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Count_fuzzball · Post by **Count_fuzzball** » Sat May 16, 2009 4:48 pm

I was playing some chords and I came up with this:

Am Dm G C

It seems REALLY familar... anyone know where it comes from?

nuffink · Post by **nuffink** » Sat May 16, 2009 4:49 pm

Count_fuzzball wrote:I was playing some chords and I came up with this:

Am Dm G C

It seems REALLY familar... anyone know where it comes from?

C major.

dburns · Post by **dburns** » Sat May 16, 2009 4:59 pm

Put the C in the beginning and you've got the chords for about 70% of hits from the 1950's.

(I like nuffink's answer better)

LilErichZahn1972 · Post by **LilErichZahn1972** » Sun May 17, 2009 6:19 pm

One of them being "Don't you cry ?" by "Guns N Roses". Actually it's more in the vein of

| Am - - - | Dm - - - | G - - - | C - G - |

Bonteburg · Post by **Bonteburg** » Sun May 17, 2009 6:21 pm

just trying to hum it to myself, could it be "I will survive"? I agree that it's rather generic though.

nuffink · Post by **nuffink** » Sun May 17, 2009 7:38 pm

Bonteburg wrote:just trying to hum it to myself, could it be "I will survive"? I agree that it's rather generic though.

Could be. That or any of about a million other songs. It's arguably the most common 4 chord progression in unarguably the most common key in music.

p356 · Post by **p356** » Sun May 17, 2009 7:49 pm

Ecclesiastes 1:9
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Sorry, it's Sunday, couldn't help myself...

Baxter · Post by **Baxter** » Sun May 17, 2009 8:24 pm

Hi, Count_fuzzball,

Are you thinking of "Island in the Sun" by Weezer? If so, it is in the key of G major, and the chords are Em/Am/D/G, which have the same relationships as the chords you mention (vi/ii/V/I), only in a different key (G major instead of C major). But, as others before me have already said, this is a very common chord progression, and it could be from any number of sources (over, say, the last 400 years, give or take).

Baxter

Nystul · Post by **Nystul** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:56 pm

Bonteburg wrote:just trying to hum it to myself, could it be "I will survive"? I agree that it's rather generic though.

That one is actually in minor, and descends by fifths through the entire scale. But yeah, these styles of progression are pretty common. Just about any time I start to jam on a keyboard I come up with something like C-Am-Dm-G or C-Am-F-G somewhere along the line.

wrench45us · Post by **wrench45us** » Sun May 17, 2009 11:32 pm

most of the doo wop songs of the 50's

you can hear this a lot in Lou Reed songs as well since he was working in that genre as a professional songwriter before VU

Rellik · Post by **Rellik** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:33 am

It's the circle of 4ths

The circle of 4ths is basically the most fundamental progression in Western music, due to the harmonic properties of the interval. Any number of songs have used these exact 4 chords in succession as their core progression.

Of course the circle often continues... I guess you could call this an arc.

daniel-b · Post by **daniel-b** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:45 am

It's not really a circle, more a progression in fourths. Go the circle of fifths backwards and you've got the circle of fourths.

I always thinked the most common chord progressions are build on I-IV-V...

What song is this chord progression from?