venjacques

For RezZ, I think we should talk about what power chords are in general. As GuitarBizzare has mentioned, the power chords are "diatonically ambiguous". But they take the concept of the barre chord - a chord with at least the root, third, and fifth represented. The power chord cheats this feat with only representing the root and the fifth. What you're talking about seems to be with just the root present, thus ignoring the fifth. Technically, if you only have one note, there are only 7 chords it could possibly represent in any given major or minor key.

If you're in the key of C major, for example, you have C major, d minor, e minor, F major, G major, a minor, and b diminished for possible chords. Therefor, given a general feel for the key, you can start to assume quite a bit of information. If you play C A F G, I'm going to assume they're just the roots of the chords. Interestingly enough, the first 3, C A F spell a descending F major chord; but that's hardly relevant for chords. What I mean then is if you play these 4 notes and I get a feel that you're in C major anyway, I'm going to assume they are C major, a minor, F major, and G major. The ambiguity is quite profound, but it's stable enough if I have a general sense.

Another thing to take a look at is a bass guitarist. He is responsible for basically one note at a time. If he's playing just a riff without a fellow guitarist/keyboardist to help him out, he's playing one note at a time. Chances are, unless there's a very nice counterpoint between him and the vocalist, that he's playing root notes every step of the way. The good news is, if you're in a certain key, the choices of what he's able to play are limited to about 7 in most cases.

__________________
It's just another day.

KJones

I've been waiting for one of these threads. Hmmm..

Are there any harmonic functions that sound pleasing to the ear outside of I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii (or dim)?

I do know that there is a function where the dominant of the minor scale is turned major or dominant 7th, but are there any harmonic patterns that give a really good cadence and progression with 9th's, 11th's or even better #5 or #6 chords?

Rubato

Almost every chord possible has a place in a key, you just need to pay attention to the root movements and follow the tendency of the leading tones.



Here vi is replaced by VI, with the progression VI-ii or V-i in D minor or respelled V/ii-ii in C Major, it can be considered an extension of ii, every chord can be preceded by it's dominant/dominant 7th provided it doesn't establish itself as a new tonic, inserting a non-diatonic minor would follow the the same model as it would as ii in it's own key, diminished as ii in minor and augmented as III in minor.

here V is substituted for an augmented chord where the D# leads easily to E. The augmented 6th is a little different, following its role as subdominant in minor with a raised root usualy with an added 7th to avoid doubling the third.

Burning Down

Here. This is from my own homework so the work is not exactly stellar, but it gets the point across.

9th, 11th, and 13th chords are 7th chords with added dissonance. Sorry, the resolution of the image is not the greatest, it's the best I could do though



As you can see, I've written a descending 5ths sequence, and have alternated 9/7 chords with other 7th chords.

Now here's an 11th chord used in a cadential progression (which is what you wanted to know).



And a 13th chord:



By #6 chords, did you mean augmented 6th chords? There are three types (French, German, and Italian) and they work really nicely as pre-dominant chords in a V-I cadence. Here's a French 6th acting as a pre-dominant in a minor key. The top example shows the more typical use of the iiø4/3, and then in the second example you can see that I've replaced it with a French 6th chord:



Here's a French 6th in a major key:



You can also use the bII6 chord (AKA the Phrygian II or Neapolitan 6th chord) as a pre-dominant harmony in a cadential progression. This is a chord that is built on the flattened supertonic (scale degree 2 of the key), and is almost always written in first inversion.

Dr_Rez

Well venj at first I did not think you were here to actually discuss anything but to advertise but after those 2 posts I can say you are an awesome poster.

Thanks for taking the time to answer. You and gb.

__________________
*Best chance of losing virginity is in prison crew*
*Always Checks Credentials Crew*
*nba > nfl crew*
*Shave one of my legs to pretend its a girl in my bed crew*

venjacques

Thank you very much, RezZ. I hope our joined posts were enough to answer your question. Let me know if you have anything else you're not 100% on.

__________________
It's just another day.

venjacques

Thank you kindly. I appreciate the kind words.

__________________
It's just another day.

Guybrush

Good answers, venjacques and GB

Kinda makes me wish I had a question about music theory!

__________________
Something Completely Different

Burning Down

I wish I had a question too... the sad truth is I'll probably be answering more questions in here I might ask.

blastingas10

Do y'all know any good books for learning theory?