The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

132 Par t 3:Tunes

Let’s put together some of these combinations. We’ll start, of course, with the I

chord. Because I leads to any chord, let’s go up one scale note and insert the ii

chord after the I. According to our chart, ii can lead to either IV, V, or vii°. We’ll

pick V. Then, because V always leads to I, the next chord is a return to the tonic.

The entire progression looks like this:

IiiVI

When you play this progression in the key of C, you get the following chords:

C / / / Dm / / / G / / / C / / /

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Let’s try another example. Again, we’ll start with the tonic, but this time we’ll

use the vi chord as the second chord. According to the chart, vi can lead to

either ii, IV, V, or I; let’s pick IV. Then, because IV can lead to either I, iii, V, or

vii°, we’ll pick V as the next chord—which leads us back to I as our final chord.

The entire progression looks like this:

IviIVVI

When you play this progression in the key of C, you get the following chords:

C / / / Am / / / F / / / G / / / C / / /

You should recognize that progression as the chords that drove thousands of

doo-wop tunes in the 1950s and 1960s.

Let’s return to that progression, and make an alternate choice for the third

chord—ii instead of IV. Because ii also leads to V, we can leave the rest of the

progression intact, which creates the following alternate progression:

IviiiVI

This, when played in the key of C, results in these chords:

C / / / Am / / / Dm / / / G / / / C / / /

When you’re playing a chord progression, the number of beats or

measures allotted to each chord isn’t set in stone. For example, you

could play the I-IV-V progression with a single measure for each chord.

Or you could play two measures of I, and a measure each of IV and V.

Or you could play three measures of one, and then two beats each of IV and V.

It all depends on the needs of the song—and helps provide an almost infinite

variety of possible chord combinations.

Tip

You can also work backward from where you want to end up—your final chord.

Because in most cases you want the final chord to be the tonic (I), all you have

to do is work through the options that lead to that chord. Consulting the Chord

Leading Reference table, you find that four chords can lead to the I: IV, V, vi,