Chord Progressions

[Mike20]

Hey.. Im just wondering if anybody could recommend a good book on chord progressions?

I make progressive house, avicii type of stuff, another example,



I know the basics (3rd's/5th's/7'th) - I normally tend to start with a 3 or 4 note chord then go from there, playing about with different note's until i get the sound i am after

However i would love to know what goes where and what is ideal to follow on and stuff

Any recommendations would be great

Thanks as always!!

[Ogg Vorbis]

Hey Mike,

This is always such an interesting situation...I listened to the track you posted and wondered what kind of book you should get. The familiar thing is that EDM assemblers wish to know more about the song constructions they hear from other EDM people and ask, "what are the theoretical basis of this?" and "how can I learn more theory?"

The problem is that traditional harmony books really often take a traditional "functional" approach to harmony (how to set up a cadence in a key using resolutions such as ii I6/4 V(7) I just like Haydn and national anthems of western countries, hymns, barbershop quartets, and maybe even parts of Air Supply songs.

I have yet to hear an EDM song that follows THIS tradition. Granted, I am not exposed to as much EDM as many, but I have yet to hear one single example of a common-tone modulation, neopolitan sixth resolving to a i 6/4, or even a straight-ahead secondary dominant.

Most of what I've heard is best described as a "vamp" or a modal "cell" or a "riff" or a "lick" or "hook" or "chord figure" or "harmonic schmengie." Chord "progression" doesn't even really apply. A progression is a teleological series of harmonic movements that drive toward a tonal goal. In your example, a "chord progression" would be a poor description.

These chord figures aren't functional in the tonal sense, but can usually be traced to some tonal center. Traditional resolutions involving leading tones or other common practice period can be shoe-horned into an analysis of these kinds of tracks and the analyzer may sound very smart and knowledgeable, but I always get that "oh brother..." feeling when I read them.

Rather than Walter Piston or Mel Bay or Vincent Persichetti, or even musictheory.com, I wonder if it's best to step back from all that and just figure out by ear and by experiement what patterns are going on in your favorite dance tracks and make a giant list of these basic figures.

From there, you can develop an approach that makes sense to you.

I've noticed that a lot of the chord riffs are obviously made up by people with little or no formed keybaord skills. Their hand position assumes a triad "claw" form and up and down the keyboard it goes. There's your theory for you.

I am not belittling EDM by these statements! I am just trying to point out that there is a DIFFERENT use of the musical language going on. The focus seems to be on the rhythmic energy and the incessant drive of the little keyboard hook and the pumping of the low frequency content all designed to give you an ecstatic feeling,..not tonal musical phrases in the Haydn sense.

So I suggest no books. Most books will probably wreck your tracks.

[jancivil]

"harmonic schmengie." .

"It ain't how funny your band's name is, it's how good the music is"

[deastman]

I've noticed that a lot of the chord riffs are obviously made up by people with little or no formed keybaord skills. Their hand position assumes a triad "claw" form and up and down the keyboard it goes. There's your theory for you.

That is because a lot of them just sample a chord from someone else's song and transpose the whole thing in a sampler. Either that, or they draw a single triad into their piano roll and then copy and paste it, transposing up and down by ear until it sounds good.

I have to agree with the rest of your post. A tiny bit of music theory might be helpful, and the OP may already have that. Grasping the basics of scales, major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads, extensions, and a I/IV/V/IV progression might be useful, but there really isn't any reason to go beyond that for this type of music. I really doubt that the majority of dance music artists are well-versed in theory.

[sjm]

You could do a lot worse than get a book or two with transcriptions of the biggest pop hits of the last 30-50 years.

While the instruments and sounds have changed, the chord progressions are the most basic of basic (most of the time). Things like the 3 chord Wild Thing trick (C F G F) or All Along the Watchtower (Am G F G) and it's variation Am Am F G (together used by about 90% of dance hits from around 10 years ago) will go a long way. C Am F G is another timeless classic of pop music. Am C E is probably also worth a punt.

If you can get your head around the chord progressions of Bob Dylan et al, you're more than set unless you actually want to do something strange, new and exciting.

n.b. you obviously don't need to write every song in C major, but it's the easiest key for the uninitiated with a cheap MIDI keyboard, as you pretty much just use the white notes (although there is an G# in the E major chord in Am C E). That's why I've used it as the basis for my examples.

[manducator]

I once bought this bundle and learned a thing or two from it:

http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/prepurchase2.html

One of these books (The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Chord Progression Formulas, the one you get for free when buying the whole bundle) contains good chord schemes for major and minor scales.

And here is a theory course with info on chord progressions for free:

www.musictheory.net

and this book contains interesting chord schemes for minor and major scales:

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Dumm ... 0764578383

And a nice little program to check is Chord Maps:

http://musictoolsforpeople.com/Music_Tools/Home.html

[Ogg Vorbis]

"harmonic schmengie." .

"It ain't how funny your band's name is, it's how good the music is"

That video was easier to fap to than I'd have guessed.

[jancivil]

cabbage rolls and coffee...

















and MILFS

[Mike20]

Thanks a lot for your reply's

I'll check out the links and i understand what you mean about a book could do more damage than it would good..

I might try and get a load of MIDI files off the internet and study them.. This should show me what i am looking at also

Thanks Guys

[Ogg Vorbis]

Thanks a lot for your reply's

I'll check out the links and i understand what you mean about a book could do more damage than it would good..

I might try and get a load of MIDI files off the internet and study them.. This should show me what i am looking at also

Thanks Guys

Awesome, Mike. And I think you're capable of 'lifting' the chords off of recordings too. I pull things into Logic and use Varispeed to slow down things if I'm having trouble figuring things out. This is a wonderful workout for a musician. Imagine being able to hear a set of chords at a club and being able to say, "Oh, that's just a major chord, then down a minor third to a minor chord and then down a whole step to a major chord and then to its parallel minor."

You'll get there.

[Mike20]

Thanks a lot Ogg, Yeah i can't wait until i can identify progressions and structure like that, so is it not uncommon for track's to switch between minor and major chords between a typical 'progression' as displayed in the track i posted earlier?

Thanks !!

[jancivil]

no it's not unusual

[Ogg Vorbis]

Thanks a lot Ogg, Yeah i can't wait until i can identify progressions and structure like that, so is it not uncommon for track's to switch between minor and major chords between a typical 'progression' as displayed in the track i posted earlier?

Thanks !!

It's common to mix maj. and min. or other chord qualities in a ditty. In fact if you take any key and create triads based upon each step, then you'll automatically get a mixture.

I guess I am to post a video, right? Hope I am doing this right...

[sjm]

I'm currently listening to some cheesy dance being streamed on the internet, and it uses another classic chord progression that I didn't list earlier:
C G Am F (No Woman No Cry, Land Down Under and a million other hits)

[jancivil]

I guess I am to post a video, right? Hope I am doing this right...

it's META humor.