KVR Audio

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:55 am

In light of what some other people are posting here, I thought I'd post this chord progression wheel.

It helps to find the most fitting chord progressions in songs.

Of course, the beauty of writing music is that we can and possibly should break guidelines like this often to create additional interest in our music. However, that doesn't mean that things like this don't help us sometimes.

I take no credit for the info, I lifted it out of a forum post in a music forum somewhere on the web.

Code: Select all

                     Am
           Dm                 Em
                     C
               F           G
       Gm                         Bm
            Bb                D

      Cm   Eb                  A   F#m     [this is a circle]

            Ab                E
       Fm                         C#m
               Db    Gb     B
                     F#
          Bbm                  G#m
                     Ebm
                     D#m

How to use this circle
----------------------

I f the key is "C" (major) the letter left* of the
"C" will indicate the subdominant (F) and the one
on the right* the dominant (G).
So you have to use the chords C, F and G
If there are minor chords in the song, they will
be Am, Dm and Em (Usually it would be Em7, but
that means going deeper)
(*right means here clockwise, left means the other
way around)

If the key is Bbm, all* possible chords were: Bbm,
Ebm, Fm, Db, Gb, Ab.
(*if the song really sticks to the standard
scheme, some songs have additional chords which
don't fit to this rule)

The parallel minor scale to C is Am, the parallel
major scale to Fm is Ab.

Hope this gives some assistance. It's sometimes helped me to find the chord that I was actually looking for while composing.

Caleb

gentleharp · Post by **gentleharp** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:27 am

Thanks, Caleb. I've often seen this circle, but never knew the explanation behind it. After reading the comments, I picked up my guitar -- and BAM -- it makes sense. Some of this I had picked up by just messing around with chords, but now I can see the bigger picture.

Thanks for making music theory a little bit brighter for me.

Cheers

smp · Post by **smp** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:58 am

Also sometimes known as the "Circle of Fifths" which is one of those really useful theory mnemonics/memory aid dealys. You will notice that in each circle in the clockwise direction, the notes are a fifth apart eg C-G is a perfect fifth. I use the circle to remember my keys and key signatures. My wife taught me a slightly more basic version to help me with my music theory.

It's useful for key signatures, but I don't have an extensive knowledge of this yet. However - Cmaj has no sharps or flats. Gmaj has one sharp, which is F# (one to the left of the C at the top of the circle). Going around a fifth, Dmaj has two sharps - F# and C# (which is moving around the circle one from F to C.) Amaj has three sharps - F#, C# and, yes, you guessed it G#

Actually, this is about as far as my knowledge extends (I'm still teaching myself 2nd grade theory here) but I would feel confident in saying that Emaj has four sharps - F#, C#, G# and D#. I could be wrong but as far as I understand it, this simplicity is part of the beauty of the Circle of Fifths.

Please visit your friendly neighbourhood music teacher for an explanation that actually makes sense

-s

hues · Post by **hues** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:14 am

thanks for the info. it might come in handy someday.

mwa · Post by **mwa** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:16 am

hey thats really cool.. thanks for posting it!

opiadream · Post by **opiadream** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:22 am

printed

thanks!

Peel · Post by **Peel** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:33 am

Yeah. Remember that when you're going counterclockwise, it's the circle of 4ths.
When I was in kindergarten, I took music lessons and I remember one day my teacher started going on about "Father Charles goes down and ends battle", or backwards, "battle ends and down goes Charles' father." I remembered thinking, "what the c**t are you f**king on about, you grizzled old twat? I'm trying to learn 'Hot Cross Buns' here." Twenty years later, I was looking at the circle of 5ths & suddenly realized she was teaching mnemonics for remembering the notes in the circle. Why she thought it would be important for 5-year olds who had only just mastered "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" to know this, however, remains unexplained.

Karma_tba · Post by **Karma_tba** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:39 am

THANKS!!! Gonna try it right now!!!

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:46 am

Peel wrote:"Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge"

Mine was "Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit".
However, maybe that's not as appropriate these days.

On the other hand - "Fudge" isn't that crash hot either.

Maybe it should be: "Every Good Boy Deserves Fellatio".

Caleb

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:47 pm

just to pee in everyone's coffee

i've been doing stochastic/randomly generated music for a dozen years, recently tried doing some with a chord progression model.

sure it's helpful for some people, but i chucked that crap out faster than crap. really couldn't see any tonal benefit to transitioning over a perfect fifth than to any other chord.. they're all special, special winners imo :p

eg. some crap 'descending a 5th is better than ascending

is this just some kind of fixation for having rules, or what???

esp. with microtonal scales, i do't see a lot of validity for it at least in my ventures.

smp · Post by **smp** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 3:56 am

Some people benefit from having some structure or confines to work within, others find it constraining and rail against it. Me, I like structure. Given too much choice I faff about and then choose to sit down with a beer and rot my brain on TV or KvR (insert mindless action of choice here).

I would guess that you're in the other camp,xoxos.

-s

lo3q · Post by **lo3q** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:37 am

Related to this: here's is an interesting series of articles, with ideas on how to build chord progressions:

http://chordmaps.com/part3.htm

(this is a link to the basic version - there's a more advanced chord table later in the series)

It's designed to be useable by people who can't read music - which is a good idea

Still, when I play around with these kind of formulas, I begin to understand why computer generated music never really seems to GO anywhere...

I guess you need some kind of broader structure on top of this basic chord-to-chord stuff...

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 4:10 pm

smp wrote:Me, I like structure.

I would guess that you're in the other camp,xoxos. :wink:

oh for sure. you could say that i'm just finding structure on another level.. my limits are more like 'how far can you push a model defined by stochastic simpliity' or some crap

in the journey of consciousness across being, some intimate involvement with a system of some sort provides global insight to the nature of systems/structures.. useful for redacting space. if you find it in chord progressions, for sure.. my memetic vector is moving away from referentialism, which is why i am so eager to discredit it. my use of models is for the purpose of proposing further boundaries.

it's not like i have a thing for electronic devices chucking out random notes.. i think it will embiggen the appreciative capacity of those who are narrowly defined, eg. evil robot lobsters.

welcome t my sunday mornng :p

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Sun Dec 12, 2004 4:24 pm

Peel wrote:Yeah. Remember that when you're going counterclockwise, it's the circle of 4ths.
When I was in kindergarten, I took music lessons and I remember one day my teacher started going on about "Father Charles goes down and ends battle", or backwards, "battle ends and down goes Charles' father." I remembered thinking, "what the c**t are you f**king on about, you grizzled old twat? I'm trying to learn 'Hot Cross Buns' here." Twenty years later, I was looking at the circle of 5ths & suddenly realized she was teaching mnemonics for remembering the notes in the circle. Why she thought it would be important for 5-year olds who had only just mastered "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" to know this, however, remains unexplained.

Hey, 20 years later you still remember it. Must have made some impression

hitman8081 · Post by **hitman8081** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 4:38 pm

thank you so much for this caleb. i actualy understand this

Quick chord progression guide