~ • ~ • ~ • ~
6.10.1
CHASE
CHARTS
OF FOUR
GROUPS
OF GOLD
STANDARD SONGS
The purpose of art is to stop time.
—BOB DYLAN
You’re about to
learn chord progression techniques from some of the world’s greatest
songwriters, including:
Otis Blackwell
Hoagy Carmichael
Bob Dylan
George Gershwin
Jagger and Richards
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Carole King
Lennon and McCartney
Gordon Lightfoot
Joni Mitchell
|
Van Morrison
Willie Nelson
Cole Porter
Otis Redding
Smokey Robinson
Richard Rodgers
Paul Simon
Kurt Weill
Norman Whitfield
Hank Williams, Sr.
. . . and others
|
The following sections examine the chord progressions of four
groups of brilliant songs, using Chase charts.
• Group 1: Songs without modulation or chromatic chords
• Group 2: Songs without modulation, with chromatic chords
• Group 3: Songs with modulation, without chromatic chords
• Group 4: Songs with modulation and chromatic chords
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♭