Subject: RE: The three chord trick
From: Pip Radish - PM
Date: 21 Dec 09 - 06:13 PM


"I guess the question is whether accidentals in chords are much more common than in melody lines"

No, I don't think so.

" - and whether you generally have more latitude, in 'chording' a melody, than the three-chord trick would imply."

Yes, definitely. However, there are some standard "tricks" that people use. Actually, "common idioms" would be a better way of putting it.

As far as sevenths are concerned, the flatted seventh is typical of blues and popular music developed from blues or influenced by it. On the other hand, people like to use the major seventh as "the leading tone", i.e., it "leads to" the tonic. For example, in C, it would be B --> C. So, it's fairly common for songs to include both flatted sevenths and major sevenths. Please note that a major triad with a flatted seventh is a dominant seventh chord, which resolves to a tonic whose root is a fifth below the root of the dom. 7 chord, i.e., G7 --> C7 or C7 --> F. So, if you're in C and play a C7, you can resolve to F and viola! you're in F (major or minor). You have modulated. You can stay there, or go back to C.