"Dock of the Bay" harmony analysis

[seacouch]

jancivil mentioned "guitar-based and parallel barre chords", and that's the way I see this tune - the parallelism gives it that bluesy vibe. I'm sure that's basically how Cropper wrote it. One thing I find useful in understanding progressions is finding other similar progressions, so you can start to build a mental database of 'types' of progressions. I think the most characteristic part of this progression is those first three chords; the I -> III -> IV, but I can't think of other progressions that do that, off the top of my head. Anyone else?

[tapper mike]

I just sighted several using bIII

Ryan Adams uses III-IV
"For Your Love" by the Yardbirds uses I-III-IV

Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple is a I-bIII-IV

[llatham]

A little off the OP's question...but how long would it take an average person to learn the stuff you guys are talking about? I know some of the basic theory of music but not well enough to feel confident discussing it in the same way you guys are! Could you learn the basics in a semester college level course, or reading a book?

I disagree with Wrench.

I had 4 semesters of theory in undergraduate school, then taught it in grad school and as a professor. Additionally, most people are either "academic" theorists, or they read up on "pop" theory (for which terminology and concepts are still evolving) and many don't have any crossover knowledge. I feel I'm kind of in a good position to discuss because I'm an academically trained theorist, but a "pop" school of practice trained musician - so I can see connections from both sides that others may not.

If you're interested in reading about theory, do so, but be careful: get your information from multiple sources. In fact, there's a lot of stuff out there online that's just plain wrong because, well pretty much anyone can post information online with no qualifications.

Best
Steve