| 5. | CHORD LEADING | |||||||||||||||||||
| CHORD PROGRESSION THEORY | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes In All Major Keys Important Chords All Major Keys Chord Formulas Maj, Min, Dim, Aug Chords 7th Chords: Dominant, Maj, Min 5th, Sus 2nd, Sus 4th Chords Chord Progressions More Chord Progressions |
In music theory, there is a concept (called chord leading), that certain chords lead to other chords. In a given key, some combinations of chords seem to work better than others. These combinations are called chord progressions. |
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And if you understand a chord progression in one key, you understand it in any key. Once you understand the theory behind them, it's very easy to switch songs from one key to another. And if you don't understand the theory, or don't want to plow through it, just go to Table 9 and Table 10 for lists of chord progressions. And once you know these progressions, you should practice them – eventually, all of them. (I said "eventually", okay? Don't try to do all of them at once. Doing most of the progressions in a single key is enough for one practice session. And you don't need to practice a bunch of progressions each practice session.) You will get a good feel for how progressions sound in the various keys, you will become more knowledgeable about those keys, and your fingers will become more limber. The most important chord in any key is the tonic (the I, or Roman numeral one) chord (in the key of C, it’s C). See Table 8 for these chords. See Table 3 for the definitions of the chords, and Table 2 for the notes in the major keys. The second most important chord in a key is the dominant, or fifth (G in the key of C: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 or C - D - E - F - G). This chord theoretically resolves to the tonic, because it contains the leading tone. For example, in the key of C, the dominant chord (G) contains G, B, and D; the B (the leading tone) leads to the C. This does not mean that the dominant can only move to the tonic; it means that to end a piece of music, a V - I progression is a good choice. (Recall that V is a major chord built on the fifth note of the key; I is a major chord built on the first note. In the Key of C the I chord is C Major or C; the V chord is G Major or G. So V - I is G - C.) Try playing G - C over and over. In the key of D, the progression is A - D; it is C - F in F, G - D in D, B - E in E and E - A in A. Try these progressions too; they should all sound good. | | |||||||||||||||||||
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The V7 (dominant seventh) chord also resolves to the tonic – better than the dominant alone. In the key of C, this is the G7 chord. While the leading tone (in the key of C, the leading tone is B) still resolves one half-step up to the tonic C, the seventh (F) resolves down one half-step to E, which is the third of the C chord C - E - G. Play G7 - C several times to hear the effect. Try it [V7 - I] in other keys too – it's A7 - D in D, C7 - F in F, and D7 - G in G. Popular songs often use this ending. The diminished seventh chord vii0 also leads strongly to the tonic (B0 - C in the key of C). However, vii0 chords are seldom encountered in popular music, so you may not use this information very often. The second ii also leads leads very strongly to the dominant. (Recall that the lower case Roman numeral means a minor chord built on the second note. So in the key of C, the ii chord is Dm.) This is because, in theory, just as the dominant moves to the tonic, the second (which is the dominant of the dominant) moves toward the dominant. (If the dominant is the 5th, the dominant of the dominant is the 9th. Count 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 for the dominant, 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 for the dominant of the dominant. The 9th is identical to the second.) So the second - dominant - tonic (ii - V - I) progression is another good ending. In the key of C, this is Dm - G - C. In D, it's Em - A - D; in F it's Gm - C - F; in G it's Am - D - G. Try these out. The fourth IV also leads to the dominant, but not as strongly as the second. So fourth - dominant - tonic (IV - V - I) is another good ending. Play F - G - C, again in the key of C, to see how it sounds. In D it's G - A - D, in F it's Bb - C - F, in G it's C - D - G. In blues music, the IV - V - I progression often becomes IV7 - V7 - I7 (dominant seventh chords). In C that's F7 - G7 - C7. The sixth vi is the only chord left with any reasonable leading tendencies. The sixth leads to the second (vi - ii is the progression), for the same reasons cited before for other chords: it is the dominant of the second. In the key of C, this progression is Am - Dm. Combining this with the ii - V - I progression gives vi - ii - V - I, or Am - Dm - G - C in the key of C. The only chord left is the third iii (Em in C, Gbm in D, Am in F, Bm in G). The leading qualities of this chord are relatively limited. But C - Em - F - G is a fairly common progression in the key of C – this is a I - iii - IV - V progression. Once you get to the tonic (D in the key of D, C in the key of C, etc.), you can go anywhere else. The tonic can lead to any other chord in that key. (So then you can use any of the chords, in Table 8, in that same key.) Table 9 summarizes chord leading in the various major keys. Use Table 8 to find the chords in the key, then place the correct chords in the columns. The most popular keys of C, D, F, and G are shown in white. Table 9A has the same information as Table 9, but is arranged differently. The key of C appears in the middle row. As you move down from C, the keys have progressively more sharps. As you move up from C, the keys have progressively more flats. The Circle of Fifths explains the value of this. Basically, the keys which are "adjacent" to each other (in terms of numbers of flats or sharps) are in adjacent rows. The most common keys – C, D, F, and G – are adjacent to each other in the center rows of the Table. |
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Table 10 shows other popular progressions, including some "out-of-key" chords, with the most popular keys of C, C, F, and G again shaded. (Table 10A has the same information, but with the key of C in the middle row, the flat keys above it and the sharp keys below it.) I'm not going to try to justify these progressions with any theory, just try them out and see how they sound. One progression is I - vi - IV - V7 (which is C - Am - F - G7 in the key of C). Note that leaving out the second chord (yielding I - IV - V7, or C - F - G7 in the key of C) yields other popular progressions (such as G - C - D7 in the key of G). The thing to remember is, whatever progression you find that seems to work, you can convert that progression to any another key. Just convert the chords to the I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii0 format using Table 8A, then use the Table to convert from one key to the next. Another progression is I - VI# - IV, used in Orbison's You Got It (in A), the progression being A - G - D. Now the chords of A and D fit within the key of A, but G does not. But all three chords do fit within the key of D – the latter has C# and F#, while the key of A has an additional G#. In D, the progression is V - IV - I (a variation of the IV - V - I in Table 9 or Table 9A.) In the Stones' Last Time (in the key of E), the I - VI# - IV progression is E - D - A. The chords of E and A fit within the key of E, but A does not. The chords do fit within the key of A, which has C#, F#, and G#; the key of E has an additional D#. In A, the progression is again V - IV - I. In both cases, a progression that fits within one key (D in the 1st case, A in the 2nd), is used in the "adjacent" key (A in the 1st case, E in the 2nd). This indicates that sometimes chords from an "adjacent" key will work in the current key. I don't know if this is part of a more sophisticated theory, or it's just coincidence. You might want to try going the "other way" – working out a progression in A, for example (which has F#, C#, G#), then trying to use it in the key of D (which has C#, F#) – or working out a progression in D, and using it in G (which has F#). In order to do this, you need a song (melody) in the appropriate key, as well as the chords. I haven't tried it. Column three of Table 10 contains I - IV - VI# - VII (rather than I - VI# - IV). This is yet another progression. Try it out. Another progression is I - II7 - IV - V7 (which is C - D7 - F - G7 in the key of C) – see column two. Note that the ii chord, a minor chord, becomes a (dominant, not minor) seventh chord in this progression. So even though D7 does not fit within the key of C, this progression still works. Leaving out the second chord gives the C - F - G7 progression in the key of C, and G - C - D7 in the key of G. So taking a popular progression (such as C - F - G7 in C), and inserting a chord within it, can sometimes create another progression. The fourth column has the I - V - VI - VI7 progression. Note that VI and VI7 are "out of key." The VI is a major chord (the in-key chord being minor). The VI7 chord converts that same minor to a dominant seventh. But these chords seem to work (being similar to those in the Doors' Light My Fire). Columns five through seven have even more examples. You can find these, or variants of them, in several popular songs. (I don't remember which ones right now, that's why I didn't list them.) In any case, the examples in Table 10 show that the chord leading theory explained earlier does not explain all chord progressions. It's just a starting point. The only tutorial left in this sequence is the Circle of Fifths, which is a way of remembering which keys have which sharps and flats. |
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