Jump to content

User:Rheostatik/Harmonic Progression

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A chord progression (or harmonic progression) is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal"[1] of establishing (or contradicting) a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord.

Chord progressions are used to create movement within a piece of music, offering a shift of level or simultaneity succession essential to harmony. Music is not a static art form like sculpture; it exists within a time frame and people respond to this psychologically by their need for a start and end with a central tonality. Music creates this expectation regardless whether it is a melody line or a chord progression. Chord changes generally occur on an accented beat and by doing so creates a sense of rhythm, meter and musical form for a piece of music, while also delineating bars, phrases and sections.[2]

Nomenclature

[edit]

In music theory, scale degrees are typically represented with Arabic numerals, often modified with a caret or circumflex ( would be the notes C, E and G in the key of C), whereas the triads that have these degrees as their roots are often identified by Roman numerals. Upper-case Roman numerals indicate major triads while lower-case Roman numerals indicate minor triads, as the following chart illustrates. Lower-case Roman numerals with a degree symbol indicate diminished triads. For example, in the major mode, the triad built on the seventh scale degree ( ) is diminished (vii°).

Roman numeral I ii iii IV V vi vii°
Scale degree
(major mode)
tonic supertonic mediant subdominant dominant submediant leading tone
Roman numeral i ii° III iv V VI ()VII vii°
Scale degree
(minor mode)
tonic supertonic mediant subdominant dominant submediant subtonic leading tone

Triads may be constructed using any degree of a scale as the root, and diatonic triads consist only of notes belonging to the scale. That is, if a passage is in G major, most of the chords contain only notes found in the G major scale. Subsequently, a chord's function changes according to the scale from which it is derived. A "D minor" chord will be the tonic chord ( i ) when built from the scale of D minor. It will be the super-tonic chord ( ii ) if it is derived from the scale of C major, or the sub-mediant ( vi ) chord if derived from the scale of F major.

This also means that a D minor chord does not appear at all in some keys, such as A Major, due to the presence of an F# in the key signature. This can be rectified by temporarily lowering the sixth scale degree ( ) from F# to F, resulting in a minor subdominant chord ( iv ) in a major scale, which, depending on the overall chord progression, can be considered aesthetically pleasing (see altered chord).

Circle of Fifths

[edit]

One of the most fundamental aspects in Western music is the Circle of Fifths, which consists of roots related by ascending 5ths (and descending 4ths). [3]

Tonic (I) and Dominant (V)

[edit]

Supertonic (II)

[edit]
ii-V-I progression in C Play

Submediant (VI)

[edit]

Mediant (III)

[edit]

Leading Tone (VII)

[edit]

Subdominant (IV)

[edit]
IV-V-I progression in C Play

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Arnold Schoenberg, Structural Functions of Harmony, Faber and Faber, 1983, p.1-2.
  2. ^ Stewart MacPherson, Musical Form, Chapter 1, Joseph Williams, London, 1930.
  3. ^ Kostka & Payne (1995). Tonal Harmony with an Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music.

References

[edit]
  • Goldman (1965). Harmony in Western Music. Cited in Nattiez (1990).
  • .

Further reading

[edit]
  • Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). "Studying Popular Music". Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
  • Nettles, Barrie & Graf, Richard (1997). The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony. Advance Music, ISBN 389221056X.
  • Sutcliffe, Tom. "Syntactic Structures in Music". Retrieved 2008-07-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Discusses how chord progressions work in relation to musical phrases.
[edit]
  • Google spreadsheet [1] of hundreds of 3 chord songs
  • Guitarz Forever's Three Chord Progressions For Guitar website
  • Hot Fret's Chord Progression Generator a useful tool for building chord progressions.
  • Guitar KnowledgeNet's Chord Progression Generator contains over 200 Major and Minor chord progressions in every key, these progressions can be random generated from user’s input or selected manually from a drop down list.
  • Robert Walker's Chord Progression player - paste a chord progression into this Windows tool and it will play it for you (in any tuning you like)
  • Impro-Visor plays chord progressions, and suggests and generates melodies over them