Introduction to the Circle Progression
The circle progression is a powerful and often used progression that you can harness to use in your own music. In a circle progression the root of the chords continually descends by a perfect fifth or ascends by a perfect fourth. How fourths and fifths are related is illustrated well by the circle of fifths.
In chord number talk I to IV is a circle progression. So is ii to V, and iii to vi, and so on. (take a look at this chart for a mapping of chords to intervals in various keys). So if we were to flesh out a full circle progression in a major scale it would look like this:
I — IV — vii° — iii — vi — ii — V — I
As we can see, each new chord is a perfect fourth above the last one, or a perfect fifth below (thank you inversion). Let’s re-do this for a minor scale now. The progression now looks like this:
i — iv — VII — III — VI — ii° — V — i
As an example, in C major the chords would be:
C — F — B° — Em — Am — Dm — G — C
Try playing this right now to get an idea of how the circle progression sounds. This progression is considered to be harmonically very effective. The V naturally wants to fall to the I making the V — I cadence , also known as the ‘Authentic Cadence’, have the strongest sense of finality. So a progression that is a string of authentic cadences pulls you along until you hit bottom at the tonic.
Now consider that you can embellish any or all of the chords to give the progression a different quality. Make them into 7ths, 9ths, sus4ths. Add pedal tones to them. Try changing up the rhythm, and for that matter, choose your starting point at will. Try C/// — Em7// — Am7// — Dm/// — Gadd9/// and see what I mean. You can adapt the circle progression significantly to suit your needs yet still maintain its harmonic strength. This makes it a great springboard for writing great songs.
I’m actually a little confused. I don’t understand the symbols you use. the I and IV stuff. will you explain? =3
The numbers refer to the scale degree of the root note for the particular chords. That is to say that given the tonic of a certain key (for example the note C is the tonic, or root, note of the C major scale) the number tells you to use as the root of the chord the note that is that number away from the root.
For example in the key of A the notation:
I — IV — V
tells me to use the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the A major scale as the chord roots, so the chord progression is then played as:
A — D — E
This numbering system is a way of getting around talking about particular notes or particular key signatures, and moving toward describing music as made of particular intervals. This method makes much sense when dealing with equal temperament tuning since this gives us the ability to have a piece of music move to any key and sound the same. The notes don’t matter, the intervals do.
Nashville notation is based on this numbering system, where instead of chords, you are presented with the chord’s degree. Below are some links you may find useful in familiarising yourself with degree notation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_degree
http://www.ezfolk.com/guitar/howtao/folk-guitar.html#nash
I also linked in the post to a chord chart I made that maps out the chords in various keys, but I’ll link to it again:
http://www.euphonicremarks.com/2008/08/a-chord-transposition-chart/
That’s what I thought kinda. I wasn’t sure.
Thanks for helping a fellow musician out, buddy =)
You’re welcome. Always glad to help.