chord progression for fun ....

C

cowby

Guest
Hi,

I would like to play chord progression. My left hand always press C -> A -> G -> F and the right hand play diff. keys. The chord progression that I played was good and easily found in those POP songs. But I started getting boring.

Any easy Chord progression pattern that you guys can post here like those pop song (intro) ? BTW, I am a newbie ...

Cowby
 
well, if you want to make up chord progressions. You'll have to know a little theory.

When playing progressions, the most important thing to know is that you have to stay in the key. That is... if you're in the key of C major (all white keys) you won't play any sharps or flats (black keys). This will dictate what type of chord you play. The chords built off the 1st 4th and 5th notes of a major scale will be Major chords. and the chords built off the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th will be minor chords. The 7th is a diminished chord... but you can play a minor instead.

anyway. A classical chord progression is made of 4 parts.
Tonic - Predominant - Dominant - Tonic

the tonic is the chord built off the root note
the predominant is the chord built off either the 2nd or 4th note of the scale
the dominant is the chord built off the 5th note in the scale
and then back to the tonic

that is the most basic progression ever.
examples are:
CMaj - dmin - GMaj - CMaj
AMaj - DMaj - EMaj - AMaj
etc...
anyway...
that's just the simplest progression. But, as long as you keep the chords in the key... you can pretty much jump around from chord to chord however you like-if it sounds good to you then it's good :)

I hope this isn't too confusion... I'm not too good at explaining these things. If it is or you have other questions, write back.
:) :) :) :)
-Mike
 
Guys,

Thanks for your reply/input.

How about the right hand. Any suggestion to work with the chord you guys provided ?

Cowby
 
one thing also, inversions are very handy, at least on the piano (don't have the nack for them on the guitar yet)...

an inversion is just a chord put in different orde,r
e.g. - ceg - very basic chord, invert it up one, and you get egc, invert it down one, you get gce, see what i'm getting at?

ALSO, try other variants (cdg, cfg) etc...
yeah, definately avoid flats when your doing major chords too.... (if your using a softsynth btw, most of the time, flats are represented as sharps, confused me for the longest time, till i remembered c# is dflat!!! ha! i'm a gimp!)

TWD
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/207/the_wandering_daoist.html
 
hey daoist-
you better c# or you'll Bb... :) heh

anyway...
for the right hand, you should make sure you land on the one of the notes in the chord when you first play that chord, then during the rest of the time fill in the notes between. Use scalar motion (up and down in the scale) and to start out with, don't make leaps larger than a 5th and for a leap of a 4th or a 5th come back down on the next note.
Since what I'm telling you comes from my background with classical training, your songs will probably have a slightly classical sound. But this kind of theory is found in all types of music too though. You might also want to hear a jazzer's approach to it... if anyone here has a jazz background, I also would like to hear some of your suggestions on this topic too.
:)
-Mike
 
man, do all musicians make bad jokes like that?

jazz is the foundation of ALL modern music it seems, so if someone wants to be good at producing music, i'm assuming jazz theory is indespenseble.. i'm investing a great deal of effort into learning jazz theory for guitar, and soon piano (thus any keyboard instrument)... can ya recommend any good books?

TWD
 
Indispensable for PRODUCING music, no way.
For intricately understanding music, yeah, amongst other studies of the chakras and African/Cuban/Brazilian rhythms and Celtic folk songs...
A good book is
The Jazz Piano Book
by Mark Levine

another...
The Advancing Guitarist
by Mick Goodrick

If music theory helps you make one idea into ten other better ones, it can be indespensable for producing music.
If it confuses you all the time, it is a hindrance.
If learning theory becomes a journey into a cage which contains a hidden key, to open the door into a larger cage which itself contains another key, and so on and so forth, that can be helpful.
"For years, a bird in a cage,
And then one day, flying free as a bird"
 
i-clan said:
Indispensable for PRODUCING music, no way.
Click to expand...

well, if by producing music you mean MAKING music, yeah it is. how can you make music if you don't understand how it's done? I mean, yeah you can, but if you do understand, it makes it a LOT easier to find the right notes and chords you're looking for.



If it confuses you all the time, it is a hindrance.[/QUOTE]

as with anything- if it's confusing, it means you don't understand it, you don't know it. If you DO know it, it'll be your most useful tool.

-Mike
 
iclan does kinda have a point.. maybe it should be rephrased.. indespenseble for making GOOD music.. or rather, intellegent music..

so, that excludes modern mainstream from that category i guess..
 
Afircan tribes never had anyone to teach them theory and some of their modes are ampongst the coolest around.
The Greeks made it up as they went along, and related it to trippy topics such as "the harmony of the spheres". Sounds are sounds, and what you find is what u found.
At the end of the day, what got to tape or disk. How does it feel? Free?
If you can be free with music theory, then great. If you can use all of your intelligence to produce one single heartfelt note, that is brilliance.
Having studied classical and flamenco guitar and jazz theory from age ten to seventeen has helped with an overview and historical context.
After then completing a 3 year Bachelor of Arts in contemporary music i have been well schooled in the styles of Funk, Jazz, Acid Jazz and Fusion. Rhythm parts were explained, how they sit with the bass and kit, 2 note, 3 note, 4 note, 5 note and six note harmonisations and re-harmonisations using concepts of the harmonic series and overlaid arpeggios and inversions were explained.
Contemporary classical and its use of poly chords was an interesting area of study, amongst others, such as the voicings and part movments of Gregorian chants.
Then for a few years played guitar in original music bands in Sydney Melbourne and Byron Bay. Then was involved in a heavy road accident. My previous tai chi teacher helped me recover, but i also discovered techno and trippy trance music during this time. Used the compensation to put a pretty high powered multi media studio together, also including a 24 bit Pro Tools setup. Did a cert III in Multi media web design in Sydney and now developing ideas of how to communicate visually aswell as musically.
And at the top of it all, i still agree with Mac Rebenac (aka Dr John) ...."Keep that music simple; Ya gotta make it Phat!"
 
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