does it seem like most metal or punk or rock or whatever bands do they follow progressions and theory or do they just what sounds good.. i wonder that sometimes when im driving to work and listing to music
I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg question: progressions are what sounds good. They do typically follow progressions because progressions sound good.
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
I have thought about this too.
Most of the Green Day songs are containing 3 or 4 chords and those too major or minor.Yet they sound good.
Punk involves good songwriting too.That is the aspect most forgotten of all.
The spirit of punk is more inclined towards what sounds good rather than any strict rules. There are still progressions that get used in punk which we see in all sorts of other music, the I-vi-IV-V progression is very common in Pop and Country, as well as MOR, and so is vi-I-IV-V (think "Where have you been" by Ska-punk band Reel Big Fish). And where would we be without the standard 12-bar which is in everything from 20's blues to 1970's Status Quo (as well as a disco song from the 1990's by a one hit wonder called Apache Indian)
Sid Vicious had (famously) never touched a bass guitar before he joined the Sex Pistols, but I figure most punk guitarists have learned a little bit of theory over the years.
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
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Like other rock'n'roll genres punk tends to follow "standard" theory pretty slavishly.
It's the more avant garde prog and jazz people who go in for all those exceptions and tricky bits.
While a jazz song will typically modulate to a new key using a dom7 V-of-whatever chord substitution or a tritone substitution, punk (and rock songs in general), just change key without any fanfare, simply by doing it.
Mixing and matching chords between the major and parallel minor is common in punk, as it is in rock in general.
BTW, Sid Vicious was a pretty crappy bassist throughout the Sex Pistols' short career and never played a note on any of their recordings. The guitarist, Steve Jones, played all the bass on their album 'Never Mind the Bollocks' and their first bassist, Glen Matlock, played on some of the first singles.
--
Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
I knew Sid was rotten on bass but always heard decent bass on Nevermind the Bollocks. So I guess that made Sid just a showpiece for gigs.
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
