6.11.1 Group 2: List of Great Songs without Modulation, with
Chromatic Chords
6.11.2 “Hey Jude”: Naaa-na-na Na-na-na-na For
Several Minutes
6.11.3 “Carefree Highway”: Slippin’ Away on a
Chromatic Chord
6.11.4 “Wild Horses”: Unusual Use of Minors
6.11.5
“September Song”: How to Use More than One Chromatic Chord
6.11.6
“Crazy”: When the Tempo’s this Slow, You Notice Every Chord
6.11.7 “Trouble in Mind”: More Secondary Dominants
6.11.8
“Sundown”: Slippin’ Away On the “Carefree Highway” in Reverse
6.11.9 “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”:
Four-chord Ingenuity
6.11.10
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”: Harmonic Heaven and Hell
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6.11.1
GROUP
2: LIST
OF GREAT
SONGS
WITHOUT
MODULATION,
WITH
CHROMATIC
CHORDS
A chromatic chord—a
chord whose root lies outside the harmonic scale for the key of the
song—introduces harmonic variety that attracts your brain’s attention.
Chase charts of the following classic songs, all selected from the GSSL, will show you how great songwriters make use
of chromatic chords:
• “Hey
Jude”
• “Carefree
Highway”
• “Wild
Horses”
• “September
Song”
• “Crazy”
• “Trouble
In Mind”
• “Sundown”
• “I
Heard It Through the Grapevine”
• “Bridge
Over Troubled Water”
In some of the examples, the first chord in a chromatic
progression is the tonic chord (Table 49).
TABLE 49
Songs with Chromatic Progressions
Where the First Chord Is the Tonic
Chromatic
Progression
|
Song Title
|
I – ♭VII – I
|
“Trouble In Mind”
|
I – ♭VII – IV
|
“Hey Jude”
“Carefree Highway”
“Wild Horses”
|
I – ♭VII – V7
|
“Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”
|
I – ♭II – I
|
“It Was a Very Good Year”
|
I – ♭VI – I
|
“September Song”
|
I – ♭II – II
|
“Georgia On My Mind”
|
In others, the first chord in a chromatic progression is not the
tonic chord (Table 50).
TABLE 50
Songs with Chromatic Progressions
Where the First Chord Is Not the Tonic
Chromatic
Progression
|
Song Title
|
II – ♭II – I
|
“Girl From Ipanema”
|
III7 – ♭II – IIm
|
“Georgia On My Mind”
|
IV – ♭VII – IV
|
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”
|
IV – ♭VII – I
|
“Trouble In Mind”
“Sundown”
|
6.11.2
“HEY
JUDE”:
NAAA-NA-NA
NA-NA-NA-NA
FOR SEVERAL
MINUTES
If you’re going to
use a chromatic chord (or more than one chromatic chord) in a song, it’s vital
to firmly establish tonality first. Otherwise your poor brain will have a tough
time trying to figure out what key the song’s in.
Also,
for the same reason (hanging on to tonality), it’s a good idea to return to the
harmonic scale very soon after borrowing a chromatic chord.
The
first part of “Hey Jude” uses conventional harmony that firmly establishes
tonality, so the Chase chart below omits it. However, the last part, the
“na-na-na-na” part, which goes on for several minutes moves outside of the
harmonic scale and grabs the ♭VII chord (F major in the example below, Figure
92).
FIGURE 92
Chase Chart of “Hey Jude,” Last Part (Words and Music by John Lennon and Paul
McCartney, 1968)
The
chromatic chord lasts only one slow bar (the second bar) of each four-bar
“na-na-na-na” chorus. But, from a harmonic perspective, it’s that chromatic
chord that grabs the listener’s ear.
In a Chase chart involving a chromatic chord, you might wonder
where exactly to put the chromatic chord (the chord F major in the
above example). It goes outside the harmonic circle, but there’s no hard
and fast rule as to exactly where. For visual clarity, the best place is right
between the chord at which the progression exits the key (the exit chord is G
major in the above example) and the chord at which the progression returns to
the key (the return chord is C major in the above example).
6.11.3
“CAREFREE
HIGHWAY”:
SLIPPIN’
AWAY
ON A CHROMATIC
CHORD
The Chase chart
below (Figure 93) reveals that Lightfoot uses conventional chords and chord
progressions in the verse of “Carefree Highway,” firmly establishing tonality.
In
the chorus, however, he reaches outside the harmonic scale for the same ♭VII
chord that McCartney uses in “Hey Jude.” The chromatic chord, C major in this example, sticks right out and grabs the ear.
FIGURE 93
Chase Chart of “Carefree Highway” (Words and Music by Gordon Lightfoot, 1974)
Wisely, Lightfoot brings in the chromatic chord for only one bar
in each phrase in which it appears. Tonality remains firm.
6.11.4
“WILD
HORSES”: UNUSUAL
USE
OF MINORS
You will recognize this as the song Sadie and Ellie Sue pipe through
the sound system over at the Dodge City Horse Store.
Even though the song is solidly in the major mode, the vocal of
the verse begins on a minor chord.
As the Chase chart below reveals (Figure 94), the chord
progressions in both the verse and the chorus eschew the tonic of
the relative minor (Em) while incorporating the other two minor
chords. This gives the progression a truly distinctive sound.
FIGURE 94
Chase Chart of “Wild Horses” (Words and Music by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,
1970)
As
if that weren’t enough, in the chorus, the progression grabs the same ♭VII
chromatic chord used in “Hey Jude” and “Carefree Highway.” In this case, being
in the key of G, the chromatic chord is F major (on the words “drag me”). An
elegant, attention-getting touch.
As with the other two songs, the progression visits the chromatic
chord only briefly, then returns to the chords of the harmonic scale.
6.11.5
“SEPTEMBER
SONG”:
HOW
TO
USE
MORE
THAN
ONE
CHROMATIC
CHORD
In his poignant,
brilliant “September Song,” Kurt Weill uses many chords, 12 in all, of which two
are chromatic chords (Figure 95).
He also uses four variants of the tonic: C, CM7, Cm, and Cm6.
By
using two minor-chord variants of the tonic (Cm6 and Cm), “September Song”
flirts with modulation to the parallel key of C minor. The wistful, sad lyric
matches the harmonic progression perfectly.
One of the two chromatic chords may be found in the first
section, very near the beginning of the song. This harmonic direction
has the potential to threaten tonality.
However,
the progression then quickly moves to a V7 – I perfect cadence (G7 – C),
ensuring the ear knows the true harmonic centre, despite the presence of the
chromatic chord (A♭).
FIGURE 95 Chase Chart of “September Song” (Words by Maxwell Anderson, Music by Kurt Weill,
1938)
The second chromatic chord appears in the second section, only
briefly, near the end of the song. In both cases, the chord following
the chromatic chord is the tonic C major.
One
other interesting point about the “September Song” chord progression: the second
part of the song uses only second and third progressions—no fifths.
In
the olden days (first half of the 20th Century), many songs had a so-called
“verse” followed by a “refrain.” These terms had different meanings from what
everybody now thinks of as “verse” and “refrain”. The old-style verse was a long
introduction or narrative, a story with its own melody. It was typically sung
only once. Then came the refrain.
Over time, singers and audiences tended to neglect the verse
and get straight to the refrain. Often, singers would not even bother
singing the verse. Eventually, the old-style verse got dropped and
the so-called refrain became what everyone considered the whole
song.
“September
Song,” written so long ago, has a particularly affecting old-style verse that
you don’t hear too often. Listen to the Frank Sinatra recording of “September
Song.” He does both verse and refrain, and tears your heart out.
6.11.6
“CRAZY”:
WHEN THE
TEMPO’S
THIS
SLOW,
YOU
NOTICE
EVERY
CHORD
The chromatic chord
in this song makes its appearance in the instrumental turnaround after the
second phrase. You’d hardly notice the C♯º chord if the tempo weren’t so slow.
But,
as the Chase chart below shows (Figure 96), the chord does catch the ear as the
middle part of a chromatic second progression, C – C♯º – Dm7.
FIGURE 96
Chase Chart of “Crazy” (Words and Music by Willie Nelson, 1961)
Like
many country songs (“Walking After Midnight,” for example), the second part of
“Crazy” starts on the IV chord, (F major in this example) for the sake of
contrast.
The Chase chart above shows that second and fifth progressions
predominate for most of this song.
The
last part of the song has a long run of seconds: FM7 – Em7 – Dm7 – CM7 – Dm7.
That Stupid Midnight Plane to Houston
Willie Nelson claims his original title for
“Crazy” was “Stupid.”
Jim Weatherly’s original title for “Midnight
Train to Georgia” was “Midnight Plane to Houston”!
|
6.11.7
“TROUBLE
IN
MIND”:
MORE
SECONDARY
DOMINANTS
Like “September
Song,” the blues classic “Trouble In Mind” moves to a chromatic chord from the
tonic, right off the top. But then it moves directly back to the tonic (Figure
97).
A few bars later, the same chromatic chord pokes up again, but
only as a transient chord.
FIGURE 97
Chase Chart of “Trouble In Mind” (Words and Music by Richard Jones, 1926)
“Trouble
in Mind,” like so many blues tunes, gets its harmonic drive from its almost
exclusive use of tritone-unstable seventh chords, including a run of secondary
dominant sevenths: E7 – A7 – D7.
Even the chromatic chord is a seventh (F7).
6.11.8
“SUNDOWN”:
SLIPPIN’
AWAY
ON
THE “CAREFREE
HIGHWAY”
IN
REVERSE
In “Carefree
Highway,” Lightfoot uses this chromatic progression:
I – ♭VII – IV
In
“Sundown,” as the Chase chart below reveals (Figure 98), he reverses the
direction of the same chromatic progression:
IV – ♭VII – I
The
particular ♭VII chord in this case is the chord D major.
FIGURE 98
Chase Chart of “Sundown” (Words and Music by Gordon Lightfoot, 1974)
As
with “Carefree Highway,” the chromatic chord (found, again, in the chorus) is
the essential attention-getting harmony in “Sundown.”
6.11.9
“I
HEARD
IT
THROUGH
THE GRAPEVINE”:
FOUR-CHORD
INGENUITY
The Chase chart below (Figure 99) maps two possible
interpretations of the chord progression for this song:
1. The song is in a major key (C major in this example), but
uses the tonic of the parallel minor key (Cm) as a variant
chord. All three of the other chords are normal for the major
key, except that the chord F is replaced with F7, a common
variant.
2. The song is in a minor key (C minor), but uses a seventh
variant containing a major third (F7) in place of the default
minor subdominant chord (Fm, which has a minor third). In
this interpretation, the progression also uses a chromatic
chord (Am).
FIGURE 99
Chase Chart of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (Words and Music by Norman
Whitfield and Barrett Strong, 1967)
From a melodic standpoint, the minor third interval relationship
with the tonic means the song is clearly in a minor mode. So the
second of the above two interpretations is technically more correct,
even though the first interpretation is harmonically simpler in that it
does not have a chromatic chord.
Either
way you care to interpret this chord progression, it’s ingenious and
ear-grabbing. No fancy extended chords. Just two ordinary seventh chords and two
ordinary minor chords.
6.11.10
“BRIDGE
OVER
TROUBLED
WATER”:
HARMONIC
HEAVEN
AND HELL
The verse of this
Paul Simon classic has a lot of plagal “amen” (IV – I) cadences, perhaps in
keeping with Simon’s direction to play it “like a spiritual.”
The chorus, on the other hand, has lots of diabolus in musica
tritone harmony in the form of sevenths, ninths, and diminished
chords (Figure 100).
FIGURE 100
Chase Chart of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Words and Music by Paul Simon,
1970)
For
the most part, the harmony’s pretty conventional: lots of descending fifths and
a smattering of seconds and thirds.
However, the verse and chorus each borrow one chord from
outside the key.
• In
the verse, it’s good ol’ versatile ♭VII (the chord B♭ on the word “tears”).
• In
the chorus, it’s a rootless diminished chord (E♭º on the word “over”).
The song owes its harmonic richness in part to the large number
of chords (13 in all), uncommon in a song that does not modulate.
Speaking of modulation, here comes a short course.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~
~ • ~ •
~ • ~
Available at
