Chapter 6:
How Chords and Chord Progressions REALLY Work

Chapter Index

6.1  Where Chords Come From

6.1.1 What’s a Chord?

6.1.2 The Jimi Hendrix Experience without Jimi: Why Melody-free Harmony Does Not Stand on its Own

6.1.3 Harmony’s Own Organizing Principle

6.1.4 Properties of a Major Triad (This Looks Familiar)

6.1.5 Exploring the Innards of the Major Triad

6.1.6 Stacking Intervals, Then Turning Them Upside down and Disturbing Them

6.2  Triads and Sevenths: The Foundation of All Western Tonal Harmony

6.2.1 Restless Intervals Make Restless Chords

6.2.2 The Paradox of Unsettled-sounding Consonant Inversions

6.2.3 That Moody Minor Sound Again

6.2.4 Diminished and Augmented: Disturbed Chords (But in a Nice Way)

6.2.5 The Most Boring Tune in the World

6.2.6 Harmony’s Gotta Move (Coherently, of Course)

6.2.7 That Other Chord Type: The Seventh

6.2.8 And What about All Those Jazz Chords Such as 9ths, 11ths, 13ths?

6.2.9 Slash Chords

6.2.10 Power Chords (Not to be Confused with Power Cords)

6.2.11 Drone On

6.3  Introduction to Chord Progressions

6.3.1 What Are Chord Progressions Good For?

6.3.2 Dynamic Qualities of Chords

6.3.3 Understanding Harmony: Terms of Endearment

6.4  The Nashville Number System

6.4.1 “Harmonic Degree”: Just a Fancy Name for “Chord”

6.4.2 The Seven Harmonic Degrees

6.4.3 An Example: The Seven Harmonic Degrees in the Key of C Major/A Minor

6.4.4 The Nashville Number System of Chord Notation: Why It’s Important and How It Works

6.5  The Four Types of Chord Progressions

6.5.1 "Harmonic Interval": Just a Fancy Name for "Chord Change" or “Chord Progression”

6.5.2 How Chords Actually Change

6.5.3 The Tricky Business of Naming Harmonic Intervals (Chord Progressions)

6.5.4 Fifth Progressions, Up and Down

6.5.5 Third Progressions, Up and Down

6.5.6 Second Progressions, Up and Down

6.5.7 Chromatic Progressions, Exiting and Returning

6.5.8 Summary and Examples of the Four Types of Chord Progressions

6.6  Scales of Chords? Yes!

6.6.1 The Key to Boldly Going Way Beyond the “Three-chord Wonder”

6.6.2 Unrest and Direction: The Magic of V – I

6.6.3 Harmonic “Scale Neighbours”

6.6.4 The Harmonic Scale: Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

6.6.5 Families Within the Circle

6.6.6 Which Direction Home?

6.6.7 The Melodic Scale: Two Directions Home

6.6.8 How Does it Feel to Move Clockwise Round the Harmonic Scale?

6.6.9 How Does it Feel to Move Counterclockwise? (Hint: The Cat Wants Back In)

6.6.10 The Harmonic Scale: One Direction Home

6.6.11 Fixing Another “Minor” Problem

6.6.12 Harmonic Motion and “Musical Punctuation” (Cadence)

6.7  Inside the Circular Harmonic Scale

6.7.1 The Problem of Harmonic Ambiguity

6.7.2 Dissonance to the Rescue!

6.7.3 The Dominator: Why the V7 Chord Controls Harmony

6.7.4 Last Tweaks of the Harmonic Scale

6.7.5 The Harmonic Scale: Final (“Default”) Version

6.7.6 Two Different Animals: Comparing the Circle of Fifths with the Harmonic Scale

6.7.7 Circle of Fifths: The Mistake of Treating Keys as “Chords”

6.7.8 Comparing Melodic Scales with Harmonic Scales

6.8  Chase Charts: Chord Progression “Maps”

6.8.1 You Can Use “Maps” of Harmonic Scales to Create Beautiful, Powerful Chord Progressions

6.8.2 What’s a Chase Chart?

6.8.3 What Does a Chase Chart Look Like?

6.8.4 How to Sketch a Chase Chart

6.8.5 Sources of Harmonic Scale Chords with Nashville Numbers for Every Key

6.9  Chase Charts of the Four Types of Chord Progressions

6.9.1 How to Do a Chase Chart of Your Own Song (or Any Other Song)

6.9.2 Chase Charts of Fifth Progressions, Up and Down

6.9.3 Chase Charts of Fifths Up, To and From the Tonic Chord

6.9.4 Chase Charts of Fifths Up, Away from the Tonic Chord

6.9.5 Chase Chart of Secondary Dominants

6.9.6 Chase Charts of Third Progressions, Up and Down

6.9.7 Chase Charts of Second Progressions, Up and Down

6.9.8 Chase Charts of Chromatic Progressions, Exiting and Returning

6.9.9 Chase Charts of the General Patterns of Chord Progressions

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

6.10.1 Chase Charts of Four Groups of Gold Standard Songs

6.10.2 Group 1: List of Great Songs without Modulation or Chromatic Chords

6.10.3 “Heartbreak Hotel”: I – IV – V Eight-bar Blues

6.10.4 “Tracks of My Tears”: Suspense of Half-closes

6.10.5 “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”: The Strongest Chord Progression in All of Music

6.10.6 Twelve Bar Blues: Deceptive Cadence and “Turnaround”

6.10.7 “When a Man Loves a Woman”: Another Kind of Deceptive Cadence

6.10.8 “Walking After Midnight”: Progression Reversal

6.10.9 “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue”: Consecutive Secondary Dominants

6.10.10 “Hey Joe”: A Fifths-up Progression That Works

6.10.11 “Return to Sender” (And Loads of Other Songs That Use the Same Progression): A Mellifluous Thirds-based Progression

6.10.12 “Midnight Train to Georgia”: Totally Avoiding Fifths Up

6.10.13 “Danny Boy”: A Little Mode Mixing without Modulating

6.10.14 “Moondance” A Classic of the Minor Mode

6.10.15 “All Along the Watchtower”: A Masterpiece with Second Progressions Only

6.10.16 “I’ve Got You under My Skin” A 20-chord Masterpiece

6.10.17 “Yesterday”: One of the Most Covered Songs of All Time

6.10.18 “The Star Spangled Banner”: A British Teen’s Greatest Hit

6.11  Examples: Chase Charts of Great Songs without Modulation, with Chromatic Chords

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

6.12  Modulation Ways and Means

6.12.1 Modulation: The Soul of the Western Tonal System

6.12.2 Near vs Remote Modulation

6.12.3 Relative Key Modulation

6.12.4 Parallel Key Modulation

6.12.5 Shift Modulation (Don’t Do This!)

6.12.6 Sequential Modulation

6.12.7 Pivot Chord Modulation

6.13  Examples: Chase Charts of Great Songs with Modulation, without Chromatic Chords

6.13.1 Group 3: List of Great Songs with Modulation, without Chromatic Chords

6.13.2 “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’”: Two Kinds of Modulation

6.13.3 “Three Bells (The Jimmy Brown Song)": Pivoting to a Closely Related Key

6.13.4 “Kodachrome”: Using the Same Chord (Root) to Pivot Both Ways

6.13.5 “Dear Landlord”: A Tour through Four Keys in 60 Seconds

6.13.6 “One Fine Day”: Pivot-Shift-Pivot

6.13.7 “Free Man in Paris": Taking Advantage of Triad Stability

6.13.8 “Kaw-liga”: Parallel Key Modulation

6.13.9 “Lovesick Blues”: Relative Key Modulation

6.13.10 “Gimme Shelter": Simultaneous Parallel Keys, Forceful Second Progressions—and Only Three Chords

6.14  Examples: Chase Charts of Great Songs with Modulation and Chromatic Chords

6.14.1 Group 4: List of Great Songs with Modulation and Chromatic Chords

6.14.2 “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”: Modulation and the Power of Simple Triads

6.14.3 “It Was a Very Good Year”: Sequential and Parallel Key Modulations

6.14.4 “The Girl from Ipanema": Transient Sequential Modulation

6.14.5 “Georgia on My Mind”: More Relative Key Modulation

6.15  When Chord Progressions Go Bad ...

6.15.1 How to Use Chase Charts to Visually Spot Weak Chord Progressions

6.15.2 Examples of Chord Progressions that Don’t Quite Make It

6.16  What About Chord Progressions Based On the Church Modes?

6.16.1 Modal Harmonic Scales

6.16.2 Dorian Mode Harmonic Scales

6.16.3 Phrygian Mode Harmonic Scales

6.16.4 Lydian Mode Harmonic Scale

6.16.5 Mixolydian Mode Harmonic Scale

6.16.6 Locrian Mode Harmonic Scale

6.17  Chords and Chord Progressions: Maximizing Emotional Impact

6.17.1 Optimizing Unity and Variety in Chord Progressions

6.17.2 Emotional Effects of Chords

6.18  Ten Chord Progression Guidelines

6.18.1 Guideline 1: Start with the Circular Harmonic Scale as Your Basic Chord Progression Framework

6.18.2 Guideline 2: Learn How to Use Chase Charts to See How a Song’s Chord Progression Actually Works

6.18.3 Guideline 3: Use the Chord Progression Chart (Appendix 3) to Save Time and Avoid Frustration

6.18.4 Guideline 4: Take Advantage of Tonic Chord Stability

6.18.5 Guideline 5: Take Advantage of Dominant Chord Instability

6.18.6 Guideline 6: Make Structured Use of Chords of the Same Type

6.18.7 Guideline 7: Take Advantage of Major Triad Consonance to Progress to Chords Built on the Same Root

6.18.8 Guideline 8: Try Not to Commit the Sin of Monotony—Use Modulation, Variant Chords, Chromatic Chords

6.18.9 Guideline 9: Keep in Mind the Emotions People Associate with Chords

6.18.10 Guideline 10: Use a Roedy Black Chord Chart to Save Time, and to Avoid Interrupting Your Creative Flow

~ • ~ • ~ • ~

~ • ~ • ~ • ~

 TABLE OF
 CONTENTS

 PART I

 The Big Picture    Introduction

   1. W-5 of Music
   2. Pop Music
       Industry
  
 PART II
 Essential
 Building Blocks
 of Music
   3. Tones/Overtones
   4. Scales/Intervals
   5. Keys/Modes
 
 PART III
 How to Create
 Emotionally
 Powerful Music
 and Lyrics
   6. Chords/
        Progressions

   7. Pulse/Meter/
        Tempo/Rhythm
   8. Phrase/Form
   9. Melody
 10. Lyrics
 11. Repertoire/
        Performance

 PART IV
 Making a
 Living In Music
 12. Business of
        Music
 
 Appendixes

 Notes

 References

 Index
  

   Top

 TABLE OF
 CONTENTS

 PART I

 The Big Picture    Introduction

   1. W-5 of Music
   2. Pop Music
       Industry
  
 PART II
 Essential
 Building Blocks
 of Music
   3. Tones/Overtones
   4. Scales/Intervals
   5. Keys/Modes
 
 PART III
 How to Create
 Emotionally
 Powerful Music
 and Lyrics
   6. Chords/
        Progressions

   7. Pulse/Meter/
        Tempo/Rhythm
   8. Phrase/Form
   9. Melody
 10. Lyrics
 11. Repertoire/
        Performance

 PART IV
 Making a
 Living In Music
 12. Business of
        Music
 
 Appendixes

 Notes

 References

 Index
  

   Top

 TABLE OF
 CONTENTS

 PART I

 The Big Picture    Introduction

   1. W-5 of Music
   2. Pop Music
       Industry
  
 PART II
 Essential
 Building Blocks
 of Music
   3. Tones/Overtones
   4. Scales/Intervals
   5. Keys/Modes
 
 PART III
 How to Create
 Emotionally
 Powerful Music
 and Lyrics
   6. Chords/
        Progressions

   7. Pulse/Meter/
        Tempo/Rhythm
   8. Phrase/Form
   9. Melody
 10. Lyrics
 11. Repertoire/
        Performance

 PART IV
 Making a
 Living In Music
 12. Business of
        Music
 
 Appendixes

 Notes

 References

 Index
  

   Top

 TABLE OF
 CONTENTS

 PART I

 The Big Picture    Introduction

   1. W-5 of Music
   2. Pop Music
       Industry
  
 PART II
 Essential
 Building Blocks
 of Music
   3. Tones/Overtones
   4. Scales/Intervals
   5. Keys/Modes
 
 PART III
 How to Create
 Emotionally
 Powerful Music
 and Lyrics
   6. Chords/
        Progressions

   7. Pulse/Meter/
        Tempo/Rhythm
   8. Phrase/Form
   9. Melody
 10. Lyrics
 11. Repertoire/
        Performance

 PART IV
 Making a
 Living In Music
 12. Business of
        Music
 
 Appendixes

 Notes

 References

 Index
  

   Top