Chord Progressions

It sounds OK to me argus. Maybe that G chord after the F (bar 3) doesn't fit quite as nicely.

By adding so many extra chords to the progression, however, you're really confining the melodic possibilities. There's not much room left to move melodically, which is fine I guess, if you're happy with that. Leaving the chord progression more open (like the original) will give you much more room to play around with melody and improvisation, but as I say, that may not be what you want.

Kirk

I agree, if you toss in too many chords you are beginning to dictate the melody. It would be like two guitarists soloing at the same time. Sure Zepelin pulled it off a couple times, but it doesnt make it a standard. Backing harmony shouldnt take the lead unless it is the lead.

My opinion anyway

Kido

(However I dont think the F was too much :P )

Hi, Kirk,
nor in the 'key of H

Some European countries do, actually, have a key of "H". For some reason, best known to themselves, "B" is actually "Bb" and "H" is "B". I suspect that it came out of the use of Gothic script in the olden days, but that's only a guess.

speaking of that, an incredibly creepy sidenote on Bach

Bach had an unfinished piece before he died, and the in the last measure he wrote, the melody notes were:Bb, A, C, B

I'm guessin somebody sees what's up with that, but I'll leave it in the open

Some European countries do, actually, have a key of "H". For some reason, best known to themselves, "B" is actually "Bb" and "H" is "B". I suspect that it came out of the use of Gothic script in the olden days, but that's only a guess.

Damn! Now I don't have a leg to stand on. There goes my whole argument, right out the window!

Come to think of it, I do remember seeing that at some stage.
Bach had an unfinished piece before he died, and the in the last measure he wrote, the melody notes were:Bb, A, C, B

Are those the notes from Twilight Zone?

Kirk

This whole thread is like something from the twilight zone lol. :wink:

Kido

Quite the discussion here!

Both sides have some nice points... Planetalk's analogy is simplistic; although it's great for beginners, and fine for most rock music, it's not practical when you start getting into chord substitutions and such - 'instead of playing the bathroom chord, you can play the kitchen chord three floors up or the dining room chord five floors down' would result.

But we all learn by making things simple, and learning the exceptions later. When we learn rhythm, we're taught that a quarter note represents a beat - it's not until later on that we discover it's two beats in 3/8, half a beat in alla breve, and two-thirds of a beat in compound 6/8.

So... I was leaning towards that side. Even though it's true that there's music that doesn't follow the rules, and Argus makes other valid points, I saw Kirk's purpose as simplification for beginners.

Then I started thinking about the way that I teach chords and progressions to beginning guitarists: starting out with I-IV-V, then i-iv-V, so they can cover most familiar songs, then moving into the scales that make the chords, then the natural harmonic motion of roots. I started wondering how I could incorporate his analogy, and I found I can't, because it's got a serious flaw that hasn't been addressed:

Sometimes the bedroom turns out to be the bathroom.

If 'all of music' fits into the apartment block, with twelve floors, one for each key, then each floor contains both a major and relative minor key. Since the analogy is being applied to chord progressions, I can't grasp how the major key's iii chord and the minor key's V chord can peacefully room together - the E root chord will be the iii if you've gone in the front door (C major key), and the V if you've gone in the back door (A minor key).

So... even though it sounds good, and it's probably useful for helping a beginner overcome fear that there's 'too much stuff to learn', I'm not sure it has any practical application for teaching.

Maybe he left a soda from the kitchen in the bathroom....and the towel from the bathroom on the bedroom floor, where he opened his condom and threw the wrapper in the trash that got left outside for the trash collection to remove.....where a squirrel at the wrapper by accident trying to get to the leftover bagel that his friend from the next apartment over brought over from his work.

Sounds like B7b5 to me :lol:

.....hmmmm

Kido

Did I hear someone say that they're looking for an apartment with a wonderful view of a ii V I progression from the living room, a 51 inch b5 in the bedroom, and a kitchen augmented with chordal substitutions....or was that just my imagination? :D

Quite a discussion. Whew!!