Progressions that make you go 'mmm'

Subject: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: WyoWoman
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:00 PM

Listening to my Kate Wolf CDs and learning some of her songs, I notice that she has a particular set of chords she uses repeatedly (Probably like me -- she learned six or seven and said, "Ok. that'll get me where I want to go for now..." and stopped.)

She does this nice progression from A-F#m-D, and A-C#-D enough that it's a signature of hers. And I'm very fond of it.

What about you? Do you have progressions like that that you are especially fond of, or are their musicians whose work you love who have their "signature" chord progressions?

WW

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: mousethief
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:26 PM

G - Bm (NOT Em) - C - D.

Alex
O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:27 PM

I am rather partial to what I call the "Honey Don't" progression (after the Carl Perkins hit of the same name). Say you are playing in A, you play A, A, F, F, A, A.
One of my favourite reels *The Snowflake Reel) has this unusual progression. (Except it is D, B-flat, D, but the same idea).

Murray

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:27 PM

For me it's d minor to C Major. (What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?)

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: kendall
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:51 PM

in Mrs Ravoon, from Am to G instead of Em.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 02:54 PM

Hey Kendall, that sounds like my minor chord down one step to a major chord. I'm not familiar with Mrs. Ravoon, what is it?

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 04:39 PM

How about what I am working on now, with about 5 great progressions in a row (classic old slush):

"(D7) Then there was music (G!!), and wonderful (Gm!!!!!!) roses (D!!!!!!!!!!) they tell me (B9!!!!!!!!!!!swoon),
In sweet (Em7, D-C#!!!!!!!!!!!) fragrant meadows (E9!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you just want to lie down and wallow) of dawn (A7!!!!!!!!!!!!!dawn!!) and dew (A augmented!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). There was love... and so on....

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Lonesome Gillette
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 05:28 PM

G-G-G-G-G-G-D-G- repeat

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: WyoWoman
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 05:35 PM

You pee-puhl! You're too much. Peter T. that was absolutely adorable. I love those slushy old chords, too. Can't play 'em thus far, but I've only just begun.

By the way, I've been having fun working on those flamenco rolls you sent me. don't know what to play them with, but I've hit a couple of 'em that sound definitely flamenco-ish.

Lonesome Gillette, I see you're a man who appreciates simplicity ...

ww

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Matt_R
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 06:25 PM

Dm-Dm/maj7-Dm7-Dm6 and E-G#-C#m-A

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 07:37 PM

"I guess I'll take my autoharp,
Go sit beneath a tree,
'Cause all those fancy pickers
Are a-lookin' strange at me.
They're playing loads of quarter notes,
Pickin' in triple time.
And I guess I've got a 2/4 heart.......
'Cause C^maj,F^maj,C, G⁷, is all I had in mind."

(first verse of an OLD song by Garrison Keillor)

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: tradman
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 08:36 PM

Am Am Dm Am Am AM A7 A7

Dm Dm G7 G7 C C C -

Dm Dm E E F F F F

D7 D7 D7 D7 B7 B7 E Dm

C D E7 E7 Am Am Am -

These are the chords for Csillig Tanc, an absolutely riveting Hungarian Dance --- made so by the moving bass and incredible chord progression, particularly that last C-D-E7

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: WyoWoman
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 10:21 PM

Mmm. Very nice... in my plunking, pedestrian way, I can get a sense of them.

Tell me, is Cmaj the same as just plain ol' C?

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 02:50 AM

Yes WW Cmaj is the same as plain ol' C. I guess it scans better in the song to sing "Cmajor" rather than "C".

Murray

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: kendall
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 07:28 AM

Mary in Kentucky..Mrs. Ravoon is a childrens song from England. It's rather gauche. I recorded it on a tape called Beginners Luck. Many of the 'catters have it. And, some of the 'catters also sing it.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: guinnesschik
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 10:35 AM

I've been listening a lot to Peter Rowan's WALLS OF TIME lately, and his version of "Plains OF Waterloo" has this beauty: G/Dm/F/Dm/A/D. Simple, yet stunning.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Mooh
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 11:40 AM

I love the changes to The Rights Of Man, an Em vamp sort of thing. They work well as a jam track with various rhythms and various styles. I use a natural minor or blues scale improvised part over the changes for fun, but when accompanying others I use alot of chord substitution.

Roughly Em/D/Em/B7/Em/D/Em/C/Bm/Am/D...Em/D/Em/B7/Em/D/Em/C/Bm/Em etc...

Interesting that it takes on a decidedly evil sound when moved down to C#m.

Peace. Mooh.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 02:46 PM

Tradman, could you repost, using slashmarks to indicate the measures? I played it through, allowing a bass note and a downstroke for each chord (boomCHA), but ended up with an extra chord at the end of each section--I guessed that somewhere, the boom falls on one chord and the CHA on another, but wasn't quite sure where it was--

And aren't all Hungarian dance tunes riveting?

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Dave Swan
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 02:38 PM

Yeah, Wyo, Peter sent me some of those flamenco rolls too. The didn't make the trip very well from Canada, besides which, I'm a vegetarian. But the thought was nice.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: L R Mole
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 03:01 PM

Hungarian flamenco rolls, doo-dah, doo-dah.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From:
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 03:47 PM

Hey, thanks a lot to the preceedin 22 of you who've layed down some heart-pounding stuff,.. I'm writing them down to take over to my coon-ass friends tonight, we're gonna kick it cajun style tonight. My only contribution can come from my love of slowly playing the chords E and A, and singing all night long

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: beachcomber
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 04:03 PM

Who wants to try a "folk-rock" version of "The water is wide" ? (I think/I hope)

G - Em, C - G, Em - C - Am - D; - Bm - Am - Em, C - Bm,Am,D - C - G:

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 07:12 PM

And the rolls are especially good with coffee--Mrs. Bubliatchky, how does she do it, week after week?

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: WyoWoman
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 09:29 PM

Well, El Swanno, the thing I like best about the flamenco rolls is that you can use their little legs as toofpicks after you've finished dinner...

Well, Guest Nuzhuz, I don't believe we've met, but as soon as I saw "coon-ass friends," I said to myself, "This must be a Louisiana boy ... " I lived in Lake Charles when I was a little kid. My dad was working off-shore drilling rigs at the time and I grew up in the oil patch, so that's a very familiar term to me. I'd LOVE to hear that cajun jam ... And singing all night long is something all of us Mudcateers are up for ...

Mooh, do you mean when you move the whole shebang down to the KEY of C#m? (That just made three synapses in my brain go frizzle, frizzle, sppppffffft...)

WW

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Mooh
Date: 06 Nov 00 - 10:02 PM

WW. Yup, the key of C#m. Actually, this is easy for me because I keep a baritone guitar tuned C# to C# (standard tuning lowered 3 semi-tones), but I really believe some keys sound darker than others, and lower tonics or fundamentals really help.

Lots of progressions are little more than elongated riffs, like the 1, 6m, 4, 5, that's popular. Great for extended jams with beginners.

Peace. Mooh.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Grab
Date: 07 Nov 00 - 11:28 AM

Seal has a standard chord sequence too which is quite funky (1-3-7-4). "Crazy" uses this for the verse, then 6-3-4 for the chorus, and it sounds really good done acoustically.

The simplest and most effective has to be the Em/E change (play Em, then add the 1st finger hammer-on) in "Cindy's Crying" by Tom Paxton. Sounds beautiful, and very easy.

Grab.

Subject: RE: Progressions that make you go 'mmm'
From: Jim Krause
Date: 07 Nov 00 - 02:14 PM

Yeah, WW. I do too. And even if I try to get out of them, later on I keep on hearing them when I didn't intend to put them into the melody. My old standby is the ol' I, vi⁷, ii⁷, V⁷ and all of its variations from ragtime to rhythm changes.