The Harmonious Blacksmith: A Music Theory Exploration

Ep. 4: Chords and Chord Progressions

• Kevin Patrick Fleming • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Chords and Chord Progressions Part 1 | Music Theory Podcast

Welcome to the Music Theory Podcast! In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of chords and chord progressions, essential concepts for any music theorist, musician, music educator, or music student. Understanding chords and how they move through progressions is key to mastering harmony, composition, and arranging.

In Chords and Chord Progressions Part 1, we break down the basics of how chords are constructed, from major and minor chords to more complex structures like seventh chords and extended chords. We also explore the role of tonality and key signatures in shaping chord progressions, with a focus on the most common progressions like the I-IV-V and ii-V-I.

This episode is perfect for music educators looking for clear explanations and practical insights to teach their students. We also explore the historical context of chord progressions and how they evolved over time, from classical harmony to modern jazz and pop music.

By the end of this episode, you'll have a deeper understanding of how to analyze and use chords and chord progressions in your own music. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll dive deeper into more advanced harmonic concepts and progression techniques!

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to The Harmonious Blacksmith. This is episode four, and I am your host, Kevin Patrick Fleming. Oh, boy. Thanks, Mom. I appreciate it. Thank you for joining me today. I do appreciate your time. Let's dive right into today's topics. But first, let me remind you, this podcast is linear and cumulative. So if this is the first episode that you're coming across of my podcast, you're most likely better off going back and starting from the beginning as all the concepts are building on each other each week. As a quick recap of the concepts that we are building off of from the previous episode, we learned about triads. We learned how triads... are similar and also help to build bigger chord and chord structures. We learned what keys were. We learned that there were seven triads in a key built off of the seven scale degrees of a major or minor scale. We also learned the skipping principles of triads, how they're formed, and a few other minor terms like scale degrees and root notes. And that leads us to today's topic, which is all about chords and chord progressions. So let's go ahead and start by defining what a chord progression is. A chord progression is a succession of related or organized chords that change over time and serve as the harmonic foundation for music that is composed or created in the Western tradition. Most Most of us in our daily listening of music that we like to listen to are used to hearing nice, agreeable, consonant-sounding chord progressions that are all on the same key. An example would sound like this.¦Probably sounds like about a hundred songs you've heard before, right? Just a nice set of chords that are agreeable to our ears that give us a backdrop over which we can write, you know, a vocal line or a vocal melody with lyrics. If you're writing a song like that, you could insert a solo of any instrument type, or you could even write like a rock and roll riff or a folk riff over that. So a chord progression gives us a backdrop of for us to be able to write melodic lines and even more harmonic lines if we want to. How do we understand how musicians choose chords and therefore chord progressions? The majority of pop and rock musicians really are pulling chord progressions from standards that they've heard in the past, stuff that influences them, stuff they've listened to for years, grew up listening to, things like that, because they... You already know those chords work together, they sound good together, and so they know they can use them. But what if you could have the power to make the choices on your own so that you could create... new and interesting sounding chord progressions, not necessarily the same old ones we hear over and over. Just like a lot of things in life, it goes to learning the rules and then learning how to break them. So let's start with the rules themselves, and it will refer back to a couple of terms in the previous episode, triads and keys. So from your own understanding up to this point, just think of about what a key entails in your mind. A key essentially comes from the original scale patterns for a major or minor scale using the whole steps and half steps. And then you get the notes of a scale. And then once you have the scale, we use the skipping method to get the triads as was explained in episode three. And those triads are the basis for all the chords within the key. And I'm talking specifically about what we call diatonic keys. So let me go ahead and define this term diatonic. Diatonic refers to the seven note scales in our western system that are formed using exactly five whole steps and two half steps. A diatonic scale will go through every letter in the music alphabet and it will not skip a letter and it will not repeat a letter. Those are important things to remember. The word diatonic may seem a little strange to some of you. It actually comes from ancient Greek. Let's break it down a little bit. This is how I teach it to my students. You have a prefix and you have a suffix. Let's go to the suffix first, which is tonic. Think of the word tone. The modern word tone we use in English, kind of used interchangeably for a note or a sound of a certain kind. So think of tone and tonic as very similar. So the suffix tonic actually means note or tone. The prefix dia really kind of means across. Think about the word diagonal. It means across, all the way across. So in the case of diatonic, it means all the way across the notes or tones. So in other words, a diatonic scale goes through every single letter of the music alphabet. It goes across the notes. And this is really just a way of helping associate it in your mind, even though it doesn't translate directly. As previously mentioned, the most common two diatonic scales that we use in our system are called major and minor. And if you recall the formulas... Major was whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. That's five whole steps and two half steps. And minor was whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. Again, five whole steps and two half steps. There are other diatonic scales in our system, and we are going to go through those in a future episode of this podcast. The major diatonic scale is the most popular and most commonly used diatonic scale for writing and creating music in our Western system. So let's start with the diatonic major scale. So let's start in the key of C major with the C major diatonic scale, which sounds like this. And then recall that we got triads from it by skipping notes, so we would start on scale degree 1, skip 2, take 3, skip 4, take 5, and when you stack those on top of each other in harmony, it sounds like this.

UNKNOWN:

...

SPEAKER_00:

And then the last step to get full chords would be to double and triple those triad notes, those one, three, and fives. So I can just play the octave of one, for example. And then I can play the octave of three. And then, of course, I run out of strings on a guitar, but when I stack those together, it would sound like this. And if you remember that we can create a triad off of every scale degree in a diatonic scale, or now you will also know that you can create a chord off of every scale degree in a key. So now let's just fill out all the chords that we can use in the diatonic key of C major. So we start with the first chord, which is C major. Our second chord becomes D minor. Third chord becomes E minor. Then we have F major. Fifth chord is G major. Sixth chord is A minor. Seventh chord is B diminished. And then we're back to C major again. I do want to point out that a diatonic key is balanced between major and minor. What I mean by that is there are exactly three major triads from which we build chords and exactly three minor triads. And then there's the one anomaly that we call diminished. And I promise I will get to what that means soon. So a major key has three major chords, three minor chords, and one diminished chord. So let me take a second to make a learning connection here. We just went through a diatonic major scale. We built the triads. We found out we have three major and three minor in the key of C major. But what that really means is that we have three major and three minor in every major scale that exists. Yes. Every single major scale is built off of that same formula, and therefore the triads all come out the same. There always are three major triads, three minor triads, and one diminished triad in every single major key. Wait a second, Kevin. You telling me that I only got three major chords and three minor chords to use to write a song with if I want to stay in a key? Yep, that's exactly what I'm telling you. But luckily, you're not completely limited to that. There's going to be a lot more options coming up. There are going to be things we're going to go into like key changes, as well as extended harmony chords like sevenths and ninths, as well as suspensions, adds. Oh boy, okay, so I've opened a can with all those terms, and I'm going to go into all of them, but just wanted to reassure you that we're not limited to just those six or seven triads. We actually have a plethora of possibilities to build on. So we will certainly get to all that as we build, but I digress a little. Let's come back to chord progressions. In general, we have a very important term that we need to go ahead and learn, which is... The Roman numeral system. The ancient Greeks are credited with the first concepts of music theory. But as time went on, around the early 15th century, coming out of the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages... That's when music notation started to come around in a modern sense. Chord progression started to become a thing in music more and more. But it really wasn't until late 18th century that the Roman numeral system came about.

SPEAKER_01:

The

SPEAKER_00:

Roman numeral system creates an easy way to label and identify scale degrees and therefore triads and chords, creating an easy way to communicate the harmonies of a piece of music in a way that's universal to all keys and all instruments. So recall scale degrees, which are just modern numbers that we know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. But as we build those into triads and chords, as we've been talking about, We're going to replace those scale degrees with Roman numerals. So recall that we use the letter I to begin Roman numerals. So you have a lowercase I or a capital I. Then two is going to be two I's. Three is three I's. When you get to four, it's IV. Five is V. Six is VI. Seven is VII. And then in our system, we'll be back to one. So we never actually go to eight. When you get a chance, just do an internet search of the Roman numeral system as it relates to music theory. That way you can get the visual aspect of it as well, since this is just an audio-only podcast at this point. You know, pull up some visuals so you can compare and look at what's going on. All right, so let's bring it back to the key of C major so that we can understand how the Roman numeral system works. And we know there are seven scale degrees that turn into seven triads. And in turn, now you're going to understand that there are seven Roman numerals to go with those degrees and triads. So let's talk about how they lay out in a major key. Quick note, I wanted to let you know that I know that I repeat concepts and I tell you things two, three, even four times. And it's really about learning. It's about having things sink in. If I tell you something once, it very well could just be gone the next day. But if I tell it to you more and more times as we build, it's a lot more likely to sink in. So it really is a learning technique to do the repetition. Just wanted to let you know that it's by design. So let's rebuild back to the point that we are right now. We start back with our C major scale. Built with the whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half formula. Using the skipping technique to create triads, we can do every other note. and stop at exactly three to get a triad. The first, then the third, then the fifth, and then I can do the second, the fourth, and the sixth, et cetera, et cetera. As we know, when I stack them on top, you get a triad. And then when I double and triple those, you get a full chord. So now that we're back to that point, let's break down a major key using the Roman numeral system. Now, let me tell you the power of this before I break down one key. The Roman numerals, again, are used universally for any major key or any key. So they become a paradigm, a template, as it were, that can be used in any major key. I'm just using C major as an example to be But I will also give you a couple more examples on the top of that to make sure the point is made.

SPEAKER_01:

So

SPEAKER_00:

in a major key... Chords 1, 4, and 5 are major and therefore denoted with uppercase Roman numerals. And chords 2, 3, and 6 are minor and therefore denoted with lowercase Roman numerals. When you get a chance, do an interweb search for the Roman numerals in a major key. So that way you can see how everything's laid out. So now it's time to get to your very first chord progression using the Roman numeral system. This is the big daddy of The most popular, the most widely used, and it's called the 1-4-5 progression. Think about scale degrees and the corresponding Roman numerals, 1 through 7 in a diatonic scale or a diatonic key. So the 1-4-5 progression is going to correspond to those numbers exactly the way you think it would. So the first chord is based on 4, first note in the scale or the first scale degree the second chord is based on the fourth scale degree and the third chord is based on the fifth scale degree so the first scale degree in a c major scale is a c as you know and therefore the chord we built off of it or first the triad then the chord sounds like this It is a C major chord. So as we go up the scale degrees, one, two, three, four. Four, in this case, in the key of C major, is an F. And it creates an F major chord. And then, of course, at the end, we go to the fifth scale degree, which is a G. G. And that creates a G major chord. And then we're back to C again. So the entire one, four, five, and then back to one progression sounds like this. One, four, five, back to one. Again, I bet that reminds you of about 100 or even 1,000 songs because it's just so widely used. So the next question you should ask is why, right? Always ask why. In other words, why are we doing this? Why are we talking about the 1-4-5 chord progression as the main or principal chord progression when it comes to writing music in the Western system? Well, I'm so glad you asked such a fine question. Number one, we're in the key of C major, and if you recall, it's balanced. We have three major triads and three minor triads, as well as the one diminished. So as it turns out, in a major key, one, four, and five are all three of your major chords. So that makes sense, right? Remember the difference between major and minor. Major is brighter, happier, energetic, more uplifting. So it makes sense if you're going to write in a major key that you're going to use the three major triads as your primary chord progression. But that's not the only reason that we use them. The second reason is a very important concept to understand in chord progressions, which is called musical tension. Musical tension is the creation of a sense of instability unrest or unresolved conflict in music that creates an anticipation for what we call a resolution. The two key terms here are tension and resolution. Tension and resolution in music can be related directly to two of our other favorite art forms in the world, which are literature and film. Music, literature, and film all start with the same paradigm. They all start about telling a story or a human experience. It starts somewhere. It rises to some sort of conflict or agitation, which creates excitement and anticipation. And ultimately, we want relief with a resolution in the end that will create a sense of ending or relaxation. So back to the key of C major for a quick demonstration. First, listen to the scale so that you can sort of get the key in your ear. That's important.

UNKNOWN:

So

SPEAKER_00:

So you can tell after I play that scale even and I play the tonic chord or the I chord, which is a C major, it's very tranquil, it's very at rest, it's very at ease. This is a starting point and also our resolution point from all our tension in our chord progression. So if I start on that resting C... Then I'm gonna go to a four chord, which is an F. You can hear that the, you can hear and feel that the tension is rising a little bit when we go from one to four. One is tranquil. Four is a little more tense. It builds. And then five is even more tense. And it really wants to go somewhere, which is back to one. Ah, and when we get back to one, there's a sense of ease, a sense of home base, a sense of relaxation. So let me do that one more time all the way through. One chord. Four chord. Five chord. Back to one. A good analogy for musical tension would be a roller coaster ride. At the beginning of every roller coaster, everyone is getting into the car and basically everything is tranquil. Nothing is moving yet, but there's a lot of anticipation. There's a lot of excitement, maybe even some fear if you're somebody like me, even though I really enjoy roller coasters. But at the same time, it's a good analogy because basically Basically, you start at rest. you start to build towards, like, for example, you clickety-clack up that first big hill of an old wooden roller coaster in anticipation of the fall on the next drop after the hill. So that is starting at rest, then increasing the tension, just like a chord progression, going up a hill, then releasing it down a hill. And that's obviously not the end of the coaster, right? We have more hills to climb. And at a greater speed we also have turns we have loops we have all kinds of stuff and if it's a ride you've never ridden before or a piece of music you've never heard before you're not sure exactly what you're getting into but eventually all of that leads to the end of the ride or the end of the music where we come back to a resting point we all are able to relax get out of the car and reflect on what we just experienced So relating this back to the 1-4-5 progression, it's just that the 1-4 and 5 chords in a major key create the perfect rise and fall of musical tension back to resolution. It just really is the perfect backdrop for it. Thank you very much. But for now, we're just going to stick with harmonic tension. So now for a few examples in different keys. We already did C major, but I just want to show you that this kind of musical tension within the 1-4-5 progression works in any major key exactly the same way. So for example, if I just take the arbitrary key of E major... Again, you can hear the tranquility at rest of that first chord there. So here's the I chord. Then the IV chord is an A. The V chord is a B. And you can hear that tension needs to be resolved back to I. So now hear the 1-4-5 in the key of A major, which sounds like this. Nice, tranquil I chord is A. D is the IV chord, tension rises. E is the V chord, tension heightens even more and needs to be resolved back to A. So what if we were to not resolve that tension? It actually is the kind of thing that drives people, us, the royal we, crazy. So I'll give you an example. What if I go back to the key of E major and I play a I chord, then a IV chord, then a V chord. There, that's it. I'm done, right? No, I'm not, right? You can hear that that tension needs to be resolved. That musical tension. And your ear really wants it to happen. So stopping on this chord does not make us feel at ease. But when we resolve it back to... Then we have the relaxation that we need. The final thing I'll point out about the 1-4-5 progression and why it's the main setting within a major key for chord progressions is because the 1, the 4, and the 5 triads include every single melodic possibility or harmonic possibility within the key. What do I mean by that? Well, recall triad skipping. If you start on the 1 chord, you get 1-3-5. The IV chord is going to have IV, VI, and I. The V chord is going to have V, VII, and II. And if you extract all of those, you get the entire scale. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, back to one. So every note in the key is a melodic possibility that can be used against just those three chords. But Kevin, what about the minor chords in a major key? And what about minor keys in general? Yes, these are wonderful questions. And these will be answered when I get to part two of chord progressions in a later episode. So let's recap what we learned in this episode. We've been learning all about chords and chord progressions. We learned about the Roman numeral system and why we use it and how we use it to delineate or denote chord progressions. We learned about the 1-4-5 progression and why it is the most widely and popular progression there is. We learned about musical tension and resolution. Coming up, we're going to learn more about common chord progressions other than just 1-4-5. We're going to learn about extended harmony like 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, etc., We're also going to start our journey on the idea of intervals. And, for example, why triads sound major or minor and why we call them that. Thanks again for joining me on the Harmonious Blacksmith. And I look forward to continuing this music theory exploration with all of you.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.