Btw: Chords are boring to me if they are only played in blocks. It is what happens within them that does the trick. Look at these chords
4/4: Dm|Dm|A|Dm|Dm|Dm |A|D|
Looks boring, right? i-V-i-V-I
Well, they friggin ain’t depending on the hands that handle them. It’s the first 8 measures of this piece of F-U-modern-pop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T7eMctuJLQ
Lost art, it seems.
Pop progression
-
- Banned
- 3946 posts since 25 Jan, 2009
Last edited by IncarnateX on Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
- Boss Lovin' DR
- 12628 posts since 15 Mar, 2002 from the grimness of yorkshire
It was hard work - fingers did not want to go to random positions - pop bastadry is too ingrained now.
-
- KVRAF
- 25053 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
As to this <a chord progression> as though a precept, really the illustration that I vi IV V I 'explains' all of those songs is useful.
IE: it's what you do with it that's memorable at all.
X presented a masterwork that's not compelling as a chords chart, it's the actual writing that makes it compelling.
But anyway, here's one:
i / / /
iv / / /
III / / /
v / V /
i
it could be dramatic, although by itself it's just a progression. It needs a throughline or one of those things people call a melody, even.
So there's nothing in a progression that through itself makes it a pop progression.
I vi IV V I happened in classical music long before this pop music whole thing.
IE: it's what you do with it that's memorable at all.
X presented a masterwork that's not compelling as a chords chart, it's the actual writing that makes it compelling.
But anyway, here's one:
i / / /
iv / / /
III / / /
v / V /
i
it could be dramatic, although by itself it's just a progression. It needs a throughline or one of those things people call a melody, even.
So there's nothing in a progression that through itself makes it a pop progression.
I vi IV V I happened in classical music long before this pop music whole thing.
-
- Banned
- 3946 posts since 25 Jan, 2009
Deffo.
And to elborate a little more on Mozartz’ masterly handling of chords, here is a piano version of Dies Irea where you can follow the chords more closely (condensed version but still informative)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRIkRvcy51c
It is with Mozart as it is with Bach to me: Both of them are much more minimal than they sound. They just know how to handle the notes to give these great impressions. I sang tenor and sometimes first bass in a high school choir and we did a minor impressive performance of Dies Irea to put it mildly. Note Mozart’s use of major seconds to induce drama and tension. They are just those parts of Mozarts chords that turns this Jugdement day into one piece of modern sounding drama above all other, imo. Take a listen to Verdis’ Dies Irea in his likewise famous requiem, which in comparison pales as a pile of inflated noise in my ears (sorry but I am pretty far from loving all famous composers)
Same deal with Cherubini’s Dies Irea, which I have sung too, though to a lesser extent. Mozart did not need all that blah, he just knew exactly what notes to bring forward in his chords.
And for the fun of it, you should check out Salieri’s Dies Irea too:
Shaffer’s play may have been a narrative perversion of the real relationship between the composers, however, he may have been quite right about their respective levels of talent
