when it comes to white keys i have a strategy of basically staying away from certain notes.
B = never, D and E = add for extra flavor C, F, G and A = knock yourself out. this is when im jamming away, not playing chords
i donât have any favorite progressions, only favoritte scales.
I know you didnât want music theory, but hereâs some anyway in case you are interested.
If you treat the first black key of the set of 3 (rather than the set of 2) as your âhomeâ, then youâre playing in the scale âF# major pentatonicâ. Pentatonic scales have five notes and use the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th notes of their partner scales that start on the same key. You can play major (âhappyâ) and minor (âsad/moodyâ) pentatonic scales (just like you can play major and minor âfullâ scales).
When you play every key on the keyboard in sequence (going from white to black to white as you encounter them), youâre playing âsemi-tonesâ or âhalf a toneâ difference between one note and the next. If you play two adjacent white notes which have a black note in between them (or two black notes with a white note between) then youâre playing a âwhole toneâ or âa toneâ difference.
Major scales, minor scales (and the rest) are made up of two parts:
- the number of notes
- the relationships between them
Both major and minor scales have the same number of notes (7) before you repeat the pattern. Pentatonic scales have 5. There are other scales, some with more notes, all with different sets of relationships.
You can start any scale on any note, and then follow the pattern of whole and half-tone relationships up/down and the scale will sound roughly similar regardless of where you start. Majors always sound upbeat; minors always sound moody. This is sometimes called âplaying the scale in the key of Xâ (where X is the note you start on), or simply âplaying in X majorâ. The different starting notes will cause the scale to have a slightly different colour - mostly because itâs higher/lower than any other version of that same scale, partly through association (memory of other music) and partly because maybe weâre made with fixed responses to certain frequencies.
The major scale relationship goes: whole whole half whole whole whole half
The major pentatonic scale goes: whole whole whole+half whole whole+half
Thereâs actually three different minor scales and I keep muddling them up so I wonât try.
You can use numbers to refer to the notes within the scale. So the first note of the scale gets labelled â1â, the 2nd â2â and so on. The numerals (I, II, III, IV etc) typically refer to triad chords starting on the 1, 2, 3, 4 etc of the scale. Thatâs a related topic, but different and big enough that Iâll leave it to another message or to someone else. I also know less about it
So if you take that pentatonic scale youâre playing on all the black keys, you can start on a different key (maybe a white one) and play the same set of relationships (i.e. the same scale) but using different notes.
The pentatonic scales are nice because they have exactly that quality you mentioned: every note âmatchesâ with every other note. If you ever play on kidâs versions of instruments, they often have just five notes rather than the 7 or 12 of âadultâ ones, for exactly this reason. It helps keep the random play kids do sounding engaging in the hope that they donât accidentally put themselves off music by playing something surprisingly ugly.
If youâre gonna play all black keys as your skeleton, try using Db or Bb as your home (whether you want a major or minor-ish feel) and adding in the C F and A white keys. Itâs an 8 note scale instead of 7 or 5. Oh well. This scale includes tons of chords, including some unusual combos:
Both F major and F minor
Both Gb major and Gb minor
Itâs got a shed-ton of leading tones.
You get a series of tritones separated by minor 3rds.
Itâs a âflatâ scale, but all those black keys combined with the white A key usually give âsharpâ associations. If you want to confuse or tease it even further in a âsharpwardâ direction, you can temporarily switch from playing the C or F white keys to playing the B, D or E white keys as passing or leading tones, as a sort of âbluffâ or foreshadowing, depending on where exactly youâre going with this.
If you start on the Db key (and its major chord) as your home base, then you get both its flat 6th (A) and its natural 6th (Bb) notes in this scale (and their diminished and minor chords).
You also get the dominant V chord (Ab7⌠itâs an 8 note scale, so I have to double up on one of the 7 letters A-G when describing it, so I chose to do that with A and Ab).
You also get both major and minor feeling 4ths (Gb major and Gb minor).
There are all kinds of cool directions you can take this âscaleâ. Iâd call it more of a âscavenger huntâ or a âmap to the homes of the starsâ, rather than a âscaleâ, though.
I usually write these âfavorite scaleâ posts when Iâm stoned and not looking at a keyboard, and I usually mess up the description somewhere along the way. But itâs not lunchtime yet here, so I think that shouldnât be too confusing. You know what?..
TL;DR - If youâd rather start with a more normal mode than that, but still take the scenic route, look up and try âdouble harmonic majorâ (itâs not what I described above, but itâs probably a more familiar tonality for most people). 12tone and Rick Beato both have YouTube videos devoted to it. Also maybe check out the lydian dominant mode.
Since the topic is about chord progressions, Iâll mention a âstarterâ chord progression for that 8 note scale I mentioned above. Try playing these chords in order:
Bb minor
Db major
F major
Gb major
Db major
Ab7
Bb minor
F7
Gb major
Db diminished 7th (or Gb°7 or A°7, is same)
Ab7
Gb minor
Db major
Bb minor
Ab major
Gb major
âŚand so on. Thatâs one typical style of chord progression that you can solo over with the scale I mentioned (i.e. all the black keys, plus the C, F and A white keys).
When I said it has a series of tritones separated by minor thirds, I meant the series of tritones (play the note pairs that are on the same row together as two note chords ascending up the keyboard, and youâll hear what I mean):
C - Gb
Eb - A
Gb - C
A - Eb
You can keep repeating this pattern all the way up the keyboard. Itâs a cool symmetry.
I programmed that into a sequencer (because Iâm slow to play and slower to remember sequences). It has a weird shifting, slightly unsettling vibe. Very curious!
This is a great thread. I have a question on progressionsâŚ
It was my (very basic) understanding that songs follow set chord progressions, which is why they sound good. I wanted to play with something funky so I looked up Princeâs âLetâs Workâ but that goes B minor 7th to E major 7th which is out of progression. It should be E minor 7th. Is that out of progression becauseâŚ
Prince is on a higher plane and can make such things work?
Funk as a genre plays out of progression?
My limited understanding doesnât realise this really is in progression because it is an inversion or something?
The tab is wrong? (There are some that list it starting at B major 7, but all the sheet PDFs list it at B minor)
Thanks
Thereâs guidelines, but no rules. Loads of pop songs use the same few progressions; loads of jazz* uses the same few (and different ones from the common pop); loads of blues uses the same fewâŚ
But you can do what you want.
Yes
No.
*And Iâm mostly talking about older jazz here. All the jazz rules changed with Bebop in the late '50s.
Thanks. I will google some more funk tunes for other progressions, conventional or otherwise.