Part 3:
Tunes
132
Let’s put together some of these combinations. We’ll start, of course, with the I
chord. Because I leads to any chord, let’s go up one scale note and insert the ii
chord after the I. According to our chart,
ii can lead to either IV, V, or vii°. We’ll
pick V. Then, because V always leads to I, the next chord is a return to the tonic.
The entire progression looks like this:
I
ii
V
I
When you play this progression in the key of C, you get the following chords:
C / / /
Dm / / /
G / / /
C / / /
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Let’s try another example. Again, we’ll start with the tonic, but this time we’ll
use the vi chord as the second chord. According to the chart, vi can lead to
either ii, IV, V, or I; let’s pick IV. Then, because IV can lead to either I, iii, V, or
vii°, we’ll pick V as the next chord—which leads us back to I as our final chord.
The entire progression looks like this:
I
vi
IV
V
I
When you play this progression in the key of C, you get the following chords:
C / / /
Am / / /
F / / /
G / / /
C / / /
You should recognize that progression as the chords that drove thousands of
doo-wop tunes in the 1950s and 1960s.
Let’s
return to that progression, and make an alternate choice for the third
chord—ii instead of IV. Because ii also leads to V, we can leave the rest of the
progression intact, which creates the following alternate progression:
I
vi
ii
V
I
This, when played in the key of C, results in these chords:
C / / /
Am / / /
Dm / / /
G / / /
C / / /
When you’re playing a chord progression, the number of beats or
measures allotted to each chord isn’t set in stone. For example, you
could play the I-IV-V progression with a single measure for each chord.
Or you could play two measures of I, and a measure each of IV and V.
Or you could
play three measures of one, and then two beats each of IV and V.
It all depends on the needs of the song—and helps provide an almost infinite
variety of possible chord combinations.
Tip
You can also work backward from where you want to end up—your final chord.
Because in most cases you want the final chord to be the tonic (I), all you have
to do is work through the options that lead to that chord. Consulting the Chord
Leading Reference table, you find that four chords can lead to the I: IV, V, vi,
Chapter 10:
Chord Progressions
133
and vii°. The obvious choice is the V chord, so that’s what we’ll use. Now we have
to pick a chord to lead to V;
the choices are ii, IV, vi, and I. Let’s pick ii. Now we
pick a chord that leads to the ii; the choices are I, iii, IV, and vi. Let’s pick iii. Now
we pick a chord that leads to the iii; the choices are I, IV, and vii°. Let’s pick I,
which is also a good chord with which to start our phrase. When you put all these
chords together, you get the following progression:
I
iii
ii
V
I
Play this progression in the key of C, and you use these chords:
C / / /
Em / / /
Dm / / /
G / / /
C / / /
Pretty easy, isn’t it?
Ending
a Phrase
When you come to the end of a musical phrase—which can be anywhere in your song,
even in the middle of your melody—you use chords to set up a tension, and then
relieve that tension. This feeling of a natural ending is called
cadence
, and there are
some accepted chord progressions you can use to provide this feeling of completion.
Perfect Cadence
The most common phrase-ending chord progression uses the V (dominant)
chord to set up the tension, which is relieved when you move on to the I (tonic)
chord. This progression is notated V-I, and in the key of C looks like this:
G / / /
C / / /
You could probably
see this cadence coming, from the chord leading shown in
the table named Chord Leading Reference earlier in this chapter. There’s no
better way to get back home (I) than through the dominant chord (V).
Plagal Cadence
A slightly weaker ending progression uses the IV (subdominant) chord in place of
the V chord. This IV-I progression is called a
plagal cadence;
in the key of C, it
looks like this:
F / / /
C / / /
Although this is an effective cadence, it isn’t nearly as strong as the perfect V-I
cadence. For that reason, you might want to use a plagal
cadence in the middle of
your song or melody, and save the stronger perfect cadence for the big ending.
Imperfect Cadence
Sometimes, especially in the middle of a melody, you might want to end on a chord
that isn’t the tonic. In these instances, you’re setting up an unresolved tension, typi-
cally by ending on the V (dominant) triad.
The V-I progression
can be enhanced
by
using the domi-
nant seventh chord
(V7) instead of the straight
V. This progression is
notated V7-I.
Tip
