Easy trick for catchy chord progressions (not a list, a simple method)

[djtrancendance]

If you look at the math behind catchy chord progressions (e.g. triads), there's a persistent pattern. That pattern generally is

1) (most important) The first tone in the first chord is exactly a semitone (minor second..the distance from C to C#), whole tone (second, the distance from C to D), fourth or a fifth up or down from at least one note in the second chord. Or it is simply a tone shared between both chords (no movement).
Ditto for all other tones. You can memorize what a 4th or 5th up or down is easily using the Circle of Fifths if you don't want to calculate it each time.

2) When the second chord's root is not a major/minor second or fourth/fifth apart from the first note of the last chord...the two chords combine to form a larger chord (think of Calvin Harris's "We Found Love", where D# E G# (d# Minor) is played before E G# B (E Major)...and the two chords form D# E G# B (D# Minor 7th)



So the general trick is either to make each note in each chord a semitone, a whole tone, or fourth/fifth away from at least one tone in the chord after it or the same tone.


Look at the below progression


A# C D#
to
C D# G


Notice
1) the C stays the same between both chords: an ideal "no travel" melodic situation
2) the D stays the same
3) the A# in the first chord is a perfect 4th away from the D# in the second
4) the C in the first chord is a perfect fifth from the G

Now for another chord...

From
C D# G
to
G# C D#

1) the D# stays the same between both chords: an ideal "no travel" melodic situation
2) the G and C are a fifth away from each other
3) the G and G# are minor second from each other (very small melodic movement)


There's no guarantee using this method the mood of your music will be upbeat, melancholic... (what ever you are going for)...but it is virtually guaranteed it will sound very musical/beautiful...if not beautiful toward your desired mood (that's where you artistry comes in...more substitutes for that!)

[manducator]

That's an interesting approach of writng chords. Could be a new source of inspiration.

Thanks for sharing and please don't hold back if you have more of those tips.

[Nanakai]

So... either move by thirds, or don't? I am not seeing what the trick is.

[djtrancendance]

In general, don't move by thirds...unless you have an odd case where your new chord forms a larger chord when combined with your last chord (e.g. the Calvin Harris "We Found Love" chord example I gave before where both triads form a minor 7th when linked together).


In general, you want to move by semitones, whole tones, fourths, and fifths...not thirds.

The reason being that fourths and fifths sound almost equivalent to the original note (not too different from moving up/down an octave in that sense)...and whole tones and semitones are generally the most melodic/closely-spaced intervals.

The goal, as with voice leading, is to make the feel of the chord progression as melodic as possible...and that means minimizing the amount/feeling of jumps the progression has. That's why jumps by thirds and sixths (major and minor) are out, and sevenths (octave equivalent seconds) are not recommended.

[Nanakai]

Alright. I think this might help people writing EDM more than anything, but food for thought nonetheless.

A few corrections:

D# E G# is not D#m. D# F# A# is.
D# E G# B should be D# F# A# C#.
A# C D# should, I'm guessing, be A# C E#, or Bb D F. The second would make more sense, especially as the next chord is a Cm, which would then be spelled C Eb G.
Same deal with the second bunch, C Eb G to Ab C Eb makes more sense (although you're very clearly moving by a third). A first inversion of the Cm or second inversion of the Ab Maj gives a nice half-step movement G to Ab.

[djtrancendance]

Alright. I think this might help people writing EDM more than anything, but food for thought nonetheless.

A few corrections:

D# E G# is not D#m. D# F# A# is.
D# E G# B should be D# F# A# C#.
A# C D# should, I'm guessing, be A# C E#, or Bb D F. The second would make more sense, especially as the next chord is a Cm, which would then be spelled C Eb G.
Same deal with the second bunch, C Eb G to Ab C Eb makes more sense (although you're very clearly moving by a third). A first inversion of the Cm or second inversion of the Ab Maj gives a nice half-step movement G to Ab.

Right, I copied the chords incorrectly, it is D# F# A# C# with D# F# A# and F# A# C# as the triads forming it.

>>"A# C D# should, I'm guessing, be A# C E#, or Bb D F. "
I actually did mean what I stated for the chord there: A# C D# (if stated in the wrong enharmonic spelling) (I certainly didn't mean for there to be an F or "E#").
Also to note...I don't stick to just major or minor chords or typical EDM chords in the sense..

I also understand that
C D# G
to
G# C D#
...does end up moving the root by a third (if you assume movement downward), though the way I arrived at the G# was that it was an octave-equivalent semitone from G.

You're right that altering it to the C D# G# inversion would give a half-step movement (with nothing else in the chord moving)...but, in that case, I figure it would virtually sound like the same chord played twice and simply not give enough movement.
----

Side question...what determines whether, say, a D# is notated as an Eb? I admittedly don't know much about enharmonic notation.

[JumpingJackFlash]

Much of this is basic part writing/voice leading.
See here.

[tanabarbier]

what determines whether, say, a D# is notated as an Eb? I admittedly don't know much about enharmonic notation.

Well it's all about context, the thing is that occidental notation comes from classical music and so is based on 7 notes scales mainly, so you can't have more that 7 differents notes in a "tonal coherent" moment. (there is a lot that could be discussed but to make really long things shortish...) So if you encounter a scale with two notes that share the same "name", one of the two have to be it's closest neighbour bemoled or sharped (inventing names here I think, eheh). Ex:

A B Db D Fb F G is A B C D E F G.
Of course it is more complicated if you have only a triad, 'cause here you have to make choices like: B D F# could be Cb D Gb.
Here I look for the tonalities they may come from (I only look for major ones, just to get the idea at it simplest):
If I say it is B D F# it is a B minor and can be part of those ones:
it can be -II of A (A B C# D E F# G#)
-III of G (G A B C D E F#)
-VI of D (D E F# G A B C#)<= in this one you notice the B#, that is NOT a C, because the scale would have two Cs.
If I say that it is Cb minor my possibilities are:
-II of Bbb (Bbb Cb Db Ebb Fb Gb Ab)
-III of Abb (Abb Bbb Cb Dbb Ebb Fb Gb)
-VI of Ebb (Ebb Fb Gb Abb Bbb Cb Db)
Here obviously for the ease of writing I'm gonna choose the posibilities that have more # than b.

Things get messier when we leave classical triads, for instance with blues:
the typical blues chord C D# E G Bb, we here have two "thirds", the major E and the "minor" D#, and here is why we name it D#, to avoid two "E"s in the same chord. It is an augmented second, not a minor third.

Anyway rules work flawlessly when noting mainly tonal music (I mean that stay a good while in a key before mooving to an other with nice gentle V-I and all the substitutions you can imagine) but is a lot less relevent (personal opinion of course) when dealing with music from an other tradition or way more complicated harmonicly (the same way Messiaen stoped using "bars" -is this the right name?- at some point).


I feel it is a lot more confusing that anything else, but that's my try to explain it...

[Nanakai]

You're right that altering it to the C D# G# inversion would give a half-step movement (with nothing else in the chord moving)...but, in that case, I figure it would virtually sound like the same chord played twice and simply not give enough movement.
----

I am glad that you're approaching this from how things sound rather than just abstract theory. The Internet could do with a lot more of that. And yes, I totally agree that would sound like not movement with the way I shoehorned your example into a triad. Still, with only one voice moving a half-step, it doesn't sound to my ears like a chord progression so much as an Ab with a suspended second. Not a bad thing, mind you, just a bad example of harmonic movement.

In general, I am skeptical of any sort of music writing "tricks". There are plenty of good things to practice, and voice leading is one of them. It's especially good for anyone who's been writing progressions that sound very same-y, or anyone who wants to successfully steal a progression from another song/piece. Like I said, food for thought, but it's no magic formula.

Side question...what determines whether, say, a D# is notated as an Eb? I admittedly don't know much about enharmonic notation.

It's a convention to avoid awkwardness. Let's say that you use sharps, as you have, and the two chords you're playing are Cm (CD#G) and G#(G#CD#). Just list all of the notes you have so far:

C D# G G#

Fit this into a scalar pattern, say C natural minor. Now you have this hot mess:

C D D# F G G# A# C

That's very hard to work with. In fact, I had to stop and really check that this is a C minor scale. I'm still not confident, and to be quite honest, it feels like my entire world is crumbling. D and a D# in the same scale? Good lord, it's either a glitch in the Matrix or I've slipped into a wormhole, landing in some crazy, non-Western musical tradition! But this makes perfect sense:

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

[JumpingJackFlash]

if you encounter a scale with two notes that share the same "name", one of the two have to be its closest neighbour bemoled or sharped (inventing names here I think, eheh).

We talk about sharps and flats, so "bemoled" would be "flattened" (lowered by one semitone).

it is more complicated if you have only a triad, 'cause here you have to make choices like: B D F# could be Cb D Gb.

Triads have to have a third between each of the 3 notes (when in root position).
So, you can never have two consecutive letters, you have to miss a letter out... ABCDEFG...
ACE is a triad because A-C is a third and C-E is a third. Either of these notes can be sharpened or flattened and it makes no difference (A-C# is a different sort of third).

So, B-D-F# is a triad, in this case B minor.
Cb-D-Gb is not a triad because there are no thirds; you have a second (Cb-D) and a fourth (D-Gb).

This is another reason why sometimes we use sharps, and sometimes we use flats.

the same way Messiaen stoped using "bars" -is this the right name?

Yes. Although Americans might say "measure" instead.

the two chords you're playing are Cm (CD#G) and G#(G#CD#).

Both of these chords are written incorrectly.
Cm is C-Eb-G.
G# is G#-B#-D#.

[djtrancendance]

>>"In general, I am skeptical of any sort of music writing "tricks". There are plenty of good things to practice, and voice leading is one of them.
It's especially good for anyone who's been writing progressions that sound very same-y, or anyone who wants to successfully steal a progression from another song/piece. Like I said, food for thought, but it's no magic formula. "

>>Much of this is basic part writing/voice leading. See here.

Precisely...and that's a great guide (you wrote) for it, much moreso than many of the long, winding guides I typically run into.

I'm simply trying to find something to help purify/clean-up writing chord progressions...it surely isn't a magic formula: you still need your own sense of emotion to start the writing process.

I guess you could say I'm trying to find a "simplest form" of it (voice leading).


And, of course, there are exceptions...things like occasional (if not much) overlapping voices, "resolution" by going down a minor 6th (although, where I've seen this, it's quickly "resolved" to a 5th below the original note before the decent.

"ACE is a triad because A-C is a third and C-E is a third. "

So the question becomes...what do you call a three-note chord that's not a triad e.g. doesn't use only thirds? My issue, perhaps, is I have treated those two terms as meaning the same thing.

I no longer call tetrads tetrachords...but that's only after someone informed me tetrachords need to have root and top notes a perfect fourth away while tetrads are simply any four note chords.

>>Good lord, it's either a glitch in the Matrix or I've slipped into a wormhole, landing in some crazy, non-Western musical tradition! But this makes perfect sense:
>>C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Perhaps oversummarizing: each note of A B C D E F G must appear only once in enharmonic notation, correct?
And it makes sense, you're basically describing, quickly, how it relates vs. the major scale (which has no sharps or flats)?
And another part of the issue...is I love writing crazy non-Western (or at least, adding a few non-Western notes) musical material.

Which means if I'm dealing with something like an 11/9 neutral third "blue tone" in the same scale as a minor third (which I do a lot, such as in -> http://untwelve.org/2010competition_audio/0055.mp3)...good luck notating them both (there's a point I just play it by ear to decide when to use the alternative note).

[JumpingJackFlash]

Perhaps oversummarizing: each note of A B C D E F G must appear only once in enharmonic notation, correct?

A version of each letter must appear exactly once (no more, no less) in each major or minor scale.

Of course, once you start writing real music, things get more complicated as you introduce chromaticism, modulation, the variable nature of the 6th and 7th of the minor key, and so on, but it is always advantageous for the beginner to have at least a rudimentary grasp of basic theory before more complex ideas are introduced.

[Nanakai]

the two chords you're playing are Cm (CD#G) and G#(G#CD#).

Both of these chords are written incorrectly.
Cm is C-Eb-G.
G# is G#-B#-D#.

It was necessary to write them this way to make my point.

[djtrancendance]

A# C D#
to
C D# G

Now for another chord...

From
C D# G
to
G# C D#

Ok, so, assuming I did mean the chords I wrote (the first chord indeed not being a major or minor triad)...how would I notate them?


Just a guess on the notation...Bb C Eb to C Eb G and then to Ab C Eb?


And then...the Calvin Harris example would be Eb Gb Bb D?






Once I get everything squared away I hope to re-post the tip correctly...

[Nanakai]

Perhaps oversummarizing: each note of A B C D E F G must appear only once in enharmonic notation, correct?
And it makes sense, you're basically describing, quickly, how it relates vs. the major scale (which has no sharps or flats)?
And another part of the issue...is I love writing crazy non-Western (or at least, adding a few non-Western notes) musical material.

Which means if I'm dealing with something like an 11/9 neutral third "blue tone" in the same scale as a minor third (which I do a lot, such as in -> http://untwelve.org/2010competition_audio/0055.mp3)...good luck notating them both (there's a point I just play it by ear to decide when to use the alternative note).

Well, that becomes more complicated to write out on a forum, but it's actually pretty straightforward on sheet music. Thanks to the key signature, a whole page of sheet music in a key with many sharps or flats will be as easy to read as C major. Modifications are then just a matter of adding a sharp or a flat as needed.

There are always ways of throwing a monkey wrench into any system, but these problems don't go away if you ignore convention. Imagine you wrote the "wrong" scale above (C D D# F G G# A# C) and you wanted to notate three half steps in a row, say Gb G and G#. OUCH!

So, we're just working with best-use cases, though it's not perfect.