4 Ways To Make Common Chord Progressions Fun & Interesting
You want to be original.
That’s reasonably easy for lyrics. You can say ‘I love you’ in a million different ways.
Melodies a little trickier though, but by adding different registers and dynamics we can just about get by.
Chords, ha, no chance!
There is a reason why common chord progressions are a thing.
And that’s because they work. They are the perfect motion for a journey in a song, so why change it?
Well for some of us the usual I-vi-IV-V (1-6-4-5) or I-V-vi-IV (1-5-6-4) or I-IV-V (1-4-5) transition per bar or two is just plain and simply… boring.
It’s a plain cake with no flavour, and eating a plain cake everyday can drive you insane. Your tastebuds want more.
Well my ears want more!
Let’s put together some creative chord progressions that will make our ears happy!
Spicing up a common chord progression
Spicing up your chord progression doesn’t have to be hard. It can be as simple as changing one chord.
We are going to be using a basic chord progression from C major as our original, and in each example we are going to spice it up and change it.
Here’s the chord progression:
C major – G major – A minor – F major
This follows the numerical pattern of I-V-vi-IV (1-5-6-4).
Here’s how it sounds:
Don’t get me wrong, it sounds great, but let’s make it more interesting, a little different, a little less ‘standard.’
4. Invert your basic chords
One way we can make our chord progression a little more interesting is by rotating the notes of a chord, therefore, inverting it.
So what does this mean exactly?
Well our C major chord contains 3 notes, C E G, in this specific order.
If we rotate the order by one place we get the 1st inversion which would be E G C, and if we rotate by two places we get the 2nd inversion which would be G C E.
Inverted chords are shown with a slash symbol, the letter after the slash represents the note that is now the bass note (the lowest note). For example C/E is the 1st inversion because E is the bass note, and C/G is the 2nd inversion because G is the bass note.
So why is this different?
Well, as you ascend through the inversions the higher the chord sounds. What this gives you is a hint of instability and tension without having to go full blown diminished chord in your progression.
So let’s compare, here’s our original chord progression:
C major – G major – A minor – F major
Now here is the altered version with a 1st inversion G major and a 1st inversion F major:
C major – G/B – A minor – F/A
They both sound completely different! But notice how the second has a sense of emotional imbalance? This is great if your song requires it!
But, too many inversions in one row can lead to too much instability so use them with caution.
You wouldn’t put a whole tub of pepper on your food now would you?
3. Change your mode
Okay Nicola, what do you mean by change your mode?
If you’re unfamiliar with music theory, then the idea that modes exist will seem like an alien concept. But modes are really easy to grasp.
Technically you already know two, but just don’t realize it. I’m referring to major and minor, these are both modes but, we call them something else.
Let’s quickly go through what modes are.
Each note in a major scale has a number attached to it. That number also has a modal name, derived from the rotation the scale is played in.
Here’s the C major scale as an example:
- C major – C Ionian – CDEFGAB (major scale)
- D minor – D Dorian – DEFGABC
- E minor – E Phrygian – EFGABCD
- F major – F Lydian – FGABCDE
- G major – G Mixolydian – GABCDEF
- A minor – A Aeolian – ABCDEFG (minor scale)
- B diminished – B Locrian – BCDEFGA
Each mode has the same notes, just rotated.
As you can see we most commonly use ionian and aeolian modes without even realising it!
So how would our chord progression (1-5-6-4) sound in lydian mode?
So let’s compare, here’s our original chord progression:
C major – G major – A minor – F major
Now here is the altered version using lydian mode which starts from F:
F major – C major – D minor – B diminished
Ouch, that diminished really puts the shock value on that progression.
Let’s try our chord progression in dorian mode instead.
So let’s compare, here’s our original chord progression:
C major – G major – A minor – F major
Now here is the altered version using dorian mode which starts from D:
D minor – A minor – B diminished – G major
The B diminished really fits in quite well with this chord progression, definitely gives it a spooky quality.
Experiment with modes, as each one can make us feel a certain way.
2. Take a common chord progression and alter its sequence
The 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th chords tend to get preferential treatment, and our main focus has been on this sequence 1-5-6-4.
So let’s play some more with these chords by creating a new sequence.
Here we’ve used repetition and duplication, this is our chord progression:
C major – A minor – C major – A minor – F major – F major – G major – G major
Our progression still focuses on the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th chord. Here’s how it looks:
I-vi-I-vi-IV-IV-V-V (1-6-1-6-4-4-5-5)
Let’s hear how it sounds:
Here we’ve used the ‘bean bag’ technique, this is our chord progression:
C major – F major – C major – G major – C major – A minor – G major – F major
Here’s how it looks:
I-IV-I-V-I-vi-V-IV (1-4