The Power of Strange Chord Progressions

[Pharoah246]

Another post from my blog. Enjoy!

HAVE YOU EVER put together an exotic or unorthodox chord progression, thought it would never work, sounded bad or was just too much work and abandoned it? Well if you have, I really can't blame you. However, there are many hidden powers and treasures underneath those weird chords, you just gotta know how to find them, and hopefully this post will help you do just that.


First, let's examine just exactly what differentiates a common chord progression from a not-so-common one. Frankly though, there really isn't any other method of doing this other than plain popularity and what's most well known and used. Let's take the classic major key progression of I-IV-V in the key of F. Why the key of F? Because normally people start their search for unique chord progressions in somewhat-uncommon keys. Anyway, the I-IV-V in F is F-Bb-C, leaving us with three common major triads. Granted, there a lot of different variations and ways of playing these chords, but for the sake of this lesson we shall stick with their common major triads. Now, lets compare this three chord progression to another three chord progression in the same key, but this time with different degrees in the scale. Let's take minor 3, minor 6 and major 2, so in the key of F Major this is Am-Dm-G. What makes this chord progression strange or unorthodox? Well for starters, it doesn't start off with the tonic chord of F Major. Well-known or widely-used chord progressions usually start off with the tonic chord. Taking this element out already catches your listeners off guard, especially when starting a major key song with a minor chord. This could actually be a bad contradiction that you want to avoid depending on where you're going lyrically, but there are also conditions where it can work. Secondly, we're playing two minor chords in a row here, which also doesn't occur normally in major key chord progressions that are, again, widely-known or used, and finally, it's a creation of my imagination, which is the most important thing that already adds tons to its overall uniqueness factor. So now that we know what makes a chord progression unique and distant from the norm, albeit this is a relatively simple example, let's look at how they work for the song, instead of against it.


One of the best ways to spur lyrics to a song is by analyzing the visual imagery you get just from playing the chords alone. This is a great way to find lyrics for strange or odd chord progressions because they can spur unique lyrical ideas as well and give your listeners feelings and emotions they can only get from that song. Let's use a song I wrote as an example of this, as my goal when writing it was to produce a rare chord progression in the key of Bb Major that was 100% my own. First, have a listen to the song to understand it's dynamics.

I often get told this is my best piece of work because people haven't heard anything like it, it's fingerstyle, and they're immediately caught in its ballad-style 6/8 trance, although the time signature does get pulled around a bit which is a mistake on my part. More importantly, though, because the verse chords are Bbadd2-Bb-Gm-Gmadd2, and the chorus chords are Dm#5-D-Dsus4addb2-Bbsus4-Fsus4-Bbadd2. Why are all these chords the main reason why this song is my best piece of work? Because, as I stated before, no one has ever heard this chord progression before and because the mood the chords set alone fits perfectly with the unique title and lyrical story. This is the best way your unique chord progression can work for your song. This song also follows the previous two criteria that we set of not starting with the tonic and playing two minor chords in a row in a major key chord progression, albeit with the latter being less important because I'm not the only one to do that. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but this song is simply a good, homegrown example of, when done right, how powerful totally obscure chord progressions can be, and if I can do it, you can too.


So next time you're trying to come up with that awesome, 100% wierd but original chord progression that you can brag about later, don't give up. Keep playing and it'll come, believe me, no matter how bad you think it sounds. That's all for now. Just thought I'd throw this out. Till next time.




Luke


My Blog can be found at ldubsmusic.blogspot.com. Thanks again!

[Hilary]

Thanks for posting Luke, it's very interesting and does indeed sound beautiful. I do, however, have a few notes:

"classic major key progression of I-iv-V in the key of F"

usually the major chords are written in the upper case, as in I-IV-V and the minor in the lower iii, iv, vi, vii

"Let's take minor 3, minor 6 and major 2, so in the key of F Major this is Am-Dbm-G"

In F major the iii Am, vi Dm (not Db)m, ii Gm (typically) -


Your song - once you take out the adds and sus's is essentially

Verse - I-vi

Chorus - iii-III^-I-V-I

nothing unusual there.


I think what makes it special is that you play it beautifully and you've added the embellishments of the sus and add chords.

Thanks for posting.

[Pharoah246]

Thanks for posting Luke, it's very interesting and does indeed sound beautiful. I do, however, have a few notes:

"classic major key progression of I-iv-V in the key of F"

usually the major chords are written in the upper case, as in I-IV-V and the minor in the lower iii, iv, vi, vii

"Let's take minor 3, minor 6 and major 2, so in the key of F Major this is Am-Dbm-G"

In F major the iii Am, vi Dm (not Db)m, ii Gm (typically) -


Your song - once you take out the adds and sus's is essentially

Verse - I-vi

Chorus - iii-III^-I-V-I

nothing unusual there.


I think what makes it special is that you play it beautifully and you've added the embellishments of the sus and add chords.

Thanks for posting.

Haha, thanks for pointing out those rookie mistakes Hilary! I'll make the corrections. Glad you enjoyed the post. However I do think that the Major 2 in the key of F remains G Major, if I am correct.

[Hilary]

Yes Luke you are correct - a major 2 would always be a major but in a major scale, typically it's usually a minor - it would be a reverse polarity as a major. That's the beauty of music - it's great to analyse and then just do what you want.

[SteveB]

Watched the film 'Enigma' on dvd the other evening.
Early on, one of the code-breaker boffins at Bletchley Park explains to some visiting high-rankers how the German Enigma machine works, a British naval officer remarks after the explanation '...I haven't understood a bloody word'.
I feel (almost) the same, but Jeeze, this is interesting. Keep it up you informed people, it's fascinating. 

[williram]

the power is remembering those strange ones.

So if you hit a wrong note or chord and it sounds strange or maybe out of place add it back in within the next measure or so. Maybe even do a variation of that strangeness and also think to add another instrument that could do so or another variation of that strange, strange, strangeness.

Drunk & stoned one night while I was walking a fellow musician unfamiliar to the area back to where he had to go I had a conversation about experimentation. He was a jazz drummer and we were trying to pinpoint that there is no mistakes but only ones that get away and once you let one loose it's all in plain sight or accessible to the ears of something were trained to hear as something we know.

However, if you are set out to write a song before the experimenting noodling you may find playing/writing back and forth in a unusual tuning then try to make sense of it in a more used tuning and in a key that is more familiar. This way they understand the key to be what they usually hear but don't make instant sense of as to whatever you could possibly playing. Which leads to a gap of what I would call , "hmm".  All the rest of the piecing together work is up to the limit of which you would like to unveil or remain hidden. Which is my opinion of course.

For instance there was this song when I heard on the radio several years ago that every time I heard the song I wanted to add an extra note in my head or when I was singing along. Again, every time I heard it I found myself saying, "it's that!!, or it's supposed to be this! or eventually I don't care b/c I just like this tune because of this".

Power tightens the song, passionate lightens up the song but trickery will always seems to win.

I tune and jam on my guitar with D-G-D-G-A-D, I'm not very educate as to what you may call that tuning but to me it's like a banjo with the B tuned a whole step down. I then tune to D standard and make as much sense of the chords & riffs.

[williram]

I'm new here and pardon my posting twice in a row on this topic. I will get better at this, I promise.

 

I wanna say I also agree with you Pharoah246. No matter how bad it sounded before you put your instrument down. Jot it down especially if it intrigued you to play it and possibly got you to write a whole progression about it.

I have a mostly improv and very experimental track I played and recorded two banjo chord progressions. However horrific sounding it might have sounded like with one track playing. I continued at it until I changed one note in each chord of the progression until a moment of awe when they played together. It's a track I titled, "Dandelion Girl". I've gotten all sorts of interesting feedback on the song and that means more than anything to me when it comes to writing.

...strange attracts