, may have one chord sounding really 'weak' - and your flow or structure collapse. That same chord, approached with different horizontal voicing of parts - individual lines, in an otherwise similar harmonic context, could sound 'fine.' That is nothing you will learn to do anything about if you are studying 'chord - chord - chord' instead of approaching those chords as a consequence of several simultaneous lines. -- Because, that is after all, how you learn enough to make anything sound good!
No rules, no laws, just examples of what most commonly 'works' or what others before you have made 'work.' At the time, at least in the common practice period of classical theory, what ended up in textbooks was 'breaking rules' of that day!
You are in trouble if you take those examples you study as a rule or 'law.' - you may have to mimic those examples closely for an assignment, that is so you learn how to work them yourself. It is not intended that will be the way you 'should' or will later compose.
That chart, again, is for pop music more than anything, all the conventional progressions, and very much about how to physically negotiate the guitar while mucking about within that set of conventions. It is a list of what has commonly worked and been done before, no more, no less.
Best regards.
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