# Your favorite chord progressions



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

For those who don't know theory, I'm sorry to leave you out. But you may be able to describe what you like by giving an example! I can help you with the analysis. 

As to myself, these stand out:

I - (I6) - ii7 - V7

iii - V4/3 - I, modified with a vamp of iii - V4/3 - iii - V4/2 (repeat indefinitely)

IV6 - German VI - V(6/4-5/3)

I'm a sucker for these 3 classical progressions. If I hear there in any context, I go gaga.  They are used often by the Russian composers, but they appear just about everywhere.

What are your favorite chord progressions?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I really like that progression from the dominant to the tonic, then the dominant, then the tonic, then the dominant...

--Ludwig


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

KenOC said:


> I really like that progression from the dominant to the tonic, then the dominant, then the tonic, then the dominant...
> 
> --Ludwig


4:45 to the end...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> 4:45 to the end...


Copyright infringement! 7:35 to the end...


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

Modulation to the supertonic: V7/ii - ii. There's just something so colourful and intense about the supertonic key, especially during the initial impact of the modulation.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

My favorite one is my spinal chord progression . It shows I have a real backbone .


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

1H(prot) - 2H (deuter, D) – 3H (tryt, T)

CxH2y + 2xH2O → (2x+y)H2 + xCO2

IV6 - Caucasian VI (aug7 VIz) - G6PD locus Xq28.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Aramis said:


> 1H(prot) - 2H (deuter, D) - 3H (tryt, T)
> 
> CxH2y + 2xH2O → (2x+y)H2 + xCO2
> 
> IV6 - Caucasian VI (aug7 VIz) - G6PD locus Xq28.


Let's see. H2 could be a _diatomic_ scale. 
...and the lame pun of the week award, goes to...


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

I don't think I have a favourite progression but if I do, it probably falls in the pentatonic scale.
I have a weakness for any sounds, east of the Danube. Polvotsian/Slavonic/Hungarian dances etc.
The pentatonic in Tchaikovsky's first couple of phrases of Pathetique. 
Borodin's 3rd - the way he sneaks the scale into the diatonic harmonization.
Even Chopin's Black Keys Etude sounds eastern. Or, at least his right hand does.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

I don't know, I like to hear something that is surprising to the ear. So I think that it depends by the context.


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

I always enjoyed the i - V/iv - iv , I hear it in a lot of Chopin and it really makes the iv stand out.

The simple i - VI motion is also another favorite - particularly in Schnittke Cello Sonata (played by the piano)

also:

i - vii o
i - iv - VII - III - VI - vi - V - i


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I like progressions with "pedal tones" or a note which is sustained through several chords. Examples are the beginning of the Sibelius Second Symphony. Also, I like Bach's use of chords with the seventh in the bass, which are sustained into the next or previous chord.
I like common-tone diminished chords when they occur. Also, I like it when diminished seventh chords are transformed into dominant flat-nines, which happens often in Beethoven, esp. the late quartets.
I like "smooth" progressions which seem to wander; like in Chopin's_ E minor Prelude._ That's real poetic-sounding to me.
I like a lot of the stuff that happens, harmonically, in Holst's _The Planets. 
_I like the wandering, chromatic late-Romantic progressions, like Strauss' _Metamorphosen_ and Schoenberg's _Pelleas,_ and Reger's _Romantic Suite._


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

I'm a fan of chord progressions through common tones and enharmonic spellings. Those types of progressions tend to lead to very unexpected places. I agree with *norman bates*, though: chord progressions are not in and of themselves all that exciting to me; I tend to appreciate them in context.

A particularly favorite passage of mine is in the second movement of Schubert's "Unfinished":

- mm. 64-71: the tonic is C#m moving to iv (F#m) in 2nd inversion
- mm. 72: the outer notes of the F#m chord (C# and A) are retained while the middle note (F#) is replaced by both E and G, making the chord an A7, or V of D minor
- mm. 73: D minor chord
- mm. 74: the F and A of the D minor chord are retained while D is replaced by C, making the chord F major triad in 2nd inversion
- mm. 75: the F major triad, now the new temporary tonic, is followed by V7 (i.e. C7)
- mm. 76: deceptive cadence to vi (Dm)
- mm. 77: vi is followed by its own dominant (A7), making Dm the new tonic
- mm. 80: A7 is reinterpreted as a Ger+6 and resolves instead to C#m in 2nd inversion
- mm. 81: C#m, the tonic again, followed by V (G#7)
- mm. 82: "Picardy 3rd" resolution to C# major
- mm. 84: C# major enharmonically respelled as Db major
- mm. 86: V7 of Db (i.e. Ab7)
- mm. 96: "reverse Picardy 3rd" resolution [for lack of a better term] to Dbm, eventually enharmonically spelled as C#m

To summarize, then: modulation from C# minor to D minor (which in itself shouldn't even be harmonically legal), throwing in the relative major to boot, back to C# minor with a temporary excursion to both its parallel major and its enharmonic parallel major, and finally come back to where we started, C# minor. In just under 32 measures. It's like taking a walk around the block with a brief side trip to Mars.

The passage can be heard at 2:11 - 3:19.


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## agglerithm (Dec 7, 2013)

I like a string of secondary dominants with a lot of suspensions. Particularly if there are a few fully-diminished seventh chords thrown in to break up the monotony.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KenOC said:


> I really like that progression from the dominant to the tonic, then the dominant, then the tonic, then the dominant...
> 
> --Ludwig


That is _a vacillation_, not a progression


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Eschbeg said:


> I'm a fan of chord progressions through common tones and enharmonic spellings. Those types of progressions tend to lead to very unexpected places. I agree with *norman bates*, though: chord progressions are not in and of themselves all that exciting to me; I tend to appreciate them in context.
> 
> A particularly favorite passage of mine is in the second movement of Schubert's "Unfinished":
> 
> ...


Wow! Is this from an essay? Looks like you really analyzed it thoroughly. I always wondered what was going on at section too, I've played in that symphony. The voice leadings are amazing, and they feel very _natural_.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Just to clarify, a_ progression _of chords leads to a goal; a _succession_ of chords has no harmonic direction/goal as such. These _successions_ can be found in Wagner and Debussy. That's not to say that a _succession_ of chords is without meaning; it may "suspend" the mood, as in Wagner, or have only local or coloristic meaning, as in Debussy. Messian's music, esp. the later works, has no "harmony" as a progression of dissonance/consonance, but is coloristic harmony; in this sense, harmony means the vertical color dimension rather than a "harmonic progression."


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Wow! Is this from an essay? Looks like you really analyzed it thoroughly.


Heh... no, not from an essay. I've spent a lot of time poring over that score, as there are so many harmonic sleights-of-hand to discover.



> The voice leadings are amazing, and they feel very _natural_.


Agreed: somehow, with Schubert, the more outrageous the harmonic sequences, the more casual it sounds. I had been playing his Impromptu in Ab Major for years before it dawned on me that the B section is in the parallel minor of the enharmonically-spelled subdominant.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

What are these things called "chord progressions?"


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

PetrB said:


> What are these things called "chord progressions?"


Something about the idea that you can ignore chord voicings and rhythm and still understand how something's put together...

Click "piano" and listen for a horrifying experience.
http://www.hooktheory.com/analysis/view/robert-schumann/in-der-fremde/verse


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> Something about the idea that you can ignore chord voicings and rhythm and still understand how something's put together...
> 
> Click "piano" and listen for a horrifying experience.
> http://www.hooktheory.com/analysis/view/robert-schumann/in-der-fremde/verse


So you're saying the majority of the world listens to confluent simultaneous horizontal lines and tries to make some vertical sense of it? 
Oh, My!

LOL. I'm reminded of a function in Cubase, pop chord nomenclatures fly by during playback.... I've a multi-movement many multiple track, those overdubbed as well, suite for midi piano, the harmony what you will, the activity often extremely dense, just loved watching those pop chord nomenclatures flying by, some of those one over another, like a fraction, with additional 9th, 11th, 13th chords, as parts of one or both of those...

None of that having anything to do with 'chord function,' Ha haaaaa haaaaaaaa.

P.s. ADD I clicked piano, and though you warned me, it was horrifying. I'm traumatized: you owe me


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

millionrainbows said:


> Just to clarify, a_ progression _of chords leads to a goal; a _succession_ of chords has no harmonic direction/goal as such. These _successions_ can be found in Wagner and Debussy."


In Wagner, they are mostly progressions in search of a cadence. Wagner's harmonies have goals but he keeps moving the goal posts!


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Wagner's Magic Sleep leitmotif from the Ring cycle. Really imaginative harmonising of a descending 12-tone scale.

The string chords just before the horn solo that begins the Finale of Stravinsky's The Firebird.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

We know how much Brahms likes to alternate modes in twisting curious ways, like the beginning of his 2nd PC. I absolutely adore the whimsical alternating structure of 35:45 - 35:58, you know, specifically *35:48-52*


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

19:18-19:40






12:00-13:13


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## Gold Member (Aug 23, 2021)

8:42


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