Music Theory

I don't know pitch axis... what is it? i know modes...

 

i'd like to know your thoughts on implementing the circle of fifths into your composition and playing and specific examples of it. basically i want to know more about how to systematically produce of chord progressions that aren't too drastically changing and not too smooth either. I would be interested in an advanced theory class.

 

A really easy way to apply the circle of fifths is by adding ii-V-I progressions into your playing. Whenever you have a seventh or just a major chord going to a chord a perfect fourth above, add before it the minor chord a fourth below.

Ex. when a song plays like this

E7 Amaj7

you can add b minor to it:

bmin7 E7 Amaj7

and then you add more interest to it. You can find lots of examples of this listening to jazz standards. Try Recorda-me by Joe Henderson for example.

Amin69.........---................---..........---
Cmin69.........---................---..........Cmin7 F7
Bbmaj7.........Bbmin7 Eb7 Abmaj7....Abmin7 Db7
Gbmaj7.........Gmin7..C7...Fmaj7.......E7

There is a ii-V-I in Bb, followed by the same in Ab, then in Gb, then F. That is a really good way to get around the circle of fifths. It's also a good piano exercise to do ii-V-I's if you are studying piano.

 

that sounds nice but i don't know how you figured that out using the circle of fifths.. could you explain?

 

Going backwards on the circle of fifths diatonically gives you a harmonic progression. For example, if you are in C and you go down a diatonic fourth, you get G major. If you go down another fourth from G major, you get D minor. Reverse that, and you have Dmin-G-C, or in roman numerals ii-V-I, which is a very common cadence and is used a ton in music. Do you know roman numeral analysis?

 

Yea, i know roman numeral analysis. I still dont get how what you're talking about uses the circle though. Seems like you're just picking random parts of the circle instead of following a particular order. Like when you say if you move another 4th along the circle you get a Dmin when the next step in the circle is a D major.



Starting from Cmaj on the top and moving down a perfect 4th gives you Gmaj ten another perfect 4th down gives you a Dmaj, right?

 

If you are going chromatically yes, but if you did the same thing but only using notes from C major in the chords you get a D minor instead of major. Then you are making the progression diatonic in the key of C, implying a tonality of C major.

 

Ooooooooh ok, that makes more sense. so are you going clockwise around the outer circle in that diagram i posted and just letting the key decide weather a chord is major or minor? What other chords can you add? How else can you use the circle to come up with chord progressions? That one progression seems kinda limiting.. i want to learn how to make many chord progressions that are logically sound.. Is there anything you could suggest i read?

 

Bump for wanting to know how to logically transition modes, chords and scales.

 

Sorry I was really high and couldn't remember how to answer...High now but will try to answer...Get a book like Tonal Harmony by Kostka/Payne. That's the one I learned out of. Try to get somebody who has a lot of experience. I could answer your questions but a lot of it is done better in person.
About the ii-V, you can do a lot with it by applying it to modulations. The ii-V-I progression can be used for sudden and prepared modulations. You can also take that and go further back in the key, cycling through the circle of fifths (ex.IV-vii*-iii-vi-ii-V-I) to delay resolution of the tonic.
Logical transitioning of chords is usually by ascending fourths/descending fifths. That is where the circle of fifths comes in. That is not to say that you can't move chords other ways, but those are harder to pull off because they require an intimate understanding of how the chords interact.

 

thanks, ill definitely play around with that idea.