Chapter 2 discussed why there’s no such thing as “progress” in music. If you aspire to artistry in songwriting, as opposed to hackdom or fashion, then you seek to create classics, songs that transcend time, performer, and genre:

1. Time Independence. People who first hear the song decades after it was written take to the song and want to hear it and play it and sing it repeatedly.

2. Performer Independence. The song works well if someone other than the original performer does a cover.

3. Genre Independence. A performer working in a genre other than the genre associated with the original recording can render the song in a palatable way.

With the exception of a couple of centuries-old public-domain songs, the four groups of songs coming up for chord progression analysis were composed over a roughly 50-year period, from the 1920s to the 1970s. Most people would consider these songs to be classics.

A reminder: a Chase chart only represents the chord progression of a song—not the tune and not the rhythmic elements.

6.10.2

GROUP 1: LIST OF GREAT SONGS WITHOUT MODULATION OR CHROMATIC CHORDS

Here’s the first group of songs, nearly all of which are on the Gold Standard Song List. All of the songs in this group stay in the one key and do not borrow chords from other keys.

• “Heartbreak Hotel”

• “Tracks of My Tears”

• “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”

• “When a Man Loves a Woman”

• “Walking after Midnight”

• “Five Foot Two”

• “Hey Joe”

• “Return to Sender”

• “Blue Moon”

• “Heart and Soul”

• “Midnight Train to Georgia”

• “Danny Boy”

• “Moondance”

• “All along the Watchtower”

• “I’ve Got You under My Skin”

• “Yesterday”

• “Star Spangled Banner”

Study the Chase charts that follow. You’ll pick up a lot of useful information about what makes the chord progressions work in these tunes. You’ll also learn how easy it is use Chase charts to map the chord progressions of your own tunes or any other song with a chord progression you’re curious about.

6.10.3

“HEARTBREAK HOTEL”: I – IV – V EIGHT-BAR BLUES

“Heartbreak Hotel” was introduced as an example a little earlier. Have a look at Figure 76 as you go over the basic “rules” for doing Chase charts.

FIGURE 76 Chase Chart of “Heartbreak Hotel”

Chase Chart Basics

1. Start with a drawing of the circular harmonic scale with Nashville Numbers (Roman numerals) on the inside of the circle and the chords of the particular key around the outside. Remember: the Nashville Numbers on the inside never change but the chords around the outside do change. You will find the circular harmonic scales for all 12 major/minor pairs of keys in Appendix 1. You can choose any key you like. In “Heartbreak Hotel,” the choice of the key of E major/C♯ minor is purely arbitrary.

2. To map the chord progression, start with the song’s first chord and draw an arrow to the chord it changes to other than a variant of the first chord.

In the example of “Heartbreak Hotel,” the first chord is E major. The next chord is E7, a variant of E major. For this chord change, you don’t need to draw an arrow, since E7 is just a variant of E major. All you need to do is label the chords at Nashville Number I as E and E7 to signify that the chord E and its variant E7 both appear at this position.

Next, the progression goes to A7. So the first arrow you draw goes from Nashville Number I to Nashville Number IV on the inside of the circle. (Nashville Number IV corresponds to the “A7" on the outside of the circle, a variant of what would normally be the chord “A”.)

3. Label the first arrow with the number “1" and draw a little circle at the base of the arrow labelled “1”. This serves as an easy visual marker that shows where the chord progression within the circular harmonic scale begins.

4. Next, the progression goes to the chord B7, so draw an arrow from the A7 position (Nashville Number IV) to the B7 position (Nashville Number V7). Number that arrow “2.”

5. Finally, the progression goes from B7 back to the tonic chord, E. So draw one more arrow from the B7 position (Nashville Number V7) to the tonic chord, and number that arrow “3.”

6. If the same chord change repeats, do not give the arrow another number.

For a simple chord progression such as the one for “Heartbreak Hotel,” you’ll only need to use one circle to map the whole progression. As you’ll see later, if the chord progression gets complicated, a Chase chart can get cluttered with too many arrows. When that happens, all you need to do is start another circle and continue on. Draw as many harmonic scale circles as you need. You may need several harmonic scale circles to do a Chase chart of one song.

Also, wherever the chord progression takes an obvious turn, which often happens when verse changes to chorus or bridge, start a new harmonic scale circle.

“Heartbreak Hotel” is an excellent example of a chord progression that orbits clockwise around the gravitational centre, the tonic chord. The progression moves from harmonic degree I to IV to V7 to I.

You can think of the chord progression for this song as a variation of the classic 12-bar blues pattern. It’s just compressed into 8 bars.

6.10.4

“TRACKS OF MY TEARS”: SUSPENSE OF HALF-CLOSES

The Chase chart of this song’s chord progression shows the same three-chord orbit pattern as “Heartbreak Hotel.” But “Tracks of My Tears” has a subtle change in the chord progression of the chorus that makes a big difference (Figure 77):

FIGURE 77 Chase Chart of “Tracks of My Tears” (Words and Music by Smokey Robinson, Warren Moore, and Marvin Tarplin, 1967)

In the verse, half closes alternate with full closes. A half close or half cadence is an imperfect cadence, a cadence that ends on the dominant chord. It leaves the ear in suspense, waiting for resolution.

In the chorus, unlike the verse, half closes continue until the end of the chorus. This infuses the chorus with a greater urgency to resolve. It keeps your brain in suspense.

It’s better to use a string of half closes like this in the chorus than in the verse. It’s an effective technique used masterfully in this song.

6.10.5

“JAMBALAYA (ON THE BAYOU)”: THE STRONGEST CHORD PROGRESSION IN ALL OF MUSIC

Wanna write a two-chord classic song? You could not pick two better chords than I and V7. Hank Williams, Sr., shows how it’s done (Figure 78).

FIGURE 78 Chase Chart of “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” (Words and Music by Hank Williams, Sr., 1952)

Chord progressions don’t get any simpler. And yet, over the centuries, that I – V7 – I progression has taken on all the other chord progressions in harmony and arm-wrestled them into submission.

In “Jambalaya,” fully half the song has unstable dominant seventh harmony, which keeps the listener on edge, expecting resolution.

In this song, Hank’s doing some interesting things melodically, too, which is why everybody knows the tune. It’s way, way easier to write a boring ol’ country song with a I – V7 – I chord progression than a great classic country song with a I – V7 – I. Chapter 9 discusses in detail what goes into making a memorable tune.

6.10.6

TWELVE-BAR BLUES: DECEPTIVE CADENCE AND “TURNAROUND”

You saw how the chord changes in “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Tracks of My Tears” simply orbit the tonic chord. Same thing with zillions of songs. Usually the orbit goes clockwise.

But sometimes the orbit reverses itself (Figure 79):

FIGURE 79 Chase Chart: 12-bar Blues

The final four-bar phrase of a 12-bar blues tune usually contains a deceptive cadence. That is, the V7 chord (B7 in the above example) does not resolve directly to the tonic.

The progression instead takes a detour through the IV chord (A in this example), comes to rest briefly on the tonic, then immediately “turns around” on the V7 chord to start the cycle over again. This keeps the tune driving on.

A cadential chord formula of this nature, usually in the last bar or two of a section, is called a turnaround. Some players call it a turnback.

6.10.7

“WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN”: ANOTHER KIND OF DECEPTIVE CADENCE

The Chase chart of the verse of this song maps another way of using a deceptive cadence to keep your brain in suspense and the progression moving right along (Figure 80).

FIGURE 80 Chase Chart of “When a Man Loves a Woman” (Words and Music by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, 1966)

This time, the progression moves from the V chord to the VIm chord, then to the I (tonic) chord, which takes the form of its unstable seventh variant (C7).

The tonic seventh in turn demands to move on to the IV chord. This keeps the progression moving, mostly via fifths and seconds, with only a single third progression (Am – C7).

6.10.8

“WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT”: PROGRESSION REVERSAL

In this tune, the Chase chart shows that three variant chords occupy harmonic degree IV: two in the verse and one in the chorus (Figure 81). These three chords are IV7, IVm7, and IV (F7, Fm7, and the default F, respectively).

“Walking After Midnight” is really a three-chord song, with variant chords at Nashville Number IV to provide harmonic variety. (Lyrically, the song is in the best tradition of country music, describing what it's like to stagger out of the saloon at midnight, only to find that your horse got bored and lonesome waiting around in the street and went home without you.)

FIGURE 81 Chase Chart of “Walking After Midnight” (Words by Don Hecht, Music by Alan Block, 1956)

“Walking After Midnight” uses a chord progression technique you’ll find in many country songs: the progression reverses itself in the chorus.

The verse progresses mostly in the common fifths-down pattern. But in the second part of the chorus, the pattern reverses to fifths up through the tonic. This creates a solid harmonic contrast between verse and chorus, providing more harmonic variety)

6.10.9

“FIVE FOOT TWO, EYES OF BLUE”: CONSECUTIVE SECONDARY DOMINANTS

Consecutive secondary dominants impart substantial forward momentum to a tune. They’re sevenths, and therefore unstable. And they move in fifth-down progressions. Here’s a classic example (Figure 82):

FIGURE 82 Chase Chart of “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” (Words by Sam Lewis and Joe Young, Music by Ray Henderson, 1925)

This chord progression happens to skip the chords F and Bº. What would happen if it didn’t? What happens when the progression goes from the I chord, C major, to the IV chord, F major, in the form of a secondary dominant, F7?

An interesting situation arises.

If you want to continue with a string of secondary dominants, then the chord F7 would normally be the secondary dominant of B♭, not B. Therefore the progression would be on its way out of the key.

How come? Because the progression IV – VIIº is the only progression in the circular harmonic scale where there are six semitones between the root notes of adjacent chords, instead of five semitones (Table 47).

TABLE 47 Semitones Between Chord Roots in the Harmonic Scale

Chord Progression	Example: Key of C / Am	Semitones Between Chord Roots
I – IV	C – F	5
IV – VIIº	F – Bº	6
VIIº – III7	Bº – E7	5
III7 – VIm	E7 – Am	5
VIm – IIm	Am – Dm	5
IIm – V7	Dm – G7	5
V7 – I	G7 – C	5

So, if F7 were to progress to B♭7, then B♭7 would be the secondary dominant of E♭. So B♭7 would function as a pivot chord, taking the progression into the new key (key of E♭).

However, F7 can also proceed pretty smoothly to Bº7, which is harmonically close to B♭7:

Bº7 = B, D, F, A♭

B♭7= B♭, D, F, A♭

CHAPTER 6: How Chords and Chord Progressions REALLY Work _______________________________ 6.10 Examples: Chase Charts of Great Songs without Modulation or Chromatic Chords

CHAPTER 6:
How Chords and Chord Progressions
REALLY Work
_______________________________

6.10 Examples: Chase Charts of
Great Songs without Modulation or
Chromatic Chords