Chord Progressions

Im proud to have started a thread utilizing the function of this forum. TO DISCUSS, its awsome.

I think the apartment analogy is the best I've ever heard. I have this great picture of all different kinds of musicians living there.

Maybe an old blues player on the seventh floor, who only leaves his bedroom to go to the bathroom and kitchen, never venturing out to see what the world has to offer.

Maybe a Metal shredder, crawling up the side of the building breaking into different apartments, eating food from their fridges, going to the bathroom there, maybe borrowing some music resources from their bookshelves, possibly stealing a guitar or two.

Key wise, and modality wise. The analogy is correct. There are strict rules to the function of most activitites. Music is no different. But even though it would be irresponsible to bunt the ball in baseball, hold onto the bat, run to first base, and whack the first basemen in the dome....its possible.

Who knows what kind of crazy activites go on in: "Guitar Terrace Apts for rent" Hopefully really crazy ones.

And to put out the small fires I see brewing here, this was a simple thread meant to help begginners. No need to fight about it guys. Its obvious theres a wealth of knowledge floating around here. We dont need to shove it down anyones throat. Just let it flow by, and take what suits you.

Kido.

PlaneTalk, Argus - yer both right, but the senseless arguement is getting a little petty. Why don't we move on.

Maybe an old blues player on the seventh floor

That's the right floor for the "Mixolydian Blues Man"

Now we can start a new forum....

"What floor do you belong on"

"What floor would you like to be on?"

or maybe I sit outside and yell at girls when they walk by...

:lol:

Kido

Yes, I agree. This is getting silly.

I stand by the analogy. I've always liked to vizualize difficult subjects, and this is my visualization of how music fits together. I have found over the years that my students also like to visualize complicated subjects and this had helped all of them, but, of course, we all know that music isn't a building.

Also, I realized last night I was flattering myself. It's not 41 years I've been playing, it's 44.

I'll just pipe down now, I'm ruffling too many feathers.

Kirk

Kirk, I actually liked your analogy.

It actually helped put some things in perspective that I have been wrestling with. It just puts a new fun twist on the theory of guitar playing.

Sometimes tequilla gives me a twist on frustrating subjects....

J/K Im in a goofy mood.

Kido

Thanks Nils.

You've obviously seen it for it was meant to be: a simple way of visualizing the various layers and relationships that are music, not the be all and end all of music theory. Geez!

Thanks Nils.

You've obviously seen it for it was meant to be: a simple way of visualizing the various layers and relationships that are music, not the be all and end all of music theory. Geez!

I'd hate to derail this thread again, but you said it was everything multiple times ("That's all of music", "how can it not contain all music?") and that was what I was calling you out on. I'm sick of arguing about it though since all it's doing is annoying everyone and we haven't budged, so let's get back to talking about chord progressions instead.

A neat trick if you're playing a minor chord for an extended period of time and want to make it a bit more interesting, is to descend the root chromatically until you hit another chord. I haven't really used it much, but here it is anyway.

ie ||: Dm Dm/C# | Dm/C Dm/B | Bb7 | A7 :|| (that's two chords in each of the first two bars)

or || Dm | Dm/C# | Dm/C | G/B |

(Note: Dm/C# is an inversion of Dm(maj7))

If you're moving from a IV to a V, you can use a #iv7b5 to bridge the gap.

For instance:

G C C#m7b5 D7
e--3-------------0-----0-----2----------------
b--3-------------1-----0-----1----------------
g--0-------------0-----0-----2----------------
d--0-------------x-----x-----0----------------
a--2-------------3-----4----------------------
e--3------------------------------------------


Notice the chromatic movement along the A string (B-C-C#-D).

You could use this like:
|| G | G/B | C C#m7b5 | D7 | G

You could even throw a dim chord after the V and follow it with a vi, then put in a II-V-I (C6 subbed for Am7 to keep the bass right) leading back to the G.

|| Gmaj7 | Gadd9/B | C C#m7b5 | D7 Eb°7 | Em Em/D# | Em/D Em/C# | C6 | D9 D7b9 | Gmaj7

This is just an example. A hypothetical. I wouldn't normally write something like this. It is a little complicated, and it sounds a bit weird with the bass moving up and down chromatically from bars 2 to 7 so it might not be your cup of tea. Notice bars 5 and 6 (wink wink). I used the b9 chord in the last bar since it can be used as a passing tone (E-Eb-D) leading back to the fifth of the G.

You can do whatever you like with chord progressions, but often it's a lot simpler (and a lot more effective) to just stick to one key. A lot of great songs are completely diatonic. But there you go, hope I've given someone an idea, even if that idea is to just stick to one key.

And if you're still having trouble coming up with a chord progression, just use a I-IV-V, write a melody around it, and change the chords to fit the melody at a later time (changing the chords but keeping the same melody is called "reharmonization").

That's all of music", "how can it not contain all music?"

That's cool, argus. I find these things interesting to debate ... I'm not out to flame anyone. I'm frankly surprised that people are so sensitive about our disagreement.

I'll maintain it to the end however: if my music building contains all keys, how can it not contain all music? By 'music' of course I mean the tonal elements of (western music), not percussion. I don't know of any tunes that are in 'no key' nor in the 'key of H'.

Anyway, I did say that this is my way of seeing it, so we agree to disagree. There's nothing wrong with that, and Nils learned from it, so it does have some pratical teaching application after all.

Kirk

That's OK, I'm over it.

I was going to send you this as a PM, but I might as well ask you here:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9155

I've been working on this for a few weeks and I was wondering what you think of it. Too busy? Too lounge-y?

I'm trying to improve on it, and I might as well ask someone with your experience for some pointers.

I can cook up a midi file tomorrow if you're interested, putting those notes I've written underneath into practice as I'm not too sure if I have my own timing right. Again, only if you're interested.

If anyone else has any questions or comments on it, send them my way - as I said above, I'm trying to improve on it.

I'm not sure if it's me you're asking, or exactly what you're asking, but nice chords. A midi file would be interesting to listen to.

Having played through them a couple of times, bars 4 and 8 sound good as Eaug to E7, too.

Is the original "Sonny"?

Kirk

For a minute I thought I'd entered a forum of "Modern Architecture and Apartment Design". Whew. Had to check my URL. lol.

Is the original "Sonny"?

Yeah, this is the arrangement I've been working on though.

All I'm asking is if you think there's anything about it that could be improved.

The timing/rhythm could use a fair bit of work (especially on the Bm bar), but since this is a thread about chord progressions...

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/saluncheon/sunny.mid

Any chords sound out of place?

(Edit: Apart from that E9 in bars 4 and 8, I'll have to change that to an E7)