I enjoy music, but know next to nothing about it. These video are over my head really, but it makes me understand how the mood of the music is created and deepens my appreciation. Thanks so much.
The 1st 2 chord progressions are examples of majoring the IV chord, and then majoring the V chord. You can also minor or even major the II, when the melody and structure permits. Dim6 is like a tritone sub. All kinds of more possibilities, even staying strictly in "minor". The 3 chord loops in the video provide classic foundations for exploration in variations of minor hue.
"Minoring the ii or "Majoring the IV' is Dorian and "majoring the ii" is an example of a few different modes, the Lydian b3 (sometimes called "The Hungarian Minor" or "double harmonic minor") or Aeolian #4 being the most common. But more fundamentally, you can major literally any chord on a modal degree without much destabilization. That's because triads function pretty much identically being major or minor. And you do often see that in blues/rock harmony where every single chord might be a dominant 7th even though it doesn't "fit" into the mode.
I love your channel, and although I was trained in music theory -- decades ago in college -- I appreciate hearing about how younger bands and artists are still using these chord progressions to create new music and make it their own!
How about STEPPIN’ STONE for the first chord pattern?! There were lots of great examples in the video including ones I didn’t know, but this Monkee and Paul Revere & the Raiders rocker was an early and famous usage. The progression could almost be named after this song.
Love the videos, super useful! Also wanted to point out that I love that artists like MCR get a lot of love here, a lot of other music theory channels focus a lot more on the established canon from before the 90s
Love your stuff. You probably won’t see this, but here are a few progressions to that I would love to hear you explain. (I don’t think you’ve covered these yet). While my Guitar Gently Weeps progression (Am, G, F#m, F) Songs: The Weeknd - Wicked Games, Two Feet - I Feel Like I’m Drowning, The Beatles - While my Guitar Gently Weeps, Portishead - Glory Box Sweater Weather progression (C, Am, Em, G) Songs: The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather, Cigarettes After Sex - Apocalypse, Beach Weather - Sex Drugs Etc.
I just found your videos. Excellent descriptions and demos. Can't say I have ever seen a Talk Talk reference in a video before, most underrated band from the 1980s.
The last progression was interesting because if you change the minor chords to major you have the classic rock mixolydian progression used for the start of Sweet Child of Mine and the start of Welcome to Paradise.
Very good. But in all of these chord progression videos, what I am missing is how important is the inversion of each chord in the progression in order to each the required ascent/descent? If I play along with the root chords in each case, I don't necessarily achieve the same result (or am I mistaken?) Anyway, very happy to see Talk Talk featured. A very creative band under the stewardship of the late under-rated Mark Hollis. Would love to see some more videos on key changes, as I sense that they were particularly good at this.
I'm not sure if I understand the question correctly, but generally speaking you can use whatever sounds, best, or is easier to play. It's better to go with what sounds best, and luckily that means less jumping around. But if you're ever in doubt, just try them all. For triads that's just 2 inversions (beyond root position), and only 3 inversions for a 7th chord.
I don't think it's possible to teach voice leading as a science. There are objective mathematical ways to determine parsimonious voice leading and degrees of 'closeness' in chords, but that all goes out the window once you start writing real music and realize that smoothest possible voice leading is not always desirable. In pop music especially, it's not even the default way to play things. Which is all to say, you can't really explain the "importance of inversions" with much objectivity. As a general guideline: Root chords are the most stable, first inversions are the gentlest and often sound kind of dark (they can sometimes be heard as minor b6 chords without the 5th for major inversions, and major 6th chords for minor inversions), and second inversion are the most forceful and least stable. Smoother voice leading is desirable when you want the chord changes to be less noticeable, and less smooth voice leading when you want it to be more noticeable. You just have to develop a 'feel' for all of this through time, trial, and error
Thanks again David for giving me some more songwriting ideas!! Of course creating a truly great melody makes all the difference to a chord progression!!
Another example of the closed loop progression from the end is (edit: kinda) the verse from Little Black Submarines. The whole time you were explaining, playing, and showing examples it was burning in the back of my brain and I couldn't figure out where I knew it from - one of my favourite songs! These chord progression videos are amazing.
Another good example of the "Rising Sun" progression is "Traust" by Heilung. However, the IV chord feels more minor, so it would be i-bIII-iv-bVI. The Aeolian closed loop actually moves in identical motion to the Mixolydian vamp you mentioned in an earlier video. Only difference is the tonic and subdominant chords are minor instead of major.
David, can you pls do a video/note on the progression of La Folia? I'd appreciate it a lot, and maybe some other "ancient" progressions not heard often any more?
Really surprised that "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers wasn't an example for the last chord progression. Great video, as usual! Thanks!
Didn't Tom Petty take RHCP to court over the similarities with Dani California? Edit - ah just checked and he didnt think there was any negative intent. Makes me like him even more.
Love this! I would like to have seen the "Still got The Blues" progression, which is a full cycle of 5ths (or 4ths, if you prefer) ending with a harmonic minor substitution. It's an ideal practice sequence.
The i VII VI V progression, the second one shown here, is called Andalusian cadence. It is very popular and used extensively in Flamenco music. As noted it mixes the natural and harmonic minor modes Edit: I have only very recently found your channel and I find it brilliant. :)
In one of your other chord progression video's, you showed a progression I call the Santana Progression, i / IV, or i(7) / IV. Santana uses this a lot, like in Evil Ways, Oye Como mVa, Jingo, Soul Sacrifice etc. In, for example Am, it becomes Am / D and surely enough, when I take a solo, I use f sharp, in stead of g sharp, wich gives the solo a nice soft "dorian" feeling. To spice things up, you can switch to A-Blues (a c d d sharp e g a). I do the same in House Of The Rising Sun.
I went from "all pop songs use the same pregressions" to "actually there are more progressions than I can hope to remember" thanks to your videos. Better start memorizing 😅
Hi, David. I've enjoyed your vids for a long time. Just one observation. The progression for Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart" should actually be Bm, Em7, A (instead of D), F#7.
I’m using the system where you always refer your Roman numerals back to the major scale, even when talking about a minor key chord progression. Sorry for any confusion. And the keyboard is a Nord Grand 😊
Thanks for making this one, it's really interesting to see the mixing of modes in popular music. I think a video about closed loop (i learned them as in the loop instead of on the loop) songs could be good. Stand By Me, What's Goin' On, and You Ain't Goin' Nowhere come to mind.
Two chord progressions from Jean-Michel Jarre songs: i - bVI - iv - V from the refrain of Équinoxe 4 I - V - ii - IV from the refrain of Chronologie 4 I don't remember if you talked about the latter in one of your earlier videos and I don't think the former was in this one.
heyy, i have a doubt. Why do some notes have the flat sign (♭), when they are the same chords without it? (for example, in the last chord progression, ♭VII is G, when VII is G already)
Those are all nice minor chord progressions. What I would like to learn is, if you are using a minor chord progression like one of these in a song's verse, what are the best chord progressions to modulate from these minor progressions to a major chord progression in the chorus, to go from a darker somber mood to a brighter majestic mood. Is that something you could share? Thanks.
Great video as usual. For anyone just learning how to play piano who thinks this esoteric stuff is helping you. It’s not. Instead of writing i bIII IV bVI you could just say it’s a 6-1-2-4 with a major 2. Much easier for people to understand and translates more easily to other songs with similar progressions. Like 6 1 2+ 4 gets you to 6154 way faster than translating it to minor, pretending you’re flattening the 3 on A Major, when you’re actually just playing the “6 as minor” in the major key, pretending you’re flattening a 6 of a different scale when you’re really just playing a 4. 🤷🏻♂️ Or even worse - I’m playing a flattened 1, flattening the 3, flattening the 6, switching temporarily to Dorian. Nah bro, you played a common major chord progression but played a Major 2. Get over yourself Jazz Hands.
The F minor chorus of "Don't Speak" by No Doubt doesn't QUITE fit in with the other examples of the natural minor-harmonic minor mix, as its third chord is clearly Eb (bVII), not Ab (bIII), like the following song "Isle of Flightless Birds" by twenty one pilots.
Your channel is great and I quite enjoy it. That said, I have a thought for you to ponder. I've referred some students (not music students but college students who could use a basic knowledge of music theory) to your channel. When I sent a link to this vid, I also made a quick vid capture for the student where I explained that (for someone at his level), not to get confused or intimidated by things like you showing chords in inversions and with extra root notes in the bass. So maybe (again, just a thought), for some of the simple videos like this, perhaps you could first show the simplest 1-3-5 versions of each chord without the extra bass roots and then explain that "and here is the same chord in 1st or 2nd inversion with bass notes". And even if you don't choose to do that, I'll still send out links to your vids because I really like your delivery and pacing (and the content of course - I have a couple of music degrees myself and it's clear you really know your stuff).
Couple days ago I had an idea for a video: Songs that use all the notes. I think that would have enough examples even with excluding blatant key changes
I see that progression as vi I V of V IV. Often it's a IV7. am C D F. Played it a hundred times or more on House OTRS. I enjoy your videos. Thanks for the lessons.
David is labelling the progression relative to the major key - so in A major, there would be a G#. By saying bVII it just means G rather than G#. This can be confusing though - and I think David has talked about this in other videos. You could label that G chord as simply VII - because relative to the minor key the song is in, it is simply the VII chord. I prefer David's way of doing it though - I find it clearer and easier when chord progressions are labelled relative to the major key.
hey i really enjoy the video but why are the III and VI chords marked as bIII and bVI when they are not bIII or bVI in their key signature? am i getting something wrong? i mean the scale of Am is obvious A B C D E F G but a flat 3 chord would represent a B chord instead of C and a flat 6 chord would represent a E chord instead of F , which in a minor scale even makes even less sense since B and E just would be 2 and 5 and not flat 3 and flat 6, i am confused.
This is a really common issue with minor key chord progressions. I'm using the system where the roman numerals always refer to the major scale, even if the music we happen to be looking at is actually in the minor key. sorry for any confusion 😊😊
As I was watching this I was thinking that there are some really cool bands included in this video - Talk Talk, The Cure - and then at that exact moment Olly Murs popped up on screen, shattering that thought into a million pieces! Rage on omnipotent...
I am curious on how the music examples with the progressions were made. Do you know the songs with the progressions by heart or is there a way to search for songs by progressions?
I looked up early Beach Boys album; Little Deuce Coupe which I haven't heard since my older brother used to play it. It has some pop/surf/car songs but also some that may be considered 5 voice harmonies. In particular a vocal piece called 'A Young Man is gone'. Is it considered 5 voice harmony? Was this a 1940's vocal style? I think it's brilliant early Brian Wilson.
I listened in a hurry today while I was exercising, sorry if I missed it David, but did you include Eric Clapton/Cream, White Room? I play that (whether correct or not), Am / C / D / F G
can someone plz educate me, in the last progression he mentiones he is using the natural a minor, but then marks G as the flat seven. my question is, isnt the flat seven of a minor g flat? why doesnt he mark it as the seventh note/chord in the scale?
Huh never really thought about the tonality/progression of the Michael Jackson song "Blood On The Dancefloor", I'm always taken aback by the ridiculously good beat.
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@DavidBennettPiano Is Comfortably Numb not also an aeolian closed loop progression? Bm-A-G-(F#)-Em-Bm.
Hello, sorry, until when will the coupon be available?
I love that David has the keyboard on the bottom of the screen. It makes it so much easier to understand.
I enjoy music, but know next to nothing about it. These video are over my head really, but it makes me understand how the mood of the music is created and deepens my appreciation. Thanks so much.
The 1st 2 chord progressions are examples of majoring the IV chord, and then majoring the V chord. You can also minor or even major the II, when the melody and structure permits. Dim6 is like a tritone sub. All kinds of more possibilities, even staying strictly in "minor". The 3 chord loops in the video provide classic foundations for exploration in variations of minor hue.
"Minoring the ii or "Majoring the IV' is Dorian and "majoring the ii" is an example of a few different modes, the Lydian b3 (sometimes called "The Hungarian Minor" or "double harmonic minor") or Aeolian #4 being the most common. But more fundamentally, you can major literally any chord on a modal degree without much destabilization. That's because triads function pretty much identically being major or minor. And you do often see that in blues/rock harmony where every single chord might be a dominant 7th even though it doesn't "fit" into the mode.
The second is surely my favourite chord progression, love the emotion in it
I love your channel, and although I was trained in music theory -- decades ago in college -- I appreciate hearing about how younger bands and artists are still using these chord progressions to create new music and make it their own!
You are most likely the best teacher Ive ever experienced. Honestly, you are better than Rick Beato, who is very good too. I get more from your vids.
The first progression sounded epic, and then you confirmed it by using Ecstasy of Gold as an example!
How about STEPPIN’ STONE for the first chord pattern?! There were lots of great examples in the video including ones I didn’t know, but this Monkee and Paul Revere & the Raiders rocker was an early and famous usage. The progression could almost be named after this song.
that piece at the end was awesome! now we need a full version lol.
Love the videos, super useful! Also wanted to point out that I love that artists like MCR get a lot of love here, a lot of other music theory channels focus a lot more on the established canon from before the 90s
I definetly wasnt expecting Give It Up there, wow 🤩
I could listen to the natural minor closed loop for hours...❤
Great video! Not sure how I got to it first, but I love the chord progression playlist!
Love your stuff. You probably won’t see this, but here are a few progressions to that I would love to hear you explain. (I don’t think you’ve covered these yet).
While my Guitar Gently Weeps progression (Am, G, F#m, F)
Songs: The Weeknd - Wicked Games, Two Feet - I Feel Like I’m Drowning, The Beatles - While my Guitar Gently Weeps, Portishead - Glory Box
Sweater Weather progression
(C, Am, Em, G)
Songs: The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather, Cigarettes After Sex - Apocalypse, Beach Weather - Sex Drugs Etc.
@@padeprenomis am am/g D F ?
Another brilliant explanation, Bro. You're making me a better musician video by video
This video was extremely useful and helpful as to recognizing songs in A-minor scale☺️🥳💪
I just found your videos. Excellent descriptions and demos. Can't say I have ever seen a Talk Talk reference in a video before, most underrated band from the 1980s.
Your ending songs are beautiful!
The last progression was interesting because if you change the minor chords to major you have the classic rock mixolydian progression used for the start of Sweet Child of Mine and the start of Welcome to Paradise.
Very good. But in all of these chord progression videos, what I am missing is how important is the inversion of each chord in the progression in order to each the required ascent/descent? If I play along with the root chords in each case, I don't necessarily achieve the same result (or am I mistaken?)
Anyway, very happy to see Talk Talk featured. A very creative band under the stewardship of the late under-rated Mark Hollis. Would love to see some more videos on key changes, as I sense that they were particularly good at this.
I'm not sure if I understand the question correctly, but generally speaking you can use whatever sounds, best, or is easier to play. It's better to go with what sounds best, and luckily that means less jumping around. But if you're ever in doubt, just try them all. For triads that's just 2 inversions (beyond root position), and only 3 inversions for a 7th chord.
I don't think it's possible to teach voice leading as a science. There are objective mathematical ways to determine parsimonious voice leading and degrees of 'closeness' in chords, but that all goes out the window once you start writing real music and realize that smoothest possible voice leading is not always desirable. In pop music especially, it's not even the default way to play things.
Which is all to say, you can't really explain the "importance of inversions" with much objectivity. As a general guideline: Root chords are the most stable, first inversions are the gentlest and often sound kind of dark (they can sometimes be heard as minor b6 chords without the 5th for major inversions, and major 6th chords for minor inversions), and second inversion are the most forceful and least stable. Smoother voice leading is desirable when you want the chord changes to be less noticeable, and less smooth voice leading when you want it to be more noticeable. You just have to develop a 'feel' for all of this through time, trial, and error
Thanks again David for giving me some more songwriting ideas!! Of course creating a truly great melody makes all the difference to a chord progression!!
I would love to learn about chord progressions in other modes like (but not limited to) lydian or phrygian dominant.
Same.
Another example of the closed loop progression from the end is (edit: kinda) the verse from Little Black Submarines. The whole time you were explaining, playing, and showing examples it was burning in the back of my brain and I couldn't figure out where I knew it from - one of my favourite songs! These chord progression videos are amazing.
Another good example of the "Rising Sun" progression is "Traust" by Heilung. However, the IV chord feels more minor, so it would be i-bIII-iv-bVI.
The Aeolian closed loop actually moves in identical motion to the Mixolydian vamp you mentioned in an earlier video. Only difference is the tonic and subdominant chords are minor instead of major.
David, can you pls do a video/note on the progression of La Folia? I'd appreciate it a lot, and maybe some other "ancient" progressions not heard often any more?
Really surprised that "Mary Jane's Last Dance" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers wasn't an example for the last chord progression. Great video, as usual! Thanks!
Oh my my, oh hell YES!! That's the only song that I would have guessed!
@@JMaxfield09 Nice! I see what you did there! 🤣
Didn't Tom Petty take RHCP to court over the similarities with Dani California?
Edit - ah just checked and he didnt think there was any negative intent. Makes me like him even more.
That's because Tom Petty uses the IV chord instead of the iv the RHCP used
Grand Merci pour tout ce travail et ces partages David.
Thank you 🙏
I think it proves that chord progressions are just the building blocks. The true beauty of a song comes from the subtle variations and feel ❤️
fire playing at the end my guy
Another great video - and 40k views in 18hrs! So glad to see your channel doing so well.
Love this! I would like to have seen the "Still got The Blues" progression, which is a full cycle of 5ths (or 4ths, if you prefer) ending with a harmonic minor substitution. It's an ideal practice sequence.
Thank you!
Great final with your piano 👌🏻
Thank you 😊
6:15 there is an iconic example of this sequence - Russian song “Calm night” («Спокойная ночь») by Kino
Excellent video, thank you, David.
Thank you!
For the last one a good example is Gyöngyhajú lány, a Hungarian classic rock song
Was not expecting Bo Burnham and Knife Party as examples but I’m happy about it. Great vid, m8!
THIS PAGE HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL TO MY MUSIC LIFE
check out fiona apple, she would make a good music theory vid:)
She's great!!
@@DavidBennettPianoIf you ever do make a video about her, it needs to have a ridiculously long title, like some of her albums do.
her cover of why try to change me now is by far one of her best vocal performances imo. so subtle and so intimate. she’s really fantastic
@@danielkoschalka3955 yesss that's such a good idea
Tidal is one of the best albums ever.
The i VII VI V progression, the second one shown here, is called Andalusian cadence. It is very popular and used extensively in Flamenco music. As noted it mixes the natural and harmonic minor modes
Edit: I have only very recently found your channel and I find it brilliant. :)
@satan3304 I too love it, it is indeed spectacular
The Andalusian Cadence is actually i-bVII-bVI-V
@@alessandrosummer If you consider via minor scale it is I VII VI V.
But if you consider it via major scale you are correct. :)
@@xshayahyawzi3666 yeah I use this way to name the chords so that It’s always clear what chord should be played
Great video. Would love to see you cover the chord progression in Viva la Gloria! by Green Day.
Any video that brings up both "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" by MCR and "Isle of Flightless Birds" by TØP deserves my like.
I thought this would be the one time you wouldnt include radiohead but then you played bliss.
I love minor keys and modes so much thank you for this video its perfect and lots of good ideas for practice
In one of your other chord progression video's, you showed a progression I call the Santana Progression, i / IV, or i(7) / IV. Santana uses this a lot, like in Evil Ways, Oye Como mVa, Jingo, Soul Sacrifice etc. In, for example Am, it becomes Am / D and surely enough, when I take a solo, I use f sharp, in stead of g sharp, wich gives the solo a nice soft "dorian" feeling. To spice things up, you can switch to A-Blues (a c d d sharp e g a). I do the same in House Of The Rising Sun.
Words cannot describe how sad I was, when Funeral Derangements wasn't shown for the "welcome to the internet" progression
I love your videos, I love hook theory, you’re awesome …you’re him!
I still can't believe these music lessons are free.
i love how you’ve been including EDM examples lately
Love this channel!
Thanks!
I went from "all pop songs use the same pregressions" to "actually there are more progressions than I can hope to remember" thanks to your videos.
Better start memorizing 😅
Hi, David. I've enjoyed your vids for a long time. Just one observation. The progression for Toni Braxton's "Un-break My Heart" should actually be Bm, Em7, A (instead of D), F#7.
Well spotted! My mistake. I will get that cut out of the video. Thanks for bringing it to my attention
Cheers! @@DavidBennettPiano
I really loved the outro piece for this!
Great video! What makes you choose ‘bIII’ over ‘iii’? Also kind of keyboard do you use?
I’m using the system where you always refer your Roman numerals back to the major scale, even when talking about a minor key chord progression. Sorry for any confusion.
And the keyboard is a Nord Grand 😊
Thanks for making this one, it's really interesting to see the mixing of modes in popular music. I think a video about closed loop (i learned them as in the loop instead of on the loop) songs could be good. Stand By Me, What's Goin' On, and You Ain't Goin' Nowhere come to mind.
Two chord progressions from Jean-Michel Jarre songs:
i - bVI - iv - V from the refrain of Équinoxe 4
I - V - ii - IV from the refrain of Chronologie 4
I don't remember if you talked about the latter in one of your earlier videos and I don't think the former was in this one.
Thanks for mentioning JMJ. He should get more recognition
@@cakemartyr5794 Oh, I am trying to mention JMJ on every music channel I follow. People need to start talking about him more! :)
Amazing and smooth impro in the end!
No Doubt "Don't Speak" is actually i, iv, bVII, V
i would really love if you analyzed some weird music theorical songs like jonathan or left alone by fiona apple and explain how it works
I could hear the third progression in Moby's 'Extreme Ways' (the song that introduces the credits in The Bourne Ultimatum).
heyy, i have a doubt. Why do some notes have the flat sign (♭), when they are the same chords without it? (for example, in the last chord progression, ♭VII is G, when VII is G already)
I’m struggling with the same thing!!! Someone please answer!
I just wanted to state that Pink Floyd's Julia Dream has exactly the same chord sequence: Am Dm C E.
thank you for existing
Wow the song you play at the end of this is UNREAL
Those are all nice minor chord progressions. What I would like to learn is, if you are using a minor chord progression like one of these in a song's verse, what are the best chord progressions to modulate from these minor progressions to a major chord progression in the chorus, to go from a darker somber mood to a brighter majestic mood. Is that something you could share? Thanks.
I suggest modulating to the relative major and use common modal mixture (exemple using the chords from C Minor when you move to the C Major)
Learned a thing or two and beautiful piece at the end.
2:34 The trombones in my college pep band have that melody, and that's the instrument I play.
Talk Talk? Loved their first album. I also loved their later "weird" albums. Very underrated. Am Dm C zE sounds really familiar but I can't remember?
DAVID BENNETT IS THE MAN
Great video as usual.
For anyone just learning how to play piano who thinks this esoteric stuff is helping you. It’s not. Instead of writing i bIII IV bVI you could just say it’s a 6-1-2-4 with a major 2. Much easier for people to understand and translates more easily to other songs with similar progressions.
Like 6 1 2+ 4 gets you to 6154 way faster than translating it to minor, pretending you’re flattening the 3 on A Major, when you’re actually just playing the “6 as minor” in the major key, pretending you’re flattening a 6 of a different scale when you’re really just playing a 4. 🤷🏻♂️
Or even worse - I’m playing a flattened 1, flattening the 3, flattening the 6, switching temporarily to Dorian. Nah bro, you played a common major chord progression but played a Major 2. Get over yourself Jazz Hands.
thanks for your video lessons, these are great!!
Mowgli’s Road is Marina’s best song! Surprised to see that Knife Party track too 😅🙌🏻
Great videoI think the chord prog for the chorus of Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" is the same as the last progression example.
The F minor chorus of "Don't Speak" by No Doubt doesn't QUITE fit in with the other examples of the natural minor-harmonic minor mix, as its third chord is clearly Eb (bVII), not Ab (bIII), like the following song "Isle of Flightless Birds" by twenty one pilots.
My face lit up when I saw "I never told you what I do for a living" on the end of the second chord progression
I'd like to hear your thoughts about Am - Dm - G - C and its equivalent in other keys.
on this day, in the year 2023 I was not ready to see MCR's AOL Live session again, LMAO! I was instantly brought back to another lifetime
To me, A dorian always kinda sounds like when I greet my friend Dorian.
Another minor chord progressions I see a lot is i-bIII-bVII-bVI (e.g. A minor, C major, G major, F major).
Your channel is great and I quite enjoy it. That said, I have a thought for you to ponder. I've referred some students (not music students but college students who could use a basic knowledge of music theory) to your channel. When I sent a link to this vid, I also made a quick vid capture for the student where I explained that (for someone at his level), not to get confused or intimidated by things like you showing chords in inversions and with extra root notes in the bass. So maybe (again, just a thought), for some of the simple videos like this, perhaps you could first show the simplest 1-3-5 versions of each chord without the extra bass roots and then explain that "and here is the same chord in 1st or 2nd inversion with bass notes". And even if you don't choose to do that, I'll still send out links to your vids because I really like your delivery and pacing (and the content of course - I have a couple of music degrees myself and it's clear you really know your stuff).
Couple days ago I had an idea for a video: Songs that use all the notes. I think that would have enough examples even with excluding blatant key changes
I see that progression as vi I V of V IV. Often it's a IV7. am C D F. Played it a hundred times or more on House OTRS. I enjoy your videos. Thanks for the lessons.
Can someone verify the song '15 miljone mensen" uses the Am C D F progression? (its on youtube)
Elliott Smith's "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity To Be Free" uses the minor climb progression (I bIII IV bVI).
This was great lesson . Thanks
what does it mean that the G is flatten at 5:46 ? It says "bVII"
David is labelling the progression relative to the major key - so in A major, there would be a G#. By saying bVII it just means G rather than G#.
This can be confusing though - and I think David has talked about this in other videos. You could label that G chord as simply VII - because relative to the minor key the song is in, it is simply the VII chord. I prefer David's way of doing it though - I find it clearer and easier when chord progressions are labelled relative to the major key.
Cheers David
Travis Scott is an artist that employs a surprising amount of music theory techniques, plus about a fifth of his songs are in Phrygian
hey i really enjoy the video but why are the III and VI chords marked as bIII and bVI when they are not bIII or bVI in their key signature? am i getting something wrong? i mean the scale of Am is obvious A B C D E F G but a flat 3 chord would represent a B chord instead of C and a flat 6 chord would represent a E chord instead of F , which in a minor scale even makes even less sense since B and E just would be 2 and 5 and not flat 3 and flat 6, i am confused.
This is a really common issue with minor key chord progressions. I'm using the system where the roman numerals always refer to the major scale, even if the music we happen to be looking at is actually in the minor key. sorry for any confusion 😊😊
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numeral_analysis
Basically, roman-numeral chord symbols are always written as if you're playing in the major scale.
minor climb progression is my favorite chord progression
So the House progression also produces a descending line A, G, F#, F, with a nice chromatic finish.
As I was watching this I was thinking that there are some really cool bands included in this video - Talk Talk, The Cure - and then at that exact moment Olly Murs popped up on screen, shattering that thought into a million pieces! Rage on omnipotent...
There's also the "Andalusia" Progression in this vein: Am-G-F-E.
Hey great video!!! I also use hooktheory, the trend system. Could you do a video on the minor progression VI-vi-i-III???
I am curious on how the music examples with the progressions were made. Do you know the songs with the progressions by heart or is there a way to search for songs by progressions?
Thanks for this. Surely the most common is i, bVII, bVI, V.
I looked up early Beach Boys album; Little Deuce Coupe which I haven't heard since my older brother used to play it. It has some pop/surf/car songs but also some that may be considered 5 voice harmonies. In particular a vocal piece called 'A Young Man is gone'. Is it considered 5 voice harmony? Was this a 1940's vocal style? I think it's brilliant early Brian Wilson.
I listened in a hurry today while I was exercising, sorry if I missed it David, but did you include Eric Clapton/Cream, White Room? I play that (whether correct or not),
Am / C / D / F G
can someone plz educate me, in the last progression he mentiones he is using the natural a minor, but then marks G as the flat seven. my question is, isnt the flat seven of a minor g flat? why doesnt he mark it as the seventh note/chord in the scale?
Huh never really thought about the tonality/progression of the Michael Jackson song "Blood On The Dancefloor", I'm always taken aback by the ridiculously good beat.