The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Part 3:
Tunes
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Here’s what the progression looks like in the key of C:
C / / /
F / / /
Bdim / / /
Em / / /
Am / / /
D / / /
G / / /
C / / /
You can also play this progression backward, creating a circle of fourths, but that
isn’t nearly as common as the one detailed here.
Singing the Blues
There’s a unique chord progression associated with the genre of music we com-
monly call 
the blues.
This blues form isn’t relegated solely to blues music, how-
ever; you’ll find this form used in many jazz and popular tunes, as well.
The blues progression is a 12-measure progression. (It’s sometimes called a “12-
bar blues.”) This 12-measure progression repeats again and again throughout
the melody and any instrumental solos.
The form is essentially a I-IV-I-V7-I progression, but spread over twelve meas-
ures, like this:
I / / /
I / / /
I / / /
I / / /
IV / / /
IV / / /
I / / /
I / / /
V7 / / /
V7 / / /
I / / /
I / / /
In the key of C, the blues progression looks like this:
C / / /
C / / /
C / / /
C / / /
F / / /
F / / /
C / / /
C / / /
G7 / / /
G7 / / /
C / / /
C / / /
Although these are the basic blues chords, you can use lots of variations to spice
up individual songs. (Turn to Chapter 16 to see some of these variations.)
Chords and Melodies
Although chords fill out a tune and provide its harmonic underpinning, you still
need a melody to make a song.
The relationship between chords and melody is complex—and works a little like
the proverbial chicken and the egg. You can start with one or the other, but in the
end you have to have both.
This means you can write a melody to a given chord progression, or you can start
with the melody and harmonize it with the appropriate chords. There’s no set place
to start; whether you start with the melody or the chords is entirely up to you.
Fitting Chords to a Melody
If you write your melody first, you then have to figure out which chords fit where.
In many cases, it’s a simple matter of applying one of the common chord pro-
gressions to your melody; more often than not, you’ll find one that’s a perfect fit.
The blues progression is
sometimes played with a
V7 chord in the final
measure.
Note

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Chapter 10:
Chord Progressions
To demonstrate, let’s look at the chords behind some of the melodies we first
examined back in Chapter 8.
Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
We’ll start with “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,” which is a great example of a
progression that relies heavily on the I, IV, and V chords—but with a few twists.
Here’s the song, complete with chords:
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The chords to “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.”
The first twist in the chord progression comes in the fifth full measure (the start
of the second phrase), which uses the iii chord (F
m) instead of the expected I.
The second twist is the sixth measure, which moves down to the ii chord (Em).
From there the melody ends with a perfect cadence (I-V-I), just as you’d expect.
So, if you started your hunt for the perfect progression for this melody by apply-
ing a standard I-IV-V progression, you’d be in the right neighborhood.
Bach’s 
Minuet in G
Next, let’s examine Bach’s 
Minuet in G.
Again, if you apply the standard I-IV-V
progression, you’ll be pretty much on the mark, as you can see here:
The chords to Bach’s 
Minuet in G.

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