music theory dorks: identify this chord progression

while fiddling around on my guitar, I noticed that playing a major 7th chord, then the major chord rooted a minor third below it* (i.e. Fmaj7 - Dmaj) has a very... recognizable sound to it. almost cliche. for some reason it makes me think of epic fantasy stuff -- Lord of the Rings, Japanese RPGs, and so on. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this question... just wondering if it's a common compositional device, I guess.

*: I know my terminology is sketchy here -- I guess I could call this bIIImaj7 - I, but I'm not sure if the second chord is actually the tonic or if some kind of modulation is happening here or if the major 7th chord is actually substituting for some other chord etc etc

Your example: (F A C E) > (D F# A)

I don't recognize this specifically from something, but I've seen it occasionally, I think, in some rock and punk songs. Mostly with the minor third down from the root = natural sixth, and doing a major six (VI) chord instead the typical minor vi is a slightly tweaked change-up. If you're going from Imaj7 to VI, it resolves going from major 7th to major 6th (E to D) and the odder one of tonic to augmented tonic (F to F#). Major third to Major fifth is the same (A to A).

Viewing the second chord as topic (D major) makes the other one iv+m6 (root A) which has probably been used often, maybe not so much with the minor 6th. It would be cleaner coming from Dm, but as it is your odder transition is from F# to F, major to minor third. Don't know if this clears anything up, but that's how I thought about it.

Thanks a lot. I realize that "here are two chords, tell me why they sound good together" isn't exactly the best way to start a discussion, so I really appreciate your response (even as it makes me fear that I'm getting in way over my head and discussing things that I don't actually understand in the least).

I didn't want to treat the first chord as the tonic because the second 'feels' much more like home to me; looking more closely at it now, it also seems strange to me to have the augmented tonic in there, unless some sort of modulation is taking place.

Re: Your second paragraph: Wouldn't it be v+m6, not iv+m6? At any rate, I had thought about treating it as a minor chord, but after playing around a little more with different voicings, it seems that having that 'minor 6th' in the bass is a big part of the sound, which makes me want to treat it as the root. Maybe it's just the sound of the major 7th interval between the lowest and highest notes resolving to a major 10th? If I just play those notes, (F E) -> (D F#), it still seems to have that distinctive character to it.

Again, I apologize if I'm just throwing around terms here that aren't really accurate. It's been a long time since I thought seriously about theory, and even when I did, I was mostly self-taught...

I don't know a ton of theory myself, so no worries, I'm not 100% on the chord notation either. You're right about it being v+m6, that was a brain fart on my part. Playing around with it on guitar a bit, I feel like adding a G chord, to make an open three chord pattern like this: G, D/F#, FMaj7/E (more accurately Am+m6/E, played 0x3210, both E strings ring out) so the descending bassline goes G>F#>E. Has a tense dramatic resolve to it, I think. This would make it VI -> I (third inversion) -> v m6 (fifth inversion).

oscillating between a major chord and a major chord that is a major sixth/minor third away from the original chord is pretty common in rock music, though I've usually seen it the other way around -- Amaj to Cmaj for instance

I would think of that as C -> A regardless of how it appeared in the song because C and A are both in the C major scale while they are not both in the A major scale.

yeah the melody usually has that tonality too -- an A maj chord w/A minor pentatonic played on top

Ugh, I meant IV, not VI in that last sentence.

some of my fav progressions come from substituting a major chord for a minor chord (and vice-versa)

rollin' on the river
http://riff-o-matic.com/images/proudmary/1.gif

That's just a major chord to a major chord, not a major 7th chord.

To me if you just move a major seventh shape randomly around on the guitar, it always sounds like some Chicago song. See also this thread Most well-known songs based around a major seven chord?

read the middle of the thread hurting2 xp

Its all in the key of Am according to my shaky guitar theory isn't it? If I remember rightly, you can play the the 6th either natural (F) or sharpened (F#)- something to do with ascending and descending in melodic minor? which would make the chord progression im6 -> V

I'm probably well wrong... but it "feels" A minor-y to me. like "house of the rising sun"!

If I remember rightly, you can play the the 6th either natural (F) or sharpened (F#)-

I'd say it's a common compositional device inasmuch as it's a bit of mode mixture or chromaticism. I can't think of a more specific term for that kind of move.

Also I think harmonic function and such is pretty much moot -- nearly any set of only two chords will be too harmonically ambiguous to be subject to analysis. If it were a dominant chord to a major or minor triad a fourth away that'd be pretty clear, but even then it could show up in many different contexts.

But anyway I don't know this just seems kind of like a Beatles-y thing to me. Or The Zombies, you know, they were so badass. It's like the final two chords in the chorus of Time of the Season, or the intro to Something.

verse of "That's All For Everyone" - fleetwood mac.
possibly intro to "Half a person" - the smiths

Completely irrelevant point of musical dorkiness that I wanted to post somewhere.

This morning the Kenny Burrell song Three Thousand Miles Back Home was playing as I started up my computer. There's this nice chord change in the song from from an Ebmaj79 to an Ab7, and just as it hit the Ab7, my computer hit that start-up melody that goes Eb - Bb - Ab - Eb - Bb and it worked perfectly over the chord. It was sweet.

^^ love that kind of stuff

speaking of computer melodies, this is cool

>> "The startup sound was done in my home studio on a Korg Wavestation. It's a C Major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall). This just sounded right to me. I wanted something really fat, heavy bass, high notes, and a sharp attack. The chiffy sound was from pan pipes and something like a stick hit (I'm testing my memory here). I wanted lots of evolving timbres, stereo phasing, and reverb for further richness."

"Mac people are very familiar with the sound, after restarting their machines too often. In fact, that was one of the issues I was conscious of when designing the sound. Turning the Mac on is one thing, but being forced to reboot from a crash is a totally different experience. I wanted to avoid a sound that would be associated with the crash. I wanted it to sound more like a "palette cleanser".

"After I changed the startup sound (which required much persuasion and working around the system) the ROM engineers continued changing it with each new machine. Some of them were weak, such as the Stanley Jordon guitar strum used on the first PowerMacs. I objected to it, because that sound had no "power". The engineer wasn't a recording engineer, and not familiar enough with audio. The sound was hallow and without depth. When Steve Jobs returned in 1997, I heard he wanted only one sound for all Macs. He wanted the "good one" which was the one I created. At least that's how I heard the story, and I was still working there at the time."

today I was thinking of "Late Night" by Syd Barrett. It does this, I'm pretty sure.