Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Eb Chord Progressions: I IV V

Remember from last time:

I. Eb major
ii. Fm
iii. Gm
IV. Ab major
V. Bb major
vi. Cm
vii(b5). Ddim

Many, many, many, many chord progressions in popular music contain some permutation of the I-IV-V progression, and since we're talking about the key of Eb:

I-IV-V can be replaced by the Eb, Ab, and Bb major chords.

You can change the order of the chords for some familiar-sounding progressions:

As I-IV-V-IV-V: Eb, Ab, Bb, Ab, and Bb chords.

As I-V-IV-IV: Eb, Bb, Ab, and Ab chords.

As IV-I-V: The Ab Lydian-sounding Ab, Eb, and Bb progression. (Also referred to as I-V-II.)

As V-IV-I: The Bb Mixolydian-sounding Bb, Ab, and Eb progression. (Also referred to as I-bVII-IV.)

All this looks a lot like high school algebra, but it sounds better than it looks (pun intended).

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