Just been watching a you tube video called 4 chords and 66 songs. It goes through a series of different songs that have the same chord progressions but are totally different songs. It got me wondering if there are similar chords in dance music. Does anyone know of any decent popular chord progressions that appear in electronic music?
Perhaps a tutorial on different types of chord progressions would be good.
yah ive seen this video before. not the only chord progression that has this same issue.
its mostly because these chords are in C KEY… C is all white keys. easier to play.
[quote]UnitedVision (10/05/2011)[hr]yah ive seen this video before. not the only chord progression that has this same issue.
its mostly because these chords are in C KEY… C is all white keys. easier to play.
<EMBED height=349 type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=425 src=4 Chords, 65 Songs - YouTube allowfullscreen=“true” allowscriptaccess=“always”>
[/quote]
some chords just lend themselves to eachother… thats why chord progs arent copywritable… you could make a dance track with the chord prog from hey jude on it and u wont get sued… (just dont add the melody or ull end up in court… lol)
Easiest explanation in less than a paragraph:
The root of the ‘IV’ (subdominant) and the ‘V’ (dominant) chords are each a fifth away from the tonic chord. Since the best chord progressions are ones where your root moves in larger intervals, these chords are prime targets from the I chord. Most use the ‘vi’ (submediant) chord because it has two notes in common with the tonic, requiring only ONE note of your tonic chord to move one step in order to get there. Add to that the fact that the ‘vi’ chord has two notes in common with the ‘IV’ chord and only needs to move one note one step to get there as well.
Since the blues focuses so heavily upon the I, IV and V chords, it only makes sense that these chords would be so common in most popular music. As far as electronic music, it’s all over the place, but it is usually so distorted and long-winded, one tends to not notice.
I plan to address this with the music theory videos I’m submitting to the guys at SA.
J
[quote]JamieinNC (10/05/2011)[hr]Easiest explanation in less than a paragraph:
The root of the ‘IV’ (subdominant) and the ‘V’ (dominant) chords are each a fifth away from the tonic chord. Since the best chord progressions are ones where your root moves in larger intervals, these chords are prime targets from the I chord. Most use the ‘iv’ (submediant) chord because it has two notes in common with the tonic, requiring only ONE note of your tonic chord to move one step in order to get there. Add to that the fact that the ‘iv’ chord has two notes in common with the ‘IV’ chord and only needs to move one note one step to get there as well.
Since the blues focuses so heavily upon the I, IV and V chords, it only makes sense that these chords would be so common in most popular music. As far as electronic music, it’s all over the place, but it is usually so distorted and long-winded, one tends to not notice.
I plan to address this with the music theory videos I’m submitting to the guys at SA.
J[/quote]
i look forward to seeing those vids!! 
Thank you!
I have a few completed (meter and drums) that are in Phil’s inbox, but I’m sure he’s very busy. As soon as I get encouragement to move forward, I’ll get them completed as soon as I can!
J
[quote]willidaniel (11/05/2011)[hr]
i look forward to seeing those vids!! :)[/quote]
Nice one - I’m also looking forward to them. Thanks for the explanation.
all this music came from the blues. there’s a lot more then just 65 songs bro. 1 6 2 5’s are everywhere lol
[quote]Skylight (12/05/2011)[hr]all this music came from the blues. there’s a lot more then just 65 songs bro. 1 6 2 5’s are everywhere lol[/quote]
no doubt about that 1. i love me some blues.
[quote]UnitedVision (10/05/2011)[hr]yah ive seen this video before. not the only chord progression that has this same issue.
its mostly because these chords are in C KEY… C is all white keys. easier to play.
[/quote]
That’s a very interesting video…they definitely changed the levels to give more prominence to the chord progression than the melodies in this mix. I notice that Janet Jackson, U2’s With or Without you, and Forever Young in particular sound like very different songs because the words are sung to very distinctive melodies laid on top of those chords, and they use different FXs (like distortion on the guitars).
Also, I notice that the blues progression makes all these songs have a “down home” feel to them which is working like a comforting statement in the song…if you listen to the full songs you’ll see they diverge even more after the chorus.
For trance, I’d say chord progressions tend to be in the minor key like this: