Music Chord Progressions

 Since Chris brought up the question about Progressions, I will discuss this in a slightly different way..

 Have you ever wondered how certain musicians seem to do very well picking up new songs?  One might think or suggest that they have a great "ear" for music.  And well they might.  But for many popular songs - pop or rock, picking up a new song is often a combination of two things.  One of those is indeed sounding the song out, but the other is that many popular songs follow what have called a chord progression - or at least close to a standard progression or pattern which may look different because of chord substitutions or related chords.

What is a Chord Progression?

A chord progression is made up of the several chords that might be used in a popular song and includes the order that they are played in.  We have been dealing with examples mostly in the key of C, but chord progressions can begin on any base note / chord of the chromatic scale ( C  C#  D  D#  E  F  F#  G  G# A A#  B C).

These progressions present chords in a pattern we have become familiar with and can often anticipate the chord change that comes next. This proper guessing of the result makes us feel comfortable. Alternately, when an unexpected chord change occurs, it tends to surprise us and raise our tension a bit depending on how far it is from our anticipated result. This is how a musical story is conveyed to its audience.

 The major scale is the basis for any given pattern and has a predictable sound based on what has been called tone intervals or degrees relative to the root note. Each movement from one note to another is a change in ½ a semitone making up the 12 keys. Looking at the intervals between these keys we can think in terms of steps from one note to another. The step from C to D would be 2 steps, from E to F would be 1 step. All of the major scales have an interval pattern that can be used as a shorthand way of  expressing the degrees of a scale.

The most common of all chord progressions is three chords - often called a "three chord progression..  The chord for that shown first in major chords are:

C,F,G    (C Major, F Major, and G major) using progression notation that is I,  IV, V from our charts or simply a 1 4 5 progression. You can start from any major key and  start with 1 being the major chord named after the musical key and the first note of the major scale. For the key of G, that would be G, C, D.

The base notes of the chords comprise the first note, fourth note and fifth note of the scales.  Often this simple three chord progression uses a dominant 7th chord for the third chord and would be therefore:

C,F,G7   (C Major, F Major, and G 7th)

Looking at the table of intervals above and the notes in the two scales, you can see that the major chord progression for the key of F would be F, A,  C (C Major, A Major and C Major) using Chord  notation I, IV, V, 1 4 6 progression.

Some original songwriters might think this too simplistic, but several popular songs can simply be played using three chords.  Some examples of that are "Twist and Shout", "Jamaica Farewell", "Do you Love Me?", "Ole Time Rock and Roll”, most polka’s and many others.

The Rock Key Twist

We have dealt mostly in the key of C for simplicity, but let us digress a bit for Rock music players.  The key of C as shown above is very popular for piano players and other keyboard players, since it has few or no sharps and flats.  However, to a guitar player, they are more comfortable often in keys that can bother a keyboard player - such as the key of E or the key of A.  Many, many rock songs are in the key of E or A.  The three chord progressions in those keys would be:

Key of E:  E,A,B  or E,A,B7   (E Major, A Major, B Major  or E Major, A Major, B 7th)

Key of A:  A,D,E or A,D,E7    (A Major, D Major, E Major  or A Major, D Major, E 7th)

More Complex Three Chord Patterns

It is also very possible that the song may have only three chords, but use a slightly different pattern for the chords in the song.  For example a very popular three chord pattern as below is used in a number of songs, and is often used by some bands right before their breaks:

C, C, F, C, F, G, C

In this case the F and the G played together near the end of that  progression, are given about half of the time as the others. The G 7th is sometimes used instead of G Major in that pattern. The pattern shown there is just simply an easy pattern for band members to follow and may easily be in an ad-lib session.

Melody

We have talked mainly here about chords - which would be the background and structure of the song.  The chords might be played by guitars, keyboard players, or made up of notes played by many orchestra instruments.  A good question now is, what would the notes that comprise the melody be?

The quick answer to that is that the notes of the melody will often - but not always - be the notes of the chords themselves.  When the melody note is not a note within the chord, it is sometimes called a "passing" note.  Therefore a musician trying to learn a song without sheet music would first try the notes within the chord itself.  For example, while C Major chord is playing, the notes within this chord are C, E, and G.  A musician would first try and listen with their ear to see if one of those three is the melody note.

Melody notes that are far from the chord itself and lasting long are unusual.  That is because the overall sound of that melody note when added to the chord may in fact sound displeasing, or at least different.

Refrains / Chorus

If the pop song that we are working on has a chorus or a refrain where the melody changes abruptly, there is also a common convention for that.  For the chord progression C, F and G, the main melody and verses will follow the C, F, G pattern - or at least loosely. When the chorus approaches, it often begins with the base note of the fourth note of the scale - F in this case.  One would expect the chorus to begin with an F major.  The whole structure for a three chord progression song with a different melody in its  chorus would be:

verses:  C, F, G  (several times)

chorus / refrain: F, C, F, G  (or something similar)

note also that both verses and choruses tend to end their progression using the chord made up of the fifth base note of the scale - G in this case.

Four Chord Progressions

There also are some popular four chord progressions.  The ones that come to my mind first, are the ones that really are the three chord progression shown above, but with a minor added right after the first chord.  Some popular ones:

C, Am, F, G  (C Major, A minor, F Major, G Major.  and of course G Major could be G 7th)

C, Em, F, G  (C Major, E minor, F Major, G Major.  and of course G Major could be G 7th)

For folk music enthusiasts, "Puff the Magic Dragon" seems to somewhat follow the last 4 chord progression.  Although the version of it that I know is in a different key, the key of G.  Transposing it would be:

G, Bm, C, D

Unusual Chord Progressions

Yes, there can be pop songs and chord progressions that are none of the above, and ones that may include many unique chords.  For this, try listening closely to chord sounds - you can often distinguish the chord type.  Now here, this next part gets very subjective, and your ear may in fact tell you other things that come to its mind rather than my opinion.  However a Major chord just simply sounds "right".  A minor chord, often sounds more "wistful" or "sad".  A 6th and a 9th tends to sound like a more complete, thorough, chord than a major.  And an augmented chord - sounds like an augmented (smiles).  Sustained chords - sus 4 and sus 2 just sound like passing chords - meaning they do not seem that stable by themselves.  Diminished chords seem "full" to "overflowing".  And not sure what to say about 7th chords, but they also sound somewhat distinct.

Summary

Again, learning a popular song can be a combination of two things, sounding it out and also looking for patterns.  Between a good use of those two, many of us can do well, even without sheet music, for at least some of the simpler songs.

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