Chord Progression Theory

Chord Progression Theory Theories of harmony (Chord Progression) are based on consonance and dissonance of the movement from one chord to another so that they sound better. In other words, the theories if followed would yield harmony that would sound pleasant/musical to ears. I wonder how greatly logical & scientifically correct musical theory is which is so paradoxically considered an art relative to contemporary sciences which are often contradicted every decade! Let come to the point of discussion… To begin with, a prior knowledge of Chord construction is required. For the sake of continuity I woud introduce it right here briefly. Major Scale Formula: Example: C Major

1 T C

2 T D

3 S E

4 T F

5 T G

6 T A

7 S B

1 MAJOR TRIAD TYPE CHORDS Major Minor

1 1

Augmented Diminished

1 1

3

♭3

5 5

3

#5

♭3

♭5

Examples: Example: C Major

1 C

2 D

3 E

4 F

5 G

6 A

7 B

Major Formula: 1, 3, 5 C C, E, G A A, C#, E G G, B, D Similarly you can do for Minor, Augmented & Diminished. It’s just a matter of application of the formula.

2 DIATONIC CHORDS & PROGRESSION Let us talk about what kind of chords come out of major scale. As an illustrative example & for the sake of simplicity I’ll discuss the concept by taking C Major Scale & Major triad formula but the procedure can be applied to extend the analyses for Minor, Augmented & Diminished.

© Gaurav Kumar

1 C

2 D

3 E

4 F

5 G

6 A

7 B

8 C

9 D

10 E

11 F

12 G

13 A

14 B

15 C

So on till the 7th degree

1

3

5

Using this technique what we get is tabulated as following: Scale degree I 2 3 4 5 6 7

Root C D E F G A B

3rd E F G A B C D

4th G A B C D E F

C D E F G A B

Output Chords Major Minor Minor Major Major Minor Diminished

Taking a closer look at the chords generated by our moving formula, i.e., 1, 3, 5, we find that the chords are in the sequence of, Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Diminished This sequence would remain the same irrespective of the key, in this case the key is C, it can be any other key and you can use this technique to generate chord progressions.

MEMORIZATION TECHNIQUE 1st, 4th & 5th are major and rest are minor except 7th. Remember 1, 4, 5 !!!

© Gaurav Kumar