Chord progressions? and some good 1's for hiphop?

[centexdance]

I know this isn't going to be good for a beginner, but check out this site here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths

if you know your music theory, the circle of fifths is the way to do a clean chord progressions, where the melody/chord progression, can lead you to the next chord... so let's say you are starting in the key of C, a good sound would be to go from... C to G to D to A...

You count the chord you are on as 1 and move 5 from there to get to the next note letter... so my chord progression would be 1-5-2-4 ....
Just a theory note... when one is using a 5 chord is most common to add the 7th to the chord and flatten it, as this makes the music move more smoothly into the 2 chord... GBDF.. so Your G chord in my example would be G-B-D-F (because if you were doing the actual 7th of the chord rather then flattening it it would be an F# at the end.)..

If you wanted to skip the 2 chord here, that would be ok, as the 5 generally holds the 2 note in it, however, it does make for a smoother transition to add the 2 in there.

Mind you... All of the above information is used more stylistically for Barberhsop and Woodshedding, however, it does hold up for all styles of music... You might want to look at augmenting some of those chords, and even deminishing some of them, to get a different sound, but for the most part, I stick with the chords as they are, major, minor, and adding 7ths tends to serve my purpouses...

Hope this helps....
Mike

 

[Lodger]

here's the best way i can explain it(we'll start off wayyy simple...and build up from there):

if you already know chords, ths should be fairly easy-

a chord progression is sort of like taking a walk- you start off at home, you wonder around a little bit. however, eventually, you want to end up back "home".

a chord progression is a cycle of chords that naturally lead into or "resolve into each other".

consider this:

you know how every scale has 7 notes in it? each of those can be turned into a chord that works with that scale...

ex. for C major,

I- C maj
ii- d min
iii-e min
IV- F maj
V- G maj
vi - A min
vii*- B dim

c minor is
i- cmin
ii*- d dim
III- e maj
iv- f min
v- g min
VI- a maj
VII- b maj



each of these is assigned a roman numeral (caps denote maj, lower denotes minor)

Now what you need to know now is that
each of these roman numerals lead to other ones (let me know if this is incorrect- im working off my memory of the chart i learned):

I- leads to any chord
ii - leads to IV, V, vii*
iii - leads to V, vi
IV- leads to V, ii, or I
V - IV, iii, vii*, I
vi- IV, ii,
vii* - ii, I, V

you'll want to learn which chords will end up at the degree you are sterting at.

to make a progression, start at I and just string them together on the basis of what they resolve to.

ie a simple one is I-IV-V (repeat)

or try I-IV-ii-IV-V-vii*

The way that chord progressions resolve back to the first also influences the feel of the progression- V is the strongest, while IV and vii* are slightly weaker, but will take you to your "home chord".

see how this works and let me know if you need more info.

your mission, if you choose to accept it (and i hope so after this long-ass post) is to write at least 3 progressions using this chart. good luck!

-Lodger

 

[centexdance]

Lodger,
"each scale has 7 notes"... actually, that's not so much true. There is such a thing as a chromatic scale which is 13 notes long... Chromatic means that you go up in half steps.

And there are some chords within the chromatic that might add nicely to a progression.

Keep in mind as well that it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish, and what style you are using, howeve.

Also I must say that, as long as music has been around probably every chord progression has been tried and the ugly ones have been left out, LOL.. and it is not against the law to use someone elses progression, as long as you aren't using their melody and rhythm.

l8R
Mike

 

[Lodger]

<quote>each scale has 7 notes"... actually, that's not so much true. There is such a thing as a chromatic scale which is 13 notes long... Chromatic means that you go up in half steps.

And there are some chords within the chromatic that might add nicely to a progression. </quote>

you do have a point there- the qualification that i should have made was that this is how a lot of it works in much western music.

my goal was to sketch out an overall foundation for understanding chord progressions, not necessarily creating a cover all treatise on how music works. I will say, however, that this does provide a basis for understanding how rule breaking, alternate scales, substitutions and modulation work.

thanks for your input on this

-lodger

 

[dvyce]

Can someone here explain somewhat what chord progressions are, i know what a chord is *1-3-5 or 1-3-5-7*.
also what might be soem good ones for hiphop i didnt understand by lookin at midis too messy.

a "chord progression" is essentially a series of ordered chords that are used in a song.

As for your question of "what are some good progressions for hip hop"-- you are basically asking for a transcription of the chords of some existing hip hop songs. Just find some songs you like and, if you are not able to figure out what they are doing by ear, get the sheet music and look at it (or ask someone to figure out the chords for you.)