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Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

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Re: Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

#11

Post by baddox »

msluyter wrote: post #10
gnaritas wrote: post #4

> What stands out here, is that IV → I (F to C) is not only normal, it actually shows up just as often as V → I. This is surprising (at least to a classically trained person). That's not surprising at all, and I don't believe for a second that a classically trained person would think so either. V -> I is a common movement for resolution, so is IV -> I as are several others. While his data is interesting, I find the a…

Well, as a classically trained musician, I certainly would expect V-I to be much more common than IV-I, as a cadence . (Defining "classical music" as music roughly from 1650-1900ish). But it sounds like the author didn't really limit his analysis to cadences. My impression was that he just counted every chord that precedes a C chord, which even in classical music would include lots of non-cadential IV chords moving t…

What you briefly explain what you mean by cadential chord transitions versus non-cadential chord transitions? Is a cadential chord transition one that resolves an entire progression rather than merely appearing in the middle of a progression?

Re: Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

#12

Post by baddox »

davec wrote: post #5
gnaritas wrote: post #4

> What stands out here, is that IV → I (F to C) is not only normal, it actually shows up just as often as V → I. This is surprising (at least to a classically trained person). That's not surprising at all, and I don't believe for a second that a classically trained person would think so either. V -> I is a common movement for resolution, so is IV -> I as are several others. While his data is interesting, I find the a…

I disagree that a classically trained musician wouldn't be surprised at the predominance of IV -> I in popular music. Plagal cadences aren't nearly as common as V->I in the common practice period, and when it is used, the pull of IV to I isn't nearly as strong. The resolution is much weaker.

Plagal cadences aren't so common, but this analysis wasn't limited to cadencial transitions.

Re: Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

#14

Post by msluyter »

baddox wrote: post #11
msluyter wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as a classically trained musician, I certainly would expect V-I to be much more common than IV-I, as a cadence . (Defining "classical music" as music roughly from 1650-1900ish). But it sounds like the author didn't really limit his analysis to cadences. My impression was that he just counted every chord that precedes a C chord, which even in classical music would include lots of non-cadential IV chords moving t…

What you briefly explain what you mean by cadential chord transitions versus non-cadential chord transitions? Is a cadential chord transition one that resolves an entire progression rather than merely appearing in the middle of a progression?

Yeah, basically. A cadence is a harmonic progression at the end of a phrase. In classical music it's usually V-I. Sometimes you'll hear IV-I (plagal, aka "amen" cadence), but it's actually fairly rare outside of church music. However, internally, within a phrase of music, you might see IV-I more often. A fairly common example: I-IV-I-V-I.

Re: Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

#15

Post by jerf »

davec wrote: post #5
gnaritas wrote: post #4

> What stands out here, is that IV → I (F to C) is not only normal, it actually shows up just as often as V → I. This is surprising (at least to a classically trained person). That's not surprising at all, and I don't believe for a second that a classically trained person would think so either. V -> I is a common movement for resolution, so is IV -> I as are several others. While his data is interesting, I find the a…

I disagree that a classically trained musician wouldn't be surprised at the predominance of IV -> I in popular music. Plagal cadences aren't nearly as common as V->I in the common practice period, and when it is used, the pull of IV to I isn't nearly as strong. The resolution is much weaker.

Your "classical training" is pretty weak if your teachers never saw fit to mention that little tidbit at any point. If mine bent over any further backwards to disclaim the idea that classical chord progressions were the only ones I think their spines would have cracked.

Re: Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

#17

Post by jschulenklopper »

For an interesting visual way to map common chord progressions, also see http://chordmaps.com/mapC.htm for in the key of C. Steve also made a generic one: http://chordmaps.com/genmap.htm.

I have this as a reference on the piano, and it is nice to experiment with several routes to return to the root chord (nicely positioned at the bottom of the page).

Re: Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns.

#18

Post by msluyter »

msluyter wrote: post #10
gnaritas wrote: post #4

> What stands out here, is that IV → I (F to C) is not only normal, it actually shows up just as often as V → I. This is surprising (at least to a classically trained person). That's not surprising at all, and I don't believe for a second that a classically trained person would think so either. V -> I is a common movement for resolution, so is IV -> I as are several others. While his data is interesting, I find the a…

Well, as a classically trained musician, I certainly would expect V-I to be much more common than IV-I, as a cadence . (Defining "classical music" as music roughly from 1650-1900ish). But it sounds like the author didn't really limit his analysis to cadences. My impression was that he just counted every chord that precedes a C chord, which even in classical music would include lots of non-cadential IV chords moving t…

Ammending: I made a typo -- 12-bar blues should be (I-VI-I-V-IV-I).
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