Chord Progressions S&D

For some reason I could listen to cmaj7 - fmaj7 endlessly, just dropping back and forth.

...and cmaj7 - bflat maj7 back & forth. People always say that strummed major 7ths sound summery.

I think Debussy (someone correct me if I'm wrong)invented the maj 7th & was told be the musical powers that this was forbidden as it was, in fact, a dischord...it's odd how the ear has evolved.

Offhand, both Joni Mitchell and perhaps the unlikely choice of Fantastic Something have some chord progression stuff going on that never fails to do it for me.

Also, offhand, Durutti Column, Steely Dan, MBV, Lilys, Todd Rundgren...

Also, Prefab Sprout's first few records. I don't think that any of the aforementioned could be placed in the same class as the best of Brian Wilson compositions where you're gonna be moved to tears, but rather it's a , wow, this is so surprising but sounds so right-- how did these people come up with this stuff?

Also, "The Rain Song" by Leed Zeplin has some great stuff going on...but this is gonna end up being never-ending posts by me. Everyone obviously picks up on different things when they listen to songs initially, or even with repeated listens, and for me, I tend to pick up on chord changes on first listens for whatever reasons.

S: I-IV-vi-iii-IV-I-ii-V-I

That's almost Pachabell's Canon or that Green Day song

I think Debussy (someone correct me if I'm wrong)invented the maj 7th & was told be the musical powers that this was forbidden as it was, in fact, a dischord...it's odd how the ear has evolved.

waht

It's "I Want You Back"

nice

lol @ maj 7th quote

The "Louie Louie" sequence - never gets old.

And it can even spice up a song that is fairly lame (like when it turns up for eight seconds in the middle of "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" by the Royal Guardsmen).

People who ape the Louie Louie progression often miss that the third chord is minor.

yeah that kinda surprised me when i realized that. made perfect sense, and explained the gap between it and so many other 3-chord riffs. it gives the song a sort of tragic undertow.

i like chord modulations in their place, but sometimes i wish theyd just leave the damn song as it was...

example: dave dudley's "truck drivin' son-of-a-gun"...i wish they hadnt started modulating on the second verse, 'cause i wasnt tired of the original key yet! sometimes i dont need somebody "upping the ante" with a chord modulation. in the case of "truck drivin s.o.g.", it wasnt broke in the 1st place, so no need fixin it. im marinating on this fine melody and youre gonna switch up on me? hey!

but despite that unneeded change, i dig the song in general

People who ape the Louie Louie progression often miss that the third chord is minor.

In "Snoopy," the Royal Guardsmen played that third chord in major and it WORKS.

It might not be an accurate "Louie Louie," but it's not a bad "Hang On, Sloopy."

i love I-vi-IV-V so much i started a thread about it once. it lends itself to melodrama. it's sort of the roy lichtenstein progression.

xpost:
well sure I-IV-V always works. but what makes louie stand out is partly its deviation. (and partly jack ely of course.)

(i do realize that "love it so much i started a thread about it" is sorta damning with faint praise.)

Pop cliche = I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V

It's "I Want You Back"
I think Nick Lowe used it too, in "Nutted By Reality."
(xpost)

the maj 7th & was told be the musical powers that this was forbidden
I remember reading that Jim Stewart, the power that were at Stax Records, forbade this chord from his recordings as being "too jazzy" or something, but I think they managed to sneak some in anyway.

I love any pretty New Orleans-like changes, commonly invoked in songs like "Sunnyside of the Street," "Georgia," and countless Randy Newman tunes:

C-E7-Am-C7-F-Fdim7-C, etc., etc.

G00gling brought me back to this somewhat related thread

You know who's got some crazy chords- John Barry! Check out "Goldfinger" for example.

Although if he was a student of Bill Russo, I guess that explains something.

I love sixties-ish chord progressions with neato tricky chromaticism. I've been into the Something chord progression of late:

C Cmaj7 C7 F D7 G Am Am(maj7) Am7 D7
C: I Imaj7 V/IV IV V/V vi V/V

Yesterday is also one of my faves:

F Em7 A7 Dm Bb C F Dm7 G7 Bb F
F: I ii/vi V/vi vi IV V I vi7 V/V IV I

And The Zombies have some brilliant ones, like Rose for Emily:

Verse: G D G#dim7 A G#dim7 A Bm7 E7 A
I'm inclined to analyze the song in D: IV I vii/V V vii/V V ii/V V/V V

Then the chorus goes: Bb F C#dim7 D C#dim7 D A7 D D7
Which would be: bVI bIII vii7 I vii7 I V7 I V/IV

One time somebody called the tune "Yesterday" which I had never learned and I was dying, even with fakebook in front of me.

I've been into the Something chord progression of late
I think they were doing a lot of that bit with descending sevenths into sixths basslines around The White Album too.

"truck drivin' son-of-a-gun"...i wish they hadnt started modulating on the second verse, 'cause i wasnt tired of the original key yet!
Are you aware, Rev, that some people call this the "truck driver's key change"?

with descending sevenths into sixths basslines
Maybe your phrase is better, "neato tricky chromaticism."

Yeah, well that whole thing is kind of a cliche, and The Beatles used it in various ways quite frequently, but I like the way it works in Something; there's a kind of nice balance between functional harmony and chromaticism. Same with Yesterday really -- contrast the functionality of the F Em7 A7 Dm with the non-standard resolution and chromatic line of the Dm7 G7 Bb F.

Something was the first song I learned on guitar. Quite easy to play but sounded quite complicated. Thank you "neato tricky chromaticism".

Are you aware, Rev, that some people call this the "truck driver's key change"?

-- James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 6 February 2008 17:36 (39 minutes ago) Link

ha, I almost pointed out that this wasn't me

S: I'm all about the descending chord progressions. Put a D-to-C chord progression in your song, and I'm bound to like it.

D: E-A-Bb. Seriously, just retire it already.

Scott Miller uses this one in "Where You Going Northern":
C#m B F# A

And the chorus to "24" is one for the ages:
A Em G
A Em G
C G C F G F G

These songs are all about you
And I'm tellin' everyone I'm doin' fine without you
I hurt you but I helped you
You may think I've a lot of nerve
But I deserve some credit
Or at least an edit
Take out the part that breaks my heart
And makes me sound uncaring
If you eliminate the swearing
Then I could show my mother
That you can go from one chord to another

G will turn to D
You'll turn to me
And you'll say
You have done me wrong
I wrote these songs about it

She's aware it's all been done before
It's another song in this key
Yeah but this one's about me
That all the validity she needs
Her criticism's brutal
But I don't really mind
Yeah, she's put it out on vinyl
But it's pretty hard to find, but you'll hear

G will turn to D
You'll turn to me
And you'll say
You have done me wrong
I wrote these songs about it

I wish I'd never taught her how to play
I knew she'd get me I should have known
Now her hands are on the fretboard
In an unfamiliar way
And it's tellin' me
She's aware it's all been done before
It's another song in this key
Yeah but this one's about me
I may not wanna hear the words to

G when put with D
But if you take what you're shown
Learn on your own
Then everything you do
Belongs to you
But know that you are on your own

On your own

the man with the child in his eyes

^ Surmounter

I remember a mate and I trying to work out the chords to the above- I take it you mean the Kate B song- we gave up after a fairly unproductive 5 hours and proceeded to annihilate it with a Black Flag style version we had done in three minutes

Madonna's 'Oh Father ' always reminded me of this song in its chord progression. Probably knowhere near.

Any progression with a 6/9,add9 , major 13th, sus chords slay me. Fuck majors and minors

personally, my favorite progression is Dm Bb F / Bb Am F

Any progression with a 6/9
So you must like Brazilian music.

I'm amazed I haven't posted to this thread already. One thing I like, even though it's super-common, is I --> vi, especially when there's something melodic going on that stays the same as the root changes.

i can see what you mean about O Father, something about a major chord

Destroy:
-I-V-vi-IV was mentioned in the pop songs borrowing from classical music thread. In the key of C major this would be C-G-Am-F.
-similarly, the related minor-chord progression (and excuse me if this is not written according to music theory conventions) i-bVI-bIII-bVII (which is vi-IV-I-V rewritten with the vi as the tonic). In the key of A minor this would be Am-F-C-G.

both are classic formulas for lazy songwriting from the 90s onward.

Yeah, you don't have to use the flat symbols on that one in A minor. Using an accidental for a chord symbol is only if the chord is built on a tone that's not in the scale. (And, of course, all those pitches are a part of the A minor scale.)

that's what I was thinking.

I love the chord progressions in this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka3l1KKZkmw

I'm a sucker for the minor-major flip that was distinctive in early Lennon. New Order used it nicely just before the chorus in True Faith, where it's like the sun coming out

word, "Long Time" by the Roots is largely just a switch back and forth from the minor to the major of the same chord and it sounds damn nice.

lately i've been quite impressed by the semi-complex progression in the building jam at the end of "Stitches" by the Morning Benders.

Rufus Wainwright's "Going to a Town" also has a pretty great, showtune-y sort of progression.

One of my all-time favorite piano house chord progressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lewbH3jjLBA

so simple yet so effective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSXUZEcvgBw

Two of my fave chord progressions which I have written about:

The Zombies, A Rose for Emily

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elbJ4hy5C7A

My analysis, part 2

David Bowie, Life On Mars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--IqqusnNQ

My analysis, part 2

I've always loved "The Stars of Track and Field"--deceptively strange with the major VI chord and the minor v7. Keeps the key ambiguous.

Hey Bulldog does a similar trick in the same key (B), with the minor v7, especially since it resolves into the bVII in the second part of the verse (bVII, v, IV).

Any one have any favorite progressions from the past decade or so? Most of these examples are older.

I learned a lot of my favorite chord progression tricks that I still like to use today from one song, an instrumental from the Superfly soundtrack that I learned to play in high school:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAZ9zBLLuOc

I'm a big fan of the quick 2nd inversion c-triad -> g triad -> 1st inversion d triad. Also love the e minor into the g-triad over a. It's basically gospel stuff.

the chord progression on the chorus of Vampire Weekend's "Sympathy" has a fun use of tritones: Bm6/G# C#7 Am6/F# B7

should say, the melody uses tritone intervals over those chords

Maybe someone more knowledgeable than I can answer this one. There's a modulation that shows up in a bunch of deep soul songs that always moves me. It's here at :37 when Mavis hits the lyric "...will to try." What exactly are they doing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmWkKYcFhuo

hope I'm not out of my depth here but it sounds like on that particular chord they're raising the third to make a major chord rather than the minor chord that it's supposed to be within that key

I think Josefa is right. To me that sounds like a major III chord, which would normally be minor. Typically this would be followed by a vi or IV chord, but in this case it sounds like it is followed by the V chord and then goes back to I after that.

a typical example that I always think of of a major III chord being used in a song is the second chord in "Georgia On My Mind"

Yep. And Otis Redding uses a major III chord in "I've Been Loving You Too Long" also (he wrote "Good to Me").

I was looking at a chord chart for that one online. So it's in the key of A, goes between the A and E a bit, and then goes to a C#. So that would be the major III?

It seems like it's providing a preface or buildup to the D (IV) right? (I know just enough about this stuff to be dangerous...)

i think in this case it leads into the V, but i'd need a piano to be certain

I to Major III is a common move in the gospel playbook, lots of hymns start with this basic movement (also seen in georgia on my mind): I - III - vi - IV

Goes to the IV in this version, but lord knows the internet is often wrong:

https://www.e-chords.com/chords/otis-redding/i-ve-been-loving-you-too-long

xp

oh i was still thinking about that mavis staples song

I'm pretty much a "cowboy chords" musician, so I,IV, and V, with the occasional II, are about the extent of my playbook. Everything else is kind of an aha! moment.

There's a modulation that shows up in a bunch of deep soul songs that always moves me. It's here at :37 when Mavis hits the lyric "...will to try."

I actually think this IS a modulation and not just a borrowed chord. The song is in E (not A) and the chord is G#. VC says, "it leads into the V," but I don't think it does. The V chord that follows is the start of the next verse. I don't think the G# has a function at all and I believe the song is actually in the key of G# there momentarily.

That's not the case with "Georgia on My Mind," where the chord is clearly a secondary dominant, or "I've Been Loving You Too Long" where it's...a passing chord on the way to III?

A passing chord on the way to IV - I meant to say in that last part

george's "beware of darkness" is a weird and beautiful one, isn't it?

Yes. I put it on now and followed it along and it's uncanny.

I was thinking about the song Rumble. Obviously it's just a blues, except for the fact that it has that flat VII sus chord that resolves to the I, and then resolves to the IV, and then resolves to the V. Did Link invent that? It's so weird and awesome.

Oh is that what that is, cool. That song rules.

"memories fade" by tears for fears, tonal center is e minor. i absolutely love the chorus progression.

b minor to b major(!) to c major to a minor

Just a side question: does anyone see chords as particular shapes or colors? Major-major7th chrods (like Cmaj7) always strike as very round and soft, and of a light shade, such as a pastel. Contrarily, major-minor7th chords (like C7) strike me as angular and harder, and a brighter color, such as red.

For the record, I generally don't hold too many biases with chords, and use them as I see fit (which basically means, I play what sounds good to me, or in rare cases, use them for particular effects) -- but I will say that I don't generally like major-major 7th chords. To me, they seem *too* passive. Debussy used them, and for that, I must grant them credence, for he somehow made them sound credible, but he also did wonders with flatted 7ths, and using 9ths, and making chords that sounded heavenly (and just a bit erotic).

― dleone, Monday, June 10, 2002 8:00 PM (twenty years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I find this really interesting because I also get soft pastel vibes from major 7ths, but rather than passivity I hear wistful beauty; they're my favorite kind of chord

the verse of bobby caldwell’s “open your eyes” (the basis for common/j dilla’s “the light”) is a gorgeous one

Jeff Buckley doesn't seem to get much love round these parts, but he has a bunch of amazing sequences:

The ascending Em -> B7 -> G6-> A6 bridge bit of Grace

The astounding chorus to Lover, You Should Have Come Over ("so I'll wait for you...") where he goes all the way up the fretboard from D and then back again at twice the speed

The back-and-forth between the two verse bits of So Real

― ecuador_with_a_c, Monday, September 1, 2008 10:20 PM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

THIS. i always remember loving his Live at Sin-e album but i just had my first revisit to this in probably 10+ years and all i could focus on were those guitar parts.

Always loved Pavement’s Range Life all minor chord chorus (yes resolving finally to a major). Big, unique work to use all the minor chords of a key for a catchy and upbeat chorus. I mean, just starting any chorus with a III is enough to pique my interest and have me guessing “how the hell they gonna do this?”. III-VI-II-VI. Any other songs rock with this?

The sweetest chord progression I've learned recently (so you know it must be utterly easy) was Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky" - capo 5th, the shapes are G, Emadd9, Em, Am, Am/G, D/F#, C7/G, Bm, Em, Am, C, G in the verses, and then D7, D6, D#dim7, Em, Am in the little wistful choruses. It just rolls along.

would love to have a dedicated discussion of brian wilson's use of harmony. some observations from plunking out a bunch of his songs on the piano over the past few days:
- i think a big part of his classic style is the juxtaposition of close harmonies with big interval melodies ("caroline no" is a big example, where the chords move chromatically while the melody dances all over the place)
- the use of augmented and diminished chords as building blocks, not just passing chords
- i am not trained enough to really comment on it in depth, but another thing i've noticed: half-step modulations. for example, "wouldn't it be nice" modulates from b minor to c major to move from the carnival-esque intro into the verse, and also from the bridge into the refrain. that haunting chord change in the verse of "til i die" also uses this method, modulating from cmaj7 to b major sus4 ("how deep is the oooocean")
- he also loves using two-fives to modulate (from pre-chorus to chorus in "don't worry baby")

I know people make a fuss about how his bass parts rarely started on the root (I don't know if that's accurate or not) but I was listening to 'Let The Wind Blow' and thinking about how his own self professed Bach influence really shines on a lot of tunes that have such strong and interesting lines, even if it's just maybe a keyboard's left hand.

last night I found this paper about the Four Freshmen's vocal harmonies and voice leading, which y'all might be interested in

thanks, that is great!

I think he used their records (playing along on the house piano) as a way of teaching himself about the basics of harmony.

"I'm picking up chord progressions..."