Examples of Chord ProgressionsIt's time to see some examples of chord progressions which occur on some popular songs. The last step in learning something new is seeing it on the surface and practicing it. I'd like to start with the song "Killing Me Softly" Killing Me SoftlyI love this song for its smooth presence and its wonderful text. We'll play the song in C major. Let's have a look.
Next we make a chord substitute two the VI degree, the parallel minor of C major. We repeat this chord progression of II-V-I only now instead of going to the one we step right away to the sixth degree so we have a deceptive cadence.
In order to pass to the chorus which is located in Am (The parallel minor scale of C major) we have to insert a secondary dominant. The dominant of Am is E7 so after playing the tonic we're going there.
What we basically did was playing the notes of the seconddegree (Bo B, D, F) Only we lowered the second degree of the scale in half a tone. We get a Bb chord. From Bn we move chromatically to A. The chorus started in Am so how come we end in A major? Ah! We end with a picardy third to give the song a sense of finality. Here's a free printable piano chord chart of Killing Me Softly. Summer Lovin' / GreaseThis song is also a fantastic example for our chord progressions lessons.
Now were going to play a chord progression of I-IV-I-IV in D major. Just to remind you, the dominant chord has taken us to a new tonality for a moment. We're now treating D as the first degree until we'll have a new chord that will tell us otherwise. After performing two times the D-G-D-G (I-IV-IV-IV) we're going back to C major. After we've reach C again we'll play C-F-G-Am so instead of going from G major (V) to the tonic we made a chord substitution and replaced it with its parallel minor chord Am (VI) which allows us to fall in fifth in the diatonic circle to Dm(II) the to G (V) and finally reach the tonic (I).
Click here for a free printable piano chord chart of the song "Summer Nights". Hello / Lionel RichieThe next song is such a sweet song. If your heart is like mine (made of sugar) you're gonna love it. If you're getting a heart attack from all this sweetness just watch the chord progressions and learn! :)
When the bass line reaches F naturally move to an F chord. What made was substituting the first degree with the sixth degree which still functions as a substitute for the tonic. Now we move to E7 (V7) the dominant of Am (I). We repeat the harmonic line three times.
The road takes us from Am to G/B (VII) then to C (III) and then to A/C# (V/IV) which is actually an secondary dominant that has the third note of the chord as a base which gives it an extra melodic flow to this chord progression. And here's another free printable piano chord chart of the song Hello in Am. I'd like us to take a view at another great song called "I got rhythm". This song is great to demonstrate many chord progressions we've been learning. Click here to learn about the song "I Got Rhythm".
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