So today, I want to make a case or an argument for the most important chord progression in music,
more specifically: tonal music. But first, let me give you some examples that plea my case.
So maybe you picked up on what all three of these songs had in common. if not, let's break
it down right now, starting with that Don McLean song I guess: American Pie, so iconic song, right?
Just hanging out on the 145 chords of the key: G, C and D. If you don't understand what
any of that means, you're in the right place, because we're going to go over 145,
tonal harmony, and all that stuff, using these songs. But at the very end, we hear
uh... some of the divining characteristics of today's video.."this will be the day that I die...
this will be the day..." and then right here, we have this change this D7 to G.
So what makes this chord progression the most important chord progression in music? "...if you're
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start with the tritone ,and the tritone resolution, that this chord progression offers us, and then by
by way of that, the function of tension release that all music; or at least tonal
harmony; is based on. So inside of this D7. Inside of this dominant seven chord, I have this tritone
between the third of that chord and the seventh of that chord.
Now the tritone is one of the most dissonant intervals in music, and
so, what I get from this tritone, or the chord that contains it, when I go to the next chord,
is a resolution of that tritone. This note goes up, this note goes down. And we get this...
So in that one progression, I've established a sort of a gravity, or a home to the key that we're in.
This (uh) establishment of a home or a center, or a gravity to the song, is the cornerstone
of tonal harmony. Tonal harmony is basically understanding the key you're in. The chords
available to you in that key and, how they relate to and from one another. So just with this this one
little small piece of information: D7 to G, I know we're in the key of G. That means I know that I
can play G C and D all day long -- the one IV V I -- I know the ii is this... I know the iii is that...
I know I have all these chords available to us: G, Am, Bm, C D, Em, and the seven chord
F#o -- not really used in a lot of popular music but it's there. So with those...
those limited pieces of information -- D7 to G -- I have our tonal center. So right about now you're
probably noticing: "...hey Adam, those other two songs didn't use D7 to G! So what are you going on about?..."
Great observation! So, that is a a great segue into, well, what total harmony really is. It's not
the name of the chord that's that important, the alphabetical designation of the chord
is just an arbitrary way by which to refer to that chord. When we're thinking tonal harmony,
we don't want to think too much D7 to G. What that really was in American Pie was a V7 - I
and that dominant-to-tonic movement, that (perfect authentic) perfect authentic cadence sound (excuse me)
uh is what gives us that tonal center, and all the context we need to understand the song.
That tension and release is what we're talking about. Not D7 to G, but V7 to I.
So when we look at Hey Jude, we see that same exact movement by way of a different (uh)
key, therefore, different chords. and that key in the key of F our V to I, is C7 to F. So remember,
[..to let her into your heart, then you can start...] There's our V7. You hear all the tension
that sends us home. So it gives us the tritone resolution that we talked about in American Pie,
the 3rd and the 7th of the V chord resolve by way of half steps
to the root and the 3rd of the I chord. And there's a lot of really
good tension release quality to that. Again, because the tritone is a really dissonant
interval. If you measure the frequencies of this note against that note, you get an extremely high ratio.
Which is a (I guess a) mathematical way of proving the point (how) how dissonant the tritone is -- or any
dissonant interval really is -- and then it just goes nicely to F and A. So again, our V7 to I.
So that third example: Hotel California,
offers us all the same attributes. We've got the tritone resolution, got all the tension release
functions that we talked about before. This one's in a minor key though. So when you hear
the end of the cadence you're gonna hear this return to a home a gravity, a center,
but this time, we're in B minor. So i get F#7 (the V) to Bm (the I) and there it is
again. It doesn't matter whether I'm resolving to a major target, or a minor target. We still have that
tension release ,because we still have that tritone resolution. We still have the tritone
in the dominant chord -- the V chord -- that resolve to its target. So whether you're doing
it in a major key, whether you're doing it in a minor key, this V to I movement is crucial
in establishing the tonal center, the key and therefore, all the things that are available to you.
And this is important, not just for understanding (I guess) what you're listening to, but also creating.
Because when you're talking about the rules of music, tonal harmony, these expectations,
then you get to talk about subverting them, and making like deliberate choices as far as, well,
what if I want to make it sound different. You gotta kind of know what's in the box, to aim for
stuff that's outside the box. So a whole sort of pandora's box can open up to us once we understand
uh the fundamentals, or the tendencies, or the rules of the game that we're playing. And in this case
it's tonal harmony. So something else that all three of these examples of an authentic cadence --
a V7 to I -- offer us, is really sound bass movement. We've talked about in other videos,
what bass movement -- what makes for good bass movement anyways -- is movement by way of steps
whole steps or half steps, or fifths up or down. And that's exactly what all three of
these examples did for us in the first example. In American Pie we have the bass going from D
to G. In our second example we had that movement be C to F -- so another movement of a fifth down.
In that last example we had F# to B -- a fifth again -- this time, he's moving up to get to it, so it
technically creates a fourth, but we still have that circle of fifths uh type movement, which
is why (well) one of many reasons anyways, you're constantly hearing about the circle of fifths right?
You're inundated left and right on youtube about the circle of fifths and its importance, and it's
almost cliche at this point. But it's cliche for a reason for this one purpose. Even if it was for
just this one purpose. Even though you could use it for way more than that. If you knew the circle
of fifths, you would understand all of your V - I movements in every key. So yet again, another
reason to check out the circle of fifths. Memorize your circle of fifths and you'll know all of your
authentic cadences in all keys. So, is D7 to G the most important chord progression in the world?
Well yes, but so is uh C7 to F and so is F#7 to Bm. These (these) tendencies--
or tendencies like this-- and there's a whole bunch of them by the way-- are so predictable,
so reusable, you're going to see them so often, to the point where if you understand how and where
to find them, you can understand almost anything you need to about tonal harmony. We can actually
map them out. We can superimpose them onto a map and and learn them that way. And that's something
we're going to do throughout the series, is use tonal harmony on a map. We're going to map tonal
harmony, so you can see all these functions how they relate to one another a little bit easier. We
tend to be visual learners, so I found that this really helped me. Hopefully it helps you too. So
come along with us on our journey to understand tonal harmony. Thanks again for joining us today.
check out our channel for all sorts of useful music theory lessons and if you're not a member
yet go ahead and do so by clicking on the join button or the link below for our members we're
going to include a worksheet that lets you fill out the circle of fifths from the perspective of
all 15 keys that's right i said 15 keys to better understand that check out this video down below
where we talk about victor wu's 15 key theory thanks again for watching check us out next time