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Expanding my chord vocabulary
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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 RE: Expanding my chord vocabulary (in reply to Munin)
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Are you still signed up at Jason’s site? There’s a really nice set of lessons in the “Chord Progressions” section. All very clear, simple, essential, and one of the best, most user-friendly presentations of that material that I’ve encountered. Very good for presenting the chords in a recognizable musical context (and specifically a flamenco context), which sounds just like what you’re looking for.
I know what you mean about wanting to broaden your chordal horizons. I’ve had a few lessons with a teacher over the past few months, for the first time, and one of the greatest benefits that has yielded has been getting out of the first position and starting to revoice some chords up the neck. Feels very liberating and has been good for expanding my understanding of how chords fit together. It’s all pretty new to me, so I don’t think I’d be able specific advice myself, but if you haven't already done so, checking Jason’s chord progression lessons would be a really good place to start.
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Date Mar. 8 2009 23:07:46
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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RE: Expanding my chord vocabulary (in reply to Munin)
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Timo,
I know I’m repeating my self, so I apologize in advance, but I want to second my recommendation of those chord progression lessons. Chord charts and theory are great, and important at some point down the line, but that can still be really hard to translate into an actual musical context. But just seeing and hearing someone play a certain sequence of chords in their right context is really good for making some kind of intuitive sense of why those chords go together the way they do.
Try this: play a D minor, a C, a B flat, and an A in that order a few times. That melodic progression, that cadence, should be instantly recognizable if you’ve listened to a lot of bulerias and tangos, and it should sound “right”, it should sound very natural or inevitable.
Now, there’s obviously some theory that explains why those chords fit together like that, but I still don’t know it myself. But what I do know is that hearing and playing those chords together sounds and feels right, and that after playing them together a bunch it just becomes very natural. The hands tend to start making those chord shapes on their own without my having think about it, so they really do “stick” in that sense.
Anyway, sorry for repeating my self, and sorry if I’m misinterpreting what you’re trying to do, but I think that really solidifying that sense and feel of those standard cadences, without necessarily knowing why or even knowing the names of the chords, might be exactly what you’re looking for. I think it can build a very simple but solid and intuitive foundation to expand your understanding from later….
Ricardo: those chord diagrams are great. I remember see those a while back but I wasn't ready to get out of first position yet, but I think I can start using them now. Gonna print those suckers out at work today!
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Date Mar. 9 2009 10:16:19
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Ricardo
Posts: 14825
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: Expanding my chord vocabulary (in reply to srshea)
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quote:
Try this: play a D minor, a C, a B flat, and an A in that order a few times. That melodic progression, that cadence, should be instantly recognizable if you’ve listened to a lot of bulerias and tangos, and it should sound “right”, it should sound very natural or inevitable.
Now, there’s obviously some theory that explains why those chords fit together like that, but I still don’t know it myself. But what I do know is that hearing and playing those chords together sounds and feels right, and that after playing them together a bunch it just becomes very natural. The hands tend to start making those chord shapes on their own without my having think about it, so they really do “stick” in that sense.
In all tonal music , the point of harmonic progressions is always V-I. That means a dominant or 5 chord pulls and resolves you to a I chord. Like in C major, the G chord moves to the C. (G is the 5th note in the scale, C is the first, so V-I). Bach used chord progressions that often moved through all the possible chords in a key in a sequence, and I always thought those sections of his music sounded "right". So in a minor key, you would move the chords in 4ths (V-I) but each I chord becomes the V of the next. So in Dminor, you would have Dm, Gm, C, F, Bb,Em7b5(half diminished), Amajor, back to D. So you get that sweet colored harmony, each chord pulling to the next. To increase the pulling effect, you could make EACH chord a dominant7th before changing. That happens in flamenco alot too.
The andalusian cadence is pretty much just that V-I sequence in disguise, that is why it sounds so natural. Dm, C, Bb, A, if you double time the changes and stick the other chords in, it sounds even more "right". Anyway, pretty much all tonal music makes use of this V-I thing.
Ricardo
_____________________________
CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com
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Date Mar. 10 2009 9:56:52
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Ricardo
Posts: 14825
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: Expanding my chord vocabulary (in reply to srshea)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: srshea
Thanks, Ricardo. That’s all pretty easy to understand and it all makes good sense. This went over my head, though:
quote:
To increase the pulling effect, you could make EACH chord a dominant7th before changing. That happens in flamenco alot too.
I kinda understand the use of 7ths as passing chords, but otherwise you lost me there.
Regarding the Bach stuff, can you think of any specific examples to listen to to hear this use-of-all-chords thing? I imagine WTC would be a good place to look….
Thanx!
Pretty much every bach piece makes use of a sequence where he goes through a progression in 4ths like that. Anyway, about making chords Dominant 7th. You understand what a 7th chord is right? D7 for example is DF#AC. OK? So back to andalusian cadence:
Dm, D7, Gm, G7
C, C7, F, F7
Bb, Bb7, Em7b5, E7
Amajor....A7, repeat.
Play that progression to see what I mean.
Ricardo
_____________________________
CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com
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Date Mar. 13 2009 12:06:22
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