How to do this chord progression?

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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I am listening to The Asteroids Galaxy Tour's song The Golden Age
http://www.deezer.com/en/music/result/a ... uit-393336

and at the end of the intro, right before the verse starts, there's this weird chord progression that I'm not able to figure out;

Can anybody help me here?

Thanks folks,

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It says I don't have access to the track due to my country of origin. Sorry, cant help you.

Cheers
Shad
I may not be smart enough to do everything, but I am dumb enough to try.
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Foxwolfen wrote:It says I don't have access to the track due to my country of origin. Sorry, cant help you.

Cheers
Shad


:help:

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That is a great song. I like that.

OK, let me go to my piano and see if I can get it for you.. BBIAB
I may not be smart enough to do everything, but I am dumb enough to try.
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The others seem to have it well in hand. :)
Last edited by Foxwolfen on Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I may not be smart enough to do everything, but I am dumb enough to try.
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It seems to be in F, though I don't have a keyboard handy. The 2 repeating chords are F and C minor, the one different chord before the vocal kicks in is Bb minor

notes:
F: FAC
Cm: C Eb G
Bbm Bb Db F

Some of the inversions are different though, the F has A as the top note, the Cm is as written above, and the Bbm has Bb as the top note. Actually, just looking at the video, the keys they are dancing on at the beginning are the right ones for the chords :)

hope that's helpful
Last edited by someone called simon on Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Not sure what Foxwolfen was describing - there's only three chords in the intro:

1 measure of F
1 measure of Eb (with Eb2)

The above is repeated three times.

The fourth time (which I think is what the OP was asking about) is:

1 measure of F
1 measure of Bbm

At least that's what I hear :shrug:

SWTrex
"Sometimes I think of Abraham...
How one star he saw had been lit for me"

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SWTrex wrote:
1 measure of F
1 measure of Eb (with Eb2)

SWTrex
its Cm rather than Eb, I can't quite tell if the piano is playing the C root note, but the bass definitely is. Also, I can't hear the piano playing a Bb note in that chord, so Cm would be it rather than Eb. Of course they are very closely related chords.

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someone called simon wrote:
SWTrex wrote:
1 measure of F
1 measure of Eb (with Eb2)

SWTrex
its Cm rather than Eb, I can't quite tell if the piano is playing the C root note, but the bass definitely is. Also, I can't hear the piano playing a Bb note in that chord, so Cm would be it rather than Eb. Of course they are very closely related chords.
Yeah, I think you're right about the Cm, but I think I hear a Bb in there, which would make it a Cm7. :)
"Sometimes I think of Abraham...
How one star he saw had been lit for me"

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Thank you folks,

I'm a theory newbie and.. i was just wondering

in F major key diatonic harmony, the chords correesponding to C is C7 and, for Bb, it's Bbmajor.

Here, they are both in minor.

but, do we still call this song to be in F major key?

thanks for extra help

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yes you are quite right about those chords being major...ummm... usually.

But having said that there are heaps of examples from 'popular' music of all kinds (folk, country, rock, pop etc) where particularly the C chord in this sequence would be minor. Not so many examples where the Bb would be minor, but still not particularly bizarre. Maybe less examples in classical music, but I can't speak definitively about that.

The argument about whether it was a Cm or Eb comes into play here, as they share 2/3 of their notes, and the notes that they don't share don't clash with each other, so they can be thought of as functionally similar. So if you substituted Eb for Cm, and played the sequence F... Eb... Bb (lets keep that Bb a major in this example) you would have a very common sequence used in all kinds of rock music. more likely to be in a guitar chord friendly key like D, E or A, but its very common. 'Sweet home Alabama' leaps to mind.

A similar example would be 'bittersweet symphony', which if we transposed it to the key of your song would be F, Cm (Cm7 actually), Bbsus4, Bb, F.

If you just play the sequences all major, F, C, Bb, F... it has a certain sound. Play F ,Cm, Bbm, F... Its 'the same but different'.. sadder and poignant or something...

Then try putting them both together. F, C, Cm, Bb, Bbm, F. You'll be able to follow a chromatic scale from the F note, to E (over the C chord), to Eb (over the Cm), to D (over the Bb), to Db (over the Bbm), to C (over the F). So you see how these different chords can be used for interesting melodies, And how melody and chord selection are tied together inextricably!

hows that then?

Edit: I would still say it was in F. I didn't listen to whole thing though. With the flat 7th (which is what is in a Cm, as opposed to a sharp 7 which would indicate a C major chord), its called the 'dorian mode'. however the dorian mode would have a Bb major rather than minor. Not sure if that Bb minor chord was a one-off, just a spicier than usual moment... but music as it is written often doesn't fit snugly into the boxes we make for it. Not that there's anything wrong with the boxes, the help us to understand what's going on, and they make logical sense as structures. Sometimes the rules are broken in ignorance, sometimes with knowledge... and either can sound good or bad depending on musical sensitivity of the composer, and listener preference...

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someone called simon wrote:yes you are quite right about those chords being major...ummm... usually.

But having said that there are heaps of examples from 'popular' music of all kinds (folk, country, rock, pop etc) where particularly the C chord in this sequence would be minor. Not so many examples where the Bb would be minor, but still not particularly bizarre. Maybe less examples in classical music, but I can't speak definitively about that.

The argument about whether it was a Cm or Eb comes into play here, as they share 2/3 of their notes, and the notes that they don't share don't clash with each other, so they can be thought of as functionally similar. So if you substituted Eb for Cm, and played the sequence F... Eb... Bb (lets keep that Bb a major in this example) you would have a very common sequence used in all kinds of rock music. more likely to be in a guitar chord friendly key like D, E or A, but its very common. 'Sweet home Alabama' leaps to mind.

A similar example would be 'bittersweet symphony', which if we transposed it to the key of your song would be F, Cm (Cm7 actually), Bbsus4, Bb, F.

If you just play the sequences all major, F, C, Bb, F... it has a certain sound. Play F ,Cm, Bbm, F... Its 'the same but different'.. sadder and poignant or something...

Then try putting them both together. F, C, Cm, Bb, Bbm, F. You'll be able to follow a chromatic scale from the F note, to E (over the C chord), to Eb (over the Cm), to D (over the Bb), to Db (over the Bbm), to C (over the F). So you see how these different chords can be used for interesting melodies, And how melody and chord selection are tied together inextricably!

hows that then?

Edit: I would still say it was in F. I didn't listen to whole thing though. With the flat 7th (which is what is in a Cm, as opposed to a sharp 7 which would indicate a C major chord), its called the 'dorian mode'. however the dorian mode would have a Bb major rather than minor. Not sure if that Bb minor chord was a one-off, just a spicier than usual moment... but music as it is written often doesn't fit snugly into the boxes we make for it. Not that there's anything wrong with the boxes, the help us to understand what's going on, and they make logical sense as structures. Sometimes the rules are broken in ignorance, sometimes with knowledge... and either can sound good or bad depending on musical sensitivity of the composer, and listener preference...
thank you so much,

it all looks so complicated!

i hope i'll understand soon

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