Subject: RE: Another Music Theory Question
From:
Anglo
Date: 22 Oct 00 - 02:47 PM
Well, I'll have a stab at it....
There are various tried and true methods for going from A to B (well, A to A, or Am to Am). In a standard major chord tune, such progressions as 1 4 5 1 [let's think in the key of C for simplicity - C F G or G7 C]; 1 6 2 5 [C Am Dm G(7)] using minor chords - the doo-wop progression; 1 3 6 2 with major chords [C E A7 D7, then home with G7 C, think Freight Train, this jumps to E with the sharp 5th of the scale, then comes home via the circle of fifths].
The dominant chord, that's the main alternate chord you use, is a fifth above the tonic (the key chord). So for C major the dominant is G(7). Play a G chord, give it a little tension by adding the seventh, and it wants to come "home" to C.
To leave your initial C chord you might add a 7th to give you a little impetus to get somewhere else. A C7 would lead naturally to F. (C is the 5th or dominant of F).
A tune in A minor might have E major as a dominant, but a lot of minor tunes, especially folk tunes, don't have the sharpened leading tone, G# in A minor. The tune uses a G natural. (Think the first phrase of Greensleeves, "do me wrong," the "wrong" has a G nat. in A minor). Many 2-chord songs in Am would be most naturally harmonized with an Am chord and a G chord. The G becomes the "dominant" replacing the Em which is a weaker chord. But a tune like Greensleeves, for its final cadence, sharpens the G so the Ending harmonization is E (you can add the 7th if you want for more tension) to Am.
(Also remember that the 7th of an Am is a G nat.)
So what goes between the G and the E7 to get you from the Am start to the Am end. Another Am is certainly a possibility. Am G Am E7 Am. But let's consider F. It's a strong chord, it shares a lot of notes with Am, and if we substitute it in we have a direct descending bass line. Am G F E with the G# of the E chord giving us a little extra impetus back to the Am.
And there's your common Spanish progression. Everything from the Kingston Trio's "El Matador" to you-name-it .
Here endeth the first lesson. Maybe someone else can be clearer than I was - exposition is not my forte - nor is music theory!
| 
sj
