Figuring out this cool chord progression

[Starbuck86]

I'm very interested in knowing the chord progression of the following track:

It's a simple but effective progression in my opinion. Now, if I hear it correctly, the bass is playing G-sharp, A, B. Does this automatically mean the track is in the key of B? As for the actual chords being played I have far too limited experience to figuring it out, so any help would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Ogg Vorbis]

I'm very interested in knowing the chord progression of the following track:

It's a simple but effective progression in my opinion. Now, if I hear it correctly, the bass is playing G-sharp, A, B. Does this automatically mean the track is in the key of B? As for the actual chords being played I have far too limited experience to figuring it out, so any help would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You've figured out the bass line correctly, I believe. Chords are

E/G# A G#m/B

Doesn't mean it's really in the key of B (especially with A naturals). I believe that applying a traditional key to such a track isn't appropriate. I'd call it an "E-A cell" but you'd never find that in a theory book. If pressed, I'd call it E Major.

Does anyone else find this mix WAY over compressed? Jeez, maybe I'm getting old.

[sammy24]

I thought it was G#mi -- A -- G#mi7/B. (Not too dif than the last post)Later in the song i think they extend the first 2 chords a bit so it's G#mi7 -- Amaj7 -- G#mi7/B.

I would think of it "functionally" as being just the diatonic III minor and IV chord in the key of E, with the last chord also being the III minor, but over the third in the bass. So it never has that established E major feel since the chords always stay away from the I chord. But really, the III minor chord is a tonic substitute for the I chord. So its just alternating between that III chord (as a tonic) and the IV chord (which is subdominant).
(In solfege, the main line would just be MI-FA-MI.)

Yeah that song is slightly compressed It sounds like that was what they were going for, though, so i guess maybe it just fits the style they're in.

[Sascha Franck]

The "upper triad" (so to speak) on both the B and G# bassnotes is a B triad. Over the A bassnote it's an A triad.
That makes up for the chords B, G#min7 and A. The entire thing would most likely be seen in the key of E major.

- Sascha

[resonanceaudio]

I agree with Sascha Franck, it is quite clearly in the key of E Major.

Ogg Vorbis, you may call the moon "a glowing sphere of dust in a vaccum of black empty space", when in fact you can just call it for what it is "The Moon"

...Cells are related to classical minimalism and it's important not to confuse it's meaning when purely applied to harmony.

[sammy24]

The note G# is playing, definitely, even when the bass goes to B. So this could be B6, or G#mi7/B, which is the exact same thing. (Since there's really no such thing as a "6' chord, it's really just an inversion of a minor 7 chord.) This may seem like subtlety and not important, but actually, being that the whole song is a 3 chord progression, the actual notes in the chords are really, really important to the whole feel of the song. So that's a pretty important, note, IMO. It changes the feel of a kinda happy sounding B chord to a much more "minor" sounding chord.

P.S. Isn't everyone in agreement that it's in key of E major?

[Ogg Vorbis]

The "upper triad" (so to speak) on both the B and G# bassnotes is a B triad. Over the A bassnote it's an A triad.
That makes up for the chords B, G#min7 and A. The entire thing would most likely be seen in the key of E major.

- Sascha

That's a negative. B major triad would have a D# and I am not hearing a D# here. Better listen to it again. I'll go with the consensus of the key of E Major tho...

[sammy24]

I think u're right, Ogg Vorbis, that there's no D#. So that chord has B in the bass, and also the notes F# and G#. So that's G#mi7 with no fifth, and the third in the bass. (The D# is heard subconsciously bc of overtone series though, generated by the B in the bass.)

[Ogg Vorbis]

(The D# is heard subconsciously bc of overtone series though, generated by the B in the bass.)

Hmm... Yeah, I can defintely see what you mean

[Sascha Franck]

That's a negative. B major triad would have a D# and I am not hearing a D# here.

I'd bet on a D# to be there. The triad inversions are D#-F#-B for the B triad and E-A-C# for the A triad.
Play them and you'll see how nicely they match.

- Sascha

[sammy24]

But are you saying there's no G#, b/c i think it is most clearly audible. Also, a B triad will definitely sound just fine over a G#mi7 chord, but it's a different matter as to whether there is actually one being played or not. Anyhow, i think we're splitting hairs overs here

Hmm... Yeah, I can defintely see what you mean

Couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic or not. Are you familiar with the overtone series? It just simply means that every tone that is played contains within it these upper harmonics, which are other tones, but they are much quieter than the main, or fundamental tone. So if you play a low C (C2)on a piano, that tone will generate, the C one octave above it (C3), the fifth above that (G3), the C above that (C4), the next E (E4), then G4, etc. Each higher harmonic is harder to hear and makes less of a difference to the overall sound. But if you concentrate hard, you can hear these tones. If you play a low C, and then you play an Eb, that Eb will literally contradict the E that is generated by the overtone series. So it's like playing E and Eb together, which obviously would sound terrible, since one makes it major and one makes it minor. This seems to be why minor sounds, well, minor. Because it is sort of contradicting the natural sound of any tone. So major is a much more natural sound than minor.

This isn't just ridiculous, over-the-top music theory that makes no difference; it's actually really important. Truth is , when you play many tones together, it can be difficult to pick out each one separately. But obviously if you'd remove one of the tones, it would affect the overall sound a lot. Well, it's not always too much harder to hear the overtones/harmonics, they are really there! Which is why a 5th is the least important tone in a chord, because it doesn't add any definition, and because it is already generated by the root of the chord--meaning, you can hear it even if you don't play it, so why waste a note on it if everyone can hear that note anyway (I don't mean to never play 5ths!, I just mean you'd often choose other tones over the 5th when notes are limited.)

[Ogg Vorbis]

Couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic or not.

No, I was being quite serious. I totally agree with what you've said! Sorry for the ambiguity.

I remember a recent discussion about "why major was more 'important' than minor" and someone made a point that the major third overtone occurs prior to the minor third in the series and is therefore more audible.

I couldn't argue with that. It's true. The overtone series does dictate a lot of our musical vocabulary because it's perceptible.

Thanks, Sammy!

[sammy24]

No prob.

[Majestic290]

if you were playing this piece in b scale, i'm pretty sure ( almost 100% positive ) that it's B, F#, G

that's just in b scale though, so it's going to sound different as far as tune/pitch