Jump to content

Your Ad Could Be Here

Are Standard Chord Progressions Hard And Fast Rules Or Just Recommendations?


Recommended Posts

My musical education was very basic as the teachers only taught the very basics (time signatures, key signatures, note values, etc.) so lately I've been researching some of the basics that haven't been covered, such as chord progression.

I came across this youtube video:

I don't know all of the terminology, but the way she described it was pretty linear.

1 -> any

2 -> 5

3 -> 6

4 -> 1 or 5

5 -> 1

6 -> 2

While she didn't outright say it, she seemed to imply that this was the only correct way to determine a progression. This seems a bit limiting, though. As far as I can see once you choose that second chord you're locked into one of two progressions.

I fired up Melody Assistant and entered the following chords: C F G C, or 1 -> 4 ->5 -> 1 following the standard she laid out. It sounded decent, but once I chose F for my second chord I was pretty much locked in. About the only thing I could do was choose to go from F to G or F to C.

Then I entered the chords C Dm Am C, or 1 -> 2 -> 6 -> 1. Going with the standard the "correct" progression would have been C Dm G C, or 1 -> 2 -> 5 -> 1.

However, I don't hear anything wrong with the C Dm Am C progression. Is this more of a recommendation than anything or are there really only a small handful of acceptable progressions that rely on rhythm and inversions to keep all songs from sounding the same?

By the way, how do you link to a youtube video without embedding it in the post? I deleted the media tags, changed them to URL tags, and neither seemed to work. It's the actual URL, too, and not the embed code.

Edited by BigBubbaBrown
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

I'm of the opinion that you can go anywhere with your chord progression as long as you're leading somewhere. Classical composers, Jazz musicians and a few rock and roll artists as well have all gallantly defied the alleged "rules" of chord progression and been well acclaimed for it. The only really solid rule that as I understand it is "don't just hop around for no reason, go somewhere." So for instance, we're in the key of C and I began with a C and then an Em. (I,iii) The rules say I probably shouldn't go to D (II) and it doesn't sound very sensible if I just pop over to D for a visit and come back to the root. But if I use that (II) as a tonal bridge to hop on up to A (VI), it works quite nicely. I'm probably not making my point very well but in brief, no, no rules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The rule-of-thumb that I have heard is that a chord progression ought to have at least one note in-common with the preceding chord; often two. Jimmy Webb's definitive book, Tunesmith, explores that idea in great depth.

You can also consider what I call the "sugar notes" ... 7ths, 9ths, and more ... and variations on chords, such as augmented and diminished. All of these are spices, and, like all spices, often sound best when used sparingly.

Think about how you'd like for the movement of the chords to work either with, or against, the corresponding movement (if any) of the melody.

Above all, experiment. From any chord that you're on, there are many chords that you could move to, and maybe the best thing is to just try several of them and see which one fits your fancy best. Creativity really is a very deliberate(!) act sometimes ... a matter of choosing, even though the end-result sounds "spontaneous" and maybe "inevitable."

Edited by MikeRobinson
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The rule-of-thumb that I have heard is that a chord progression ought to have at least one note in-common with the preceding chord; often two.

Sir, I think you may have just accidentally invalidated Pink Floyd.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are certainly no hard and fast rules. Songwriters as commercial as The Beatles often ''broke the rules''. You don't want to do it with every chord - but occasionally defying expectation about the next chord will certainly make for the odd memorable moment.

As for the original poster's first example - if the first two chords in a sequence are C and F I don't see any reason why the third chord has to be G. For a start, you're assuming the song is in C major, but if the song was in F major then the third chord could be a Bb. Even if you're in C major the third chord could be Dm or Am. But really, the possibilities are endless. Rather than using a G, why not try Gm? (Or Gm7?) In fact the same goes with Dm - you could substitute a regular D major chord instead. A 2 - 5 - 1 turnaround might sound more interesting if you use D - G - C instead of Dm - G - C.

Of course, a lot of this also depends on the melody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Noob

You all have very good points and in my opinion, there are no hard rules in making chord progressions. There are however something like standards that are being used and have been used for many, many years in something like 98% of pop songs(btw, that was a made up percentage, but you get my meaning).

Another thing to consider is the timing and rhythm of chord changes, you could be using "standard" chord changes like G-C-D-G, you could, instead of having each chord last for 2 or 4 counts or beats, use different timing of the chord changes, say having the G last for 4 beats, the C for 5 beats, the D for 3 beats and the last G for 4 beats.

I hope you catch my meaning, by using creative timings and rhythms, you could spice up an otherwise "boring" or "standard" chord progression.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Your Ad Could Be Here



  • Current Donation Goals

    • Raised $1,040.00
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By continuing to use our site you indicate acceptance of our Terms Of Service: Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy, our Community Guidelines: Guidelines and our use of Cookies We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.