options beside 1,4,5

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bearfight

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hello. what are other chord progressions out there besides the standard 1,4,5? im gettin sick of it.
 
bearfight said:
hello. what are other chord progressions out there besides the standard 1,4,5? im gettin sick of it.

Geessh... there are millions. Here's one: A classic jazz progression is to sub the minor 2 for the IV, so in other words: ii, V, I. It works because the ii and the IV have many notes in common.

A
www.aaroncheney.com
 
You should start analyzing songs you like the sound of to see what sort of progressions they're using.

Also, start asking yourself what other chords will work with the melodies you're writing.
 
listen to someone like Bjork or Radiohead, they have some interesting chord progressions.
 
or try figuring out all the chords which have a certain note in common, i.e. Abm, B, E, G, C#7 all have a B in them, and there's more too. You could make a small melody and extrapolate chords out from each note
 
Play Play Play

If you don't have one already, buy a book of chordings and start pkaying playing playing, your ear will tell you what sounds right and what doesn't.

Good Luck.
 
if you have the time, try looking at an actual music theory textbook (Walter Piston's is pretty good, Aldwell and Schachter's all right). It'll be dry, but it'll give you a good general understanding of tonal harmony, of which contemporary "pop" tonality is a small subset. You'll get more used to not just specific chord patterns, but also the general ideas of "functional" harmony (where chords lead, or "progress," toward other chords in a hierarchy). A lot of other songs will make sense in a different way when you become more familiar with these concepts. i'd also say to get a good fake book and just play all the old standards that you can, while keeping tabs on the harmonic changes within.

hope this helps!
Mike
 
Others have said it and it can't be said enough: Listen to other songs and figure out what it is you like about them. As a suggestion, buy a Beatles songbook (even if you don't like them) and analyze their chord progressions.

Jon
 
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