Popular Chord Progressions

I think you're confused about what a chord progression is. It's just a sequence of chords. The "chorus" is a subjective label applied to a part of the song, which... Uhh... Contains chords.

In a verse/chorus song structure, the "chorus" typically has a different progression than the verse. If your verse just loops I V iv IV over and over, the chorus may do something different (maybe I IV V, it really doesn't matter). You could also just the same progression over and over for the whole song, nothing wrong with that. Maybe you have a 32 bar song with 2 distinct 16 bar melodies sections, but the chords just keep going and changing throughout the 32 bars. You could even have 32 different chords, never repeating a single one for the whole song.

No matter what the structure of the song is, the "progression" is just the sequence of chords in the song.

To add to what the other two answerers have said, with four chords in any given key you can basically play (or at least harmonize) 80-90% of all music out there. These chords are the I, IV, V, and vi, or the one, four, five, and six minor (Roman numerals are used when talking about chord progressions).

In the key of C these chords are C, F, G, and Am (A minor). If you learn these four chords you should be able to figure out most any song in the key of C. Likewise with the key of A - A, D, E, and F#m.

If you invest in a capo you can barre it at a certain fret on the neck and actually play in a different key using the same chords. For instance - if you knew the chords in the key of C but wanted to play in the key of D, you would capo at the 2nd fret, since D is one step or two half steps = two frets up from C.

Between using a capo and knowing the chords you already know, you should be able to play nearly any song you hear, as long as you pay attention to the melody and match up chords to it. It may not be *exactly* the same, because many artists use more than three or four chords, but you can get pretty close!

As far as writing your own progressions... Well, I'm already rambling, so I'll keep it short. One progression is I - IV - V, or C - F - G in the key of C. This is the basis of all Western music, and variations of it account for most of the music you will hear on the radio.

Writing variations is fun - sometimes just jamming can be productive, but sometimes you want to write something out. When V goes to I it feels very final, so it's a good way to end a progression. Other than that, most anything goes. A great way to just jam on some vocals is to pick two chords and just play them over and over. I and vi, I and IV, etc, and just sing over them until something happens.

Another example - I - V - vi - IV

It breaks the rule I just gave you, but it's a great progression. In the key of F it's "Glycerine" by Bush (well, most of it at least). In the key of C it's C - G - Am - F. It's a very popular pop punk progression, also - off the top of my head I remember it in at least one Blink 182 song and in that Newfound Glory song... Uhh... Dang... "Hit or Miss".

Hope that's enough to get you going!

Saul.

If you live in the United States, you have undoubtedly heard kids and teenagers using and abusing Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart and Soul" on the piano. This piece makes exclusive use of the "turn-around progression," consisting of I, vi, IV, and V-seven.

Although this progression was often used in Twentieth Century pop music, it seems to have earlier origins. Schubert's Serenade starts with a turn-around progression in the minor mode.

Another goodie is the "descending minor tetrachord." This consists of i, VII, VI, and V-seven. This is the standard progression for a chaconne or malaguena. The South African folk song, "The Cat Came Back," would be a chaconne or malaguena if it were in 3/4 time.

On this forum, there was a recent question about the progression I-six-four, V-seven, I:

Http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

This progression is good for cadences.

Also good for cadences is a chain of dominant sevenths. A secondary dominant resolves to a dominant, a tertiary dominant resolves to a secondary dominant, and so forth. If you've ever attended a Protestant church camp, you are probably familiar with the song "Tell Me Why," which uses a quaternary dominant:

Http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/p...

In the Concone album, op. 24, take a look at #14. In measures 37-40, we see a chain starting on the tertiary dominant. The composer ingeniously arranges the voices so that an agonizing semitone descent appears in the tenor voice.

Concone seems to be good at semitone descents. In the previous four measures in the same piece, there is a semitone descent in the alto voice, and in a completely different progression. Other examples are #17, measures 17-20; #18, measures 25-28; #20, measures 32-34.

We must not forget the semicadence in which the bass moves from the sixth degree to the fifth degree in a minor mode. Concone writes such "Phrygian cadences" in #15, measures 15-16, and in #21, measures 15-16. If this is for a class assignment, see if you can find an example from the work of a more highly respected composer.

In the Burgmuller album, op. 100, I notice the same progression appearing twice. The two occurrences are in "The Wagtail," #11, measures 3-7 and #25, "Spirit of Chivalry," measures 7-8. The progression consists of #iv, iv minor, I-six four, vii diminished seventh, a suspension in #11 but not in #25, V-seventh, and tonic. (Like Concone, Burgmuller seems to like the subdominant minor chord.) I don't know any name for this, so I call it the "Burgmuller cadence."

For some reason, the subdominant chord seems to have the effect of waving good-by and a dominant chord seems to have the effect of saying hello. Mozart appears to be the first composer to recognize this. There are at least two piano sonatas in which Mozart writes a secondary dominant on the subdominant for the first time in the coda. This secondary dominant makes the subdominant chord sound more prominent. Mozart does this in the C major sonata, K 279, second movement, measures 70-71 and the F major sonata, K 280, third movement, measures 178-180. In fact, we see a rarity in the C major sonata, K 545, second movement, measures 65-66. Here we see a secondary SUBdominant!

Beethoven, who copies a lot of ideas from Mozart, seems to be the second composer to notice this effect. In his Gmajor sonata, op. 49 no. 2, second movement, measures 108-109, he writes a secondary dominant on the subdominant for the first time.

Sometimes, a composer saves the subdominant chord itself for the coda. We have already seen such an example in Concone, #17.

I've never before noticed the resemblance between the Clementi sonatina and the pop song originated therefrom. I just gave Gibolespaul a point.