Chapter 3 Flashcards
The minor pop chords
1
Q
How could the iii minor be used in a ‘I-vi-IV-V’ ?
A
Theory tells us that iii minor – being part of the tonic family – should be able to substitute for the ubiquitous vi chord within both our ‘I-vi-IV-V’ and also the Doo Wop version.
2
Q
Can ii and V alternate on their own?
A
Yes. setting up gentle tension by delaying the cadence to I.
‘My Sweet Lord’ which features four repeats of ii-V before moving on to I.
3
Q
Substitution summary – What is the concept of the diatonic ‘families’ ?
A
a songwriter can regard chords as not just being constructed from the parent diatonic scale but as belonging to smaller ‘families’ of chords within that harmonised scale. Indeed each of I, IV and V major triads can be seen as being ‘assigned’ minor chords to which they are related through either a major/relative minor relationship or just the sharing of common tones.
4
Q
The Four-Chord Cycles revisited – ‘ii-V-I-vi’
A
If we now start the Doo Wop chord sequence a bar late, we arrive at an important variation: ‘ii-V-I-vi’
The sequence is used in ‘The Fool On The Hill’ (‘Nobody wants to know him they can see that he’s just a fool’ –
5
Q
The ‘I-iii scale walk’ in the 12-bar blues
A
You can walk up for the I to the iii and then back down to the ii. Then end with a ii-V-I
-Heard in blues like Stormy Monday
6
Q
What is the ‘I-iii’ move?
A
-should be seen as a dramatic departure from the now numbing predictability of the ‘I-vi’
-Its more slick sounding and is often used in the context of an opening change in a verse.
“I read the news today oh boy”
-Many of these songs then go on to the vi. “I-iii-vi”
7
Q
What chords are in “The tonic family:” ?
A
I, vi and iii
8
Q
What chords are in The dominant family ?
A
V and vii
9
Q
What chords are in The subdominant family: ?
A
IV and ii
10
Q
What is the iii chord called traditionally?
A
The iii chord is traditionally called the mediant, as it is the harmonic point mid-way between the tonic and the all important dominant. As a result, it represents root movement of a third interval from the tonic,
11
Q
What is the diatonic Cycle Of Fifths ?
A
I-IV-VII-iii-vi-ii-V-I
a song can literally revolve around this cycle continuously or use it as a temporary stepping stone, a musical ‘merry-go-round’, jumping on and off at will.
Remember that the Cycle Of Fifths reflects root movement – not the quality of the chord built on that root.
12
Q
Why should these ‘iii-vi’ moves ‘work’ ?
A
because of their root movement. For the iii lies a fifth above the vi and it therefore has a natural tendency to move to it, creating ‘stops’ along the Cycle Of Fifths,
13
Q
What is The ‘I-vi-I-vi’ vamp?
A
This works because the vi is the relative minor of the I. In C, C major and A minor both have C and E notes. The I and vi are flipsides of the same coin
14
Q
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
A
Used almost more then any other progression. Think “All I have to do is dream”
15
Q
What is Diatonic substitution ?
A
when crafting a song, a writer will look for a chord that is different to the one that might have been expected – but which still enables the progression to function as he initially intended.
16
Q
Can the ii minor be substituted for the IV chord?
A
yes. In any key, the ii minor is the relative minor of the IV chord and, as a result, the potential for substitution between the two chords exists.
17
Q
What is the ‘ii-for-IV’ substitution (the Doo Wop cycle) ?
A
The four chord cliche but the formula is now spelt I-vi-ii-V
Think “Blue Moon”
18
Q
What is the diatonic walk I-ii
A
The use of ii as the first step along the diatonic harmonized scale from the tonic
In the same way we saw I alternate with IV, we can do the same with ii. Think “Dont let me down”
You can also continue up. “Getting Better”
19
Q
What does Ending a section with a prepared Perfect cadence do?
A
Simply by putting a ii minor chord ahead of the V, we are ‘priming’ the dominant and thereby encouraging the listener to hear the eventual movement to I from ‘further back’ in the sequence.
20
Q
ii-V-I
Perfect Cadance ending a section
A
the ii-V-I here creates a feeling of a progression being self-contained, with a Perfect cadence taking us to a point of rest (this time with a melody that also homes in on the restful tonic). It creates a point of resolution, both musically, and semantically in terms of John’s sobering, soul-baring admission.
21
Q
What is accomplished by Ending a section with an Imperfect cadence?
ii-V………………I
A
This ends not with a ii-V-I resolution but with the ii-V chords on their own. The tonic does follow – but only as we start the next verse after a notable delay in which we are left ‘hanging on the dominant’. The cadence is said to be Imperfect because of this ‘hanging effect’,
21
Q
Why does the diatonic cycle of 5ths work?
I-IV-VII-iii-vi-ii-V-I
A
The cycle invariably ‘works’ because of the ebb-and-flow of tension and resolution that is naturally built into it, with the penultimate dominant V consolidating this flow of fifths as it cadences to the tonic.
21
Q
Can ii-V-I be used cyclically?
A
Yes. The Beatles choose a cyclical ii-V-I, this time with psychedelic minor 7th and 6th extensions, for their ethereal vamp on ‘Sun King’.
22
Q
How does Golden Slumbers use the diatonic cycle of 5ths?
I-IV-VII-iii-vi-ii-V-I
A
look at the symmetry of the sequence as the line ‘Sleep pretty darling’ cues the run E7-Am7-Dm7-G7-C. four of the seven diatonic chords in the harmonised major scale can work their way inexorably towards the final tonic destination in
one seamless run.
23
What are some sub-cycles of the diatonic cycle of 5ths?
many songs will be seen to feature ‘sub-sequences’ of the cycle, such as ‘vi-ii-V-I’, ‘ii-V-I’ and (last but not least) plain old V-I.
24
diatonic cycle of 5ths
I-IV-VII-iii-vi-ii-V-I
Reversing direction – the ‘vi-iii’ minor drop
the potential for ‘anti-clockwise’ movement around the cycle and a quick introduction to the ‘descent of a fourth’ is useful here. The notion of the iii now being the target for vi – rather than the other way around, as we expect – can also be seen as an important trademark of Beatles music and another route to harmonic novelty.
25
How does McCartney use
Reversing direction – the ‘vi-iii’ minor drop in "I Will"
‘I Will’ is a great example of how McCartney avoided being stuck in the Doo Wop rut, by jettisoning the Cycle Of Fifths (after just one hearing) in favour of the mediant, thwarting the potentially clichéd movement. This idea can be used as a delaying device, with I-vi-iii, keeping us in the tonic family for longer but with a distinctive variation of the earlier I-iii-vi ‘prolongation of I’.
26
How does Lennon use ‘minor drops’ from vi to iii sandwiched between I and V, in a ‘ready-packed’ cycle neatly mixing seconds, fourths and fifths in ‘Across The Universe’ ?
‘Across The Universe’ is a great example, with Lennon alternates vi-with-iii for a similar delaying tactic , prolonging the tonic through I-vi-iii ( drop to iii on rain) before leading us effortlessly to the second strain with a ‘ii-V’.
27
Can the mediant (iii) substitute for the tonic directly?
Yes. ‘There’s A Place’ where the dominant moves not back to I for a second strain but to an emphatic iii on the lyric "mind".
In this way a song can give the impression of radically changing direction
when it is merely exploiting the possibility of substitution within the tonic family. This ‘V-iii’ is just an alternative to either the standard ‘V-I’ or the ‘V-vi’
28
How is the mini-scale ‘walk’ from iii-IV a useful idea?
this mini-scale ‘walk’ from iii-IV is a useful idea on which to start a bridge, where
it gently prepares for the typical ii-V push to the dominant at the song’s climax. It happens on the lyric "man please listen"
and "know what your missing"
29
What is the purpose of the ‘iii-for-I’ substitution for the tonic in the song Ask Me Why ?
The Beatles deliver the ultimate ‘iii-for-I’ substitution on the very last chord of ‘Ask Me Why’. Headed resolutely for a finale on the tonic of E major (after alternating with the IV), the listener can only swoon at the delicately unfolding G#m7
30
The mediant and melody
How does the iii chord allow a songwriter to highlight the natural 7th of the parent key in contexts beyond a rising leading note (i.e. the 3rd of V7) ?
By supporting the 7th as a chord tone (the 5th) of the more stable mediant, they achieved melodic colour. ‘She’s A Woman’ is a case in point. The melody starts by making use of the 7th in the repeated verse motif, only for the bridge to kick off with a highly rare, ear-catching jump of a major seventh interval to the natural 7th. Here The Beatles were using the mediant to distance themselves conclusively from the familiar strains of R ’n’ B.
31
How can the iii affect the listener?
With the iii, the key scale’s natural 7th dissonance is heard as the inoffensive 5th within a mellow minor construction (in subtle contrast to the bolder dominant). We need only listen to the opening change of Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ to hear it add instant substance to a song (‘Guess who just got back today’, I-iii).
32
What is the vii-‘V of vi’-vi idea?
the viim75 appearing as a straight m7,
better still, ‘V of vi’, an abbreviation that attempts to capture the fact that the chord is the dominant V chord of the vi chord to which it is headed. A vii chord acts in conjunction with a III7 headed for vi.
The listener is being gently programmed to expect a return to the G tonic chord, or at least a mild variation of it. But the F#m7-B7 move stops us in our tracks. with the F#m7 to B7 change, we have jumped on the Cycle Of Fifths and are feeling an inexorable pull towards the darker territory of E minor. More specifically, the aural effect results from the fact that the underpinning of the solid, stable G major tonality is being undermined.
33
How does the song Yesterday use vii-‘V of vi’-vi constitute what is arguably the single most famous songwriting move of McCartney’s career?
The message for now is merely that astute songwriters know that the chord built on the vii, followed by a dominant chord down a fifth, takes us to a vi chord in a far stronger way than if we’d just jumped to it directly from the home tonic, or ‘walked’ to it via a brief bass note on vii.
34
What does moon river have in common with Yesterday?
also hinges on the same ‘minute harmonic shift’, vii-‘V of vi’-vi the word ‘someday’
35
Alongside the Three-Chord Trick itself, the steady alternation between the tonic and its relative minor (which we can abbreviate as ‘I-vi-I-vi’) was perhaps the single most common premise of the songs of The Beatles’ early career,
Am C Am C Am
oh oh in mi-se-ry Woo My mi-se-ry la la la
vi I vi I vi
We’re in the key of C, with the I-vi relationship represented here by C major and A minor.
36
another ‘I-vi-I-vi’ is ‘Anna (Go To Him)’
The Beatles play the same cycle (now D-Bm) for the intro and much of the verse on one of their favourite Arthur Alexander covers. The song even shares the same coda as ‘Misery’ – this time three hearings of the two-bar phrase before coming to rest on the D tonic chord.
D Bm D Bm
I vi I vi
D Bm D
An-n-a you come and ask me girl
I vi I
Bm
to set you
vi
37
it’s déjà vu as track 10 delivers another unmistakable ‘I-vi-I-vi’ intro and faded outro on the cover of Bacharach/Williams’ ‘Baby It’s You’.
G Em G Em
Sha la la la la la la Sha la la la la la la
I vi I vi
G Em
Sha la la la la la la Sha la la la la
I vi
38
Still in 1963, and The Beatles opened ‘From Me To You’ with yet another ‘I-vi-I-vi’ intro:
Intro
C Am
Da da da da da da da da
I vi
C Am
Da da da da da da da da if there's
I vi
39
Rest assured that before the year was out, the Fab Four’s follow-up album, With The Beatles, saw songs as seemingly diverse as ‘All I’ve Got To Do’, ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Not A Second Time’ all joining the party with a ‘I-vi-I-vi’ coda.
Lennon admits to exploiting good ideas methodically and thoroughly. For when reminiscing about the writing of two other songs, ‘Any Time At All’ and ‘It Won’t Be Long’ (the latter also on With The Beatles), he described them as: ‘C to A minor, C to A minor – with me shouting’. Confirmation, once again, that pop music ‘formulae’ aren’t merely in the mind of the indulgent academic.
40
On Live At The BBC, listen to the close of ‘Soldier Of Love’
The Beatles cycle again repeatedly around I and vi (now E and C#m) – it’s clearly the same musical idea.
41
Surely we need more than ‘I-vi-I-vi’ (not forgetting the ‘shouting’) to make a pop song?
Apparently not. By coincidence, the very song ‘Shout!’, by the Isley Brothers, repeats the cycle from start to finish:
where they thrash through E and C#m.
42
The ‘I-vi-I-vi’ is our first songwriting device. Hardly a ‘secret’, admittedly, but neither should it be seen as just a novice trick in use around 1963.
1963. The Beatles regularly composed with this idea in mind. Anthology I confirms it in action as early as June 1961, when it opened ‘Cry For A Shadow’
43
the same ‘I-vi-I-vi’ idea accounts for the entire verse of ‘Run For Your Life’ on Rubber Soul.
vocal
D
(I'd) rather see you dead little girl then to
I
Bm D
be with another man you better keep
vi I
Bm
your head little girl or I wont know where
vi
I am. You better
44
Fast-forward a few decades and contemporary pop maestro Dave Stewart sums up the ‘I-vi-I-vi’ in a nutshell;
‘The sound of the major chord followed by its relative minor is the archetypal sound of fifties pop, but musicians never seem to tire of its effect. The theme music of Twin Peaks features this major-to-minor, happy-to-sad movement, no doubt with all sorts of post-modern, iconic and ironic intentions – it’s still the same old chord change, though!’
45
After all, the ‘I-vi-I-vi’ has proved ubiquitous in popular music since rock ‘n’ roll began.
We hear it equally in the bridge to Del Shannon’s 1961 classic, ‘Runaway’; in the dreamy outro of The Eagles’ ‘New Kid In Town’ on the mega-selling Hotel California; and repeatedly in The Jam’s ‘That’s Entertainment’ and Oasis’s ‘Songbird’, to pick just four songs from diverse genres, spanning five decades of pop.
46
Some novelty can be achieved with the I-vi by splitting the device in half, following the opening I-vi with another from a different key – rather like The Beach Boys had done back in 1964 on ‘The Warmth Of The Sun’.
Verse
C Am
The love of my life
Eb Cm Dm7 G G+
She left me one day
C Am
I cried when she said
Eb Cm Dm7 G
I don't feel the same way
47
Major and relative minor – making the connection
If we look at the construction of the chords themselves we see that the chords I and vi share two common notes. For example, in the key of C, C major and A minor both contain a C note and an E note, making the sound of the two chords related to each other. A minor is said to be the relative minor of C major; and vice versa, with C being the relative major of A minor.
48
How are a major chord and its relative minor heard as different sides of the same musical coin
It is through these shared tones that a major chord and its relative minor are heard as different sides of the same musical coin – their individual characters can be explained by a crucial difference. The ‘bright’ side of the major triad is down to its major 3rd interval (C-E); while the ‘dark’ side, A minor, is courtesy of that more dissonant minor 3rd (A-C).
49
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’ Rather than a repeated vamp between I and vi, arguably the single most famous chord sequence of the century features these two chords joined by those other two triads, IV and V, to create a Three-Chord Trick with a difference – a Four-Chord Trick.
[Verse 1]
C Am F G
Heart and soul, I fell in love with you,
C Am F G
Heart and soul, the way a fool would do,
C Am F
Madly...
The original blueprint for this (and various other similar four-chord cycles we’ll see in action) is often claimed to be Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Heart And Soul’, dating from 1938
50
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’m
G Em
Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah
C D
Bah-bah-bah-bah. bah-bah-bah-bah,
G
at the hop!
50
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
(A) D
Come on, let's twist again, like we did
Bm
last summer
G
Yeah, let's twist again, like we did last
A
year
D
Do you remember when, things were
Bm
really hummin'
G
Yeah, let's twist again, twistin' time is
A
here
51
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
F
Well-A well-A well-A heavenly angel
Dm
I want you for my girl
Bb
When I kissed your sweet, sweet lips
C
I knew you were out of this world
52
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
[Verse 1]
G/B C Am F G
When I want you ...in my arms,
G/B C Am F G
When I want you, ...n all your charms,
G/B C Am F G
When - ever I want you, I have to do...
G/B C Am F G
...Is dream-----, dream, dream, dream
53
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
#1.
A D
Hey, little darlin' ...
(Bomp-bomp-bomp, bomp-de-waddie-waddie.)
Bm
Oh, little darlin'
(Bomp-bomp-bomp, bomp-de-waddie-waddie.)
G
Oh-oh-oh where,
(Bomp-bomp-bomp, bomp-de-waddie-waddie.)
A
Ar-are you?
(Bomp-bomp-bomp, bomp-de-waddie-waddie.)
54
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
E A B E
Born too late for you to notice me.
E A B E C#m6
To you, I'm just a kid that you won't date.
A B E A E B
Why was I born too late?
55
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
G Em C D
Take good care of my baby,
G Em C D
please don't ever make her blue.
G Gaug
Just tell her that you love her
C Cm
make sure you're thinking of her
G Em C D
in everything you say and do.
56
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
[Verse 1]
G G
When the night has come
Em Em
and the land is da- rk
C D
And the mo- on is the on- ly light we'll
G G
see
G G Em
No, I wo - n't be af- raid, no, I won't
Em
be af- raid
C D
Just as long as you st- and, stand by
G G
me. So darlin', darlin'
57
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
We need only dip into the recorded archives to hear The Beatles’ renditions of several songs based on this classic cliché. Here are three from different sources:
i) ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Baby’ on Live At The BBC (G-Em-C-D);
ii) ‘Where Have You Been All My Life’ on Live At The Star Club (heard as F-Dm-B-C);
iii) and, most famously, The Marvelettes’ ‘Please Mr Postman’ on With The Beatles (A-F#m-D-E).
58
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
And so it proved to be a handy drug to fall back on for The Beatles in a range of songs during their career. There is no doubt that this was one of the sequences that John Lennon had in mind when he described ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ as going through the ‘whole gamut of rock ‘n’ roll’. The cliché in ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ has the effect of similarly breaking the tension of the dissonant sections of ‘She’s not a girl …’ and ‘Mother Superior jump the gun …’ by using a far more familiar idea.
Verse
C Am F G
Happiness is a warm gun
I vi IV V
C Am F G
Happiness is a warm gun mama
I vi IV V
C Am F G
When I hold you in my arms
C Am F G
and I feel my finger on your trigger
C Am F G
I know nobody can do no harm
C Am
because happiness is a
59
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
It has often been suggested that The Beatles were at pains to steer clear of this type of sixties cliché. Nevertheless, the ‘I-vi-IV-V’ can be seen to resurface on various occasions, if only for a few bars within a more complex progression. Whether well disguised (‘A Hard Day’s Night’), fleeting (‘I’ll Get You’ and ‘I’m So Tired’), or accounting for the entire song (‘Octopus’s Garden’), The Beatles weren’t ashamed to fall back on this most clichéd of clichés.
Song Section I vi IV V
Hard Days night Bridge G Em C7 D7
Ill Get You Verse D Bm G A
Im So Tired Verse A F#m D E
just seen a Face Verse A F#m D E
Octopus Garden Verse E C#m A B
60
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
The Beatles weren’t ashamed to fall back on this most clichéd of clichés. Right up to – and including – ‘Real Love’.
E C#m A B
its real love its real
I vi IV V
E C#m A B
yes its real love its real
I vi IV V
61
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
G
Every breath you take
Em
Every move you make
C
Every bond you break
D
Every step you take
G*
I'll be watching you
62
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
C Am Dm7 G7
Don't know when I've been so blue
C Am Bm7-5 E7
Don't know what's come over you
Am C/G D7/F# D7
You've found someone new
F Em Dm7/G
And don't it make my brown eyes blue
63
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
intro
G Em C D
And I-I-I-I will always
G Em C D G
Love you, you, I, will always love you
64
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
C Am7
Found myself in a strange town
F G
Though I've only been here for 3 weeks now
C Am7
I've got blisters on my feet
F G
Trying to find a friend in Oxford Street
65
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
[Verse 1]
C Em
The silicon chip inside her head
F G
Gets switched to overload
C Em
And nobody's gonna go to school today,
F G
She's gonna make them stay at home,
66
The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’
A F#m D
Shoo wop doo be doo doo wop,
E6 E
doo wah doo la - ang
A F#m D
Oh, telephone line, give me some time,
E6 Ddim G* A*
I'm living in twi - light
A F#m D
Oh, telephone line, give me some time,
E6 Ddim G* A*
I'm living in twi - light
67
Diatonic substitution – the first steps
The principle governing the use of the vi chord in all these progressions is that of chord substitution, a songwriting tool that allows us to create new and interesting progressions featuring familiar elements.
68
How is Diatonic substitution used?
Using the basic guideline that the new chord must have tones that overlap with the original chord, the result can be very subtle – or highly dramatic where fewer common tones are involved. At the very simplest level, even the ‘I-vi-I-vi’ involves ‘substitution’ as the vi chord is being used to break up what would otherwise be a monotonous run on the tonic chord.
69
How is the ii minor related to the IV chord?
Nevertheless, we can now explore another famous pop progression involving the substitution of a relative minor chord for a major triad. But this time it’s not the tonic triad that finds its ‘dark side’ but the sub-dominant, the IV chord. For as much as I and vi are ‘blood brothers’, so too are the IV chord and the ii minor. In any key, the ii minor is the relative minor of the IV chord and, as a result, the potential for substitution between the two chords exists. This introduces us to the basic roles of the ii chord in pop harmony.
70
‘ii’ minor
As with the vi, the ii (or supertonic, being the diatonic chord above the tonic) is another of the pop minor chords that appears in scores of Beatles songs – this time usually in three common contexts that we can deal with as follows:
1) the ‘ii-for-IV’ substitution (the Doo Wop cycle)
2) the diatonic ‘walk’: ‘I-ii’ and beyond
3) ‘ii-V-I’: the role of ‘ii’ as a ‘predominant’ chord
71
1) The ‘ii-for-IV’ substitution in the Doo Wop cycle
Nowhere in pop music is the ‘ii for IV’ substitution better illustrated than in the legendary Doo Wop sequence, another manifestation of the Four-Chord Cliché – but where the formula is now spelt: I-vi-ii-V. And it’s a progression that can be introduced using a suitably historic piece of Beatles trivia: the Woolton Village Fête.
A6 Fm
I need you darling
I vi
B6m E6
come and go with me
ii V
72
I-vi-ii-V Doo Wop
While Lennon and McCartney heard the sound of the Doo Wop sequence in the The Del-Vikings’ classic, they would also have heard it in an avalanche of diverse songs from their childhood.
C Am Dm G7
I got rhythm,
C Am Dm G7
I got music
C Am Dm G7
I got my girl,
C G7 C
who can ask for anything more?
73
I-vi-ii-V Doo Wop
While Lennon and McCartney heard the sound of the Doo Wop sequence in the The Del-Vikings’ classic, they would also have heard it in an avalanche of diverse songs from their childhood. Like These Foolish Things Remind of You.
C Am Dm G7
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces
I vi ii V
C Am D9 G7
An airline ticket to romantic places
C9 F A7
And still my heart has wings...
D9 Dm G7
These foolish things remind me of you
74
I-vi-ii-V Doo Wop
While Lennon and McCartney heard the sound of the Doo Wop sequence in the The Del-Vikings’ classic, they would also have heard it in an avalanche of diverse songs from their childhood. Like Rodgers and Hart’s ‘Blue Moon’ (probably the blueprint for the whole Doo Wop genre).
[verse]
C Am D
Blue moon,
I vi ii
G7 C Am D
You saw me standing alone.
V I vi ii
G7 C Am D
Without a dream in my heart,
G7 C Am F G7
Without a love of my own.
75
I-vi-ii-V Doo Wop
There were also Macca favorites like "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"
F Dm7 Gm7 C7 F Dm7
Why do birds sing, so gay?
I vi ii V I vi
Gm7 C7 F Dm7
And lovers a-wait the break of day,
ii V I vi
Gm7 C7 F Dm7 Gm7 C7
Why do they fall in love?
ii V I vi ii V
76
I-vi-ii-V Doo Wop
By the turn of the sixties Neil Sedaka had launched his career by taking the device into mainstream American pop. Songs like ‘Oh Carol!’ (1958) feature the sequence exclusively,
Oh Carrol
G Em
Oh, Carol, I am but a fool,
I vi
Am D
darling I love you, you treat me cruel.
ii V
G Em
You hurt me and you make me cry,
I vi
Am D G
but if you leave me, I will surely die.
ii V I
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How is the I-vi-ii-V Doo Wop cycle different then The Four-Chord Cliché – ‘I-vi-IV-V’ ?
In a nutshell, just like the I-vi-IV-V, the predictability of the Doo-Wop cycle makes it a ‘sure thing’ for listeners. However, now the sound – courtesy of that extra minor chord – is slightly less rocky, making for a more sophisticated texture.Ultimately, it’s all down to that one extra note – in the key of C, say, the D note:
F Subdominand IV 1 63 3 5
F A C
D Supertonic ii D F A
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The Beatles were by no means beyond adopting the same basic formula in several of their own originals over the years. Indeed, in a virtual tribute to the whole Doo Wop genre, the verse of ‘This Boy’ captures the repeated I-vi-ii-V cycle down to a tee.
D Bm Em A D Bm
That boy took my love away.
I vi ii V I vi
Em A D Bm
Though he'll regret it someday,
ii V I vi
Em A Em/D Bm Em A
This boy wants you back a ga -- ain.
ii V
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The Beatles certainly weren’t finished with the idea after ‘This Boy’ – ‘Tell Me Why’, for example, which John Lennon ‘knocked off’ for the soundtrack of A Hard Day’s Night, also features a pure ‘I-vi-ii-V’.
A7 D Bm Em
Tell me why you cried
V I vi ii
A7 D Em
and why you lied to me
V I ii
A7 D Bm Em
Tell me why you cried
V I vi ii
A7 D Em
and why you lied to me
V I ii
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Over the course of their career, some of The Beatles’ most intricate songs have featured the very same ‘I-vi-ii-V’ progression. It kicks off the brilliant verse meanderings of ‘You’re Going To Lose That Girl’, ‘I Will’ and ‘Penny Lane’, each time setting the scene with familiar harmonic territory before then moving swiftly to new, unexpected pastures.
E C#m7
You're gonna lose that girl
I vi
F#m7 B7
You're gonna lose that girl
ii V
C Am Dm7 G7
Who knows how long I've loved you?
I vi ii V
A F#m
In Penny Lane there is a barber
I vi
Bm E7
showing photographs
ii V
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How is the Doo wop cycle related to the blues?
In order to appreciate fully the musical origins of the Doo Wop progression one should again refer back to the blues. For the root movement of 1–6–2–5 is nothing more than an embellishment of a simple ‘I-IV-I-V’ turnaround which often completes the last two bars of a 12-bar blues. The Doo Wop cycle merely takes this sequence, and applies to it both the ‘vi-for-I’ and the ‘ii-for-IV’ diatonic substitutions on which we have been focusing. In this sense, both the ‘Four-Chord Tricks’ can be conceived as just variations of (and deriving directly from) the Three-Chord Trick itself.
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The diatonic walk: ‘I-ii’ and beyond. Even more simply, conceptually, is the use of ii as the first step along the diatonic harmonised scale from the tonic, another basic principle that The Beatles used at various stages of their career. Let’s look first at a I-ii-I-ii cycle which we can rationalise in terms of simple substitution. For in the same way that we saw I alternate with IV, so ii minor – as a substitute for IV – can take its place. Listen to the sophisticated pop verse of ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, the B-side of ‘Get Back’ from May 1969:
E F#m7
Nobody ever loved me like she does
I ii
F#m/B E Esus4
oo she does yes she does
E F#m7
And if somebody loved me like she do
I ii
F#m/B E Esus4
me oo she do me, yes she does
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The diatonic walk: ‘I-ii’ and beyond.
But why stop at ii? We can continue the diatonic walk just by ascending further up the scale in intervals of a second. Songs like ‘If I Fell’ extend the idea to iii.
If I Fell
D Em F#m Fdim7 Em
If I give my heart to you
I ii iii ii
A
I must be sure
V
D Em F#m Em
From the ve-ry start that you
A | D | Gm A |
Would love me more than her
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The diatonic walk: ‘I-ii’ and beyond.
But why stop at ii? We can continue the diatonic walk just by ascending further up the scale in intervals of a second. ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ extends the idea to iii.
G Am7 Bm7 Please don't wake me no don't shake me
I ii iii
Bm7 Am7 Cmaj7
leave me where I am I'm only sleeping
iii ii IV
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The diatonic walk: ‘I-ii’ and beyond. We can continue the diatonic walk just by ascending further up the scale in intervals of a second. Songs like ‘If I Fell’ and ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ extend the idea to iii; ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ and the bridge of ‘Sexy Sadie’ on to IV;
G Am Bm C G Am
Here, making each day of the year
I ii iii IV I ii
Bm C F#m7
Changing my life with a wave
iii IV
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The diatonic walk: ‘I-ii’ and beyond. We can continue the diatonic walk just by ascending further up the scale in intervals of a second. Songs like ‘If I Fell’ and ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ extend the idea to iii; ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ and the bridge of ‘Sexy Sadie’ on to IV;
G Am7
One sunny day the world
I ii
Bm7 Cmaj7
was waiting for a lover
G Am7 Bm7 C
She came along to turn on everyone
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The diatonic walk: ‘I-ii’ and beyond. We can continue the diatonic walk just by ascending further up the scale in intervals of a second. Songs like ‘If I Fell’ and ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ extend the idea to iii; ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ and the bridge of ‘Sexy Sadie’ on to IV; while ‘Getting Better’ takes us effortlessly all the way up the ladder to V (if we include the link between chorus and verse).
Getting better all the time
C Dm
I've got to admit it's getting better
I ii
Em F
A little better all the time
iii IV
C Dm
I have to admit it's getting better
I ii
Em F G
It's getting better since you've been mine
iii IV V
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The fifties blueprint for this move is probably Johnny Tillotson’s ‘Poetry In Motion’ where the ‘motion’ in question turns out to be a determined ‘I-ii-iii-IV-V’ walk that then resolves back to I. But however far you want to take ‘the walk’, it is undoubtedly another versatile idea, used across the ages of pop. Listen to Jimi Hendrix embellish the ‘I-ii-iii-IV-V’ on Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ (Live at Monterey).
C Dm
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
I ii
Em F G
Threw the bums a dime in your prime,
iii IV V
G C
didn't you People called you, said
Dm Em
"Beware doll, You're bound to fall", you
F G
thought they were all kidding you
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A decade later, Robert Smith was walking-up the ‘I-ii-iii-IV’ ladder (and back down again) on The Cure’s early New Wave outing, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. In all these stepwise ascents, the ii is merely a link in a chain that unfolds in close, diatonic root movement. This linear path is in dramatic contrast to the more powerful jumps involving descending fifths, the most common context in which the ii chord is found in The Beatles’ music.
A Bm
I would say I'm sorry
I ii
C#m D
If I thought that it would change your mind
iii IV
A Bm
But I know that this time
C#m D
I have said too much, been too unkind
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‘ii-V-I’– the role of ‘ii’ as a ‘pre-dominant’
If songwriters learn just one concept beyond the Three-Chord Trick from this book it should surely be the ii-V-I progression. Indeed, as we already know from our discussion of substitution, this device is a type of IV-V-I move with the ii minor replacing the IV chord as its relative minor.
A simple variation, maybe, but a fundamental one. For we now have a chord sequence that creates extra momentum through root movement that travels through two perfect fifths – instantly doubling the V-I ‘journey’ whose role in creating inexorable resolution we discussed in Chapter 1.
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‘ii-V-I’– the role of ‘ii’ as a ‘pre-dominant’
In just the same way that V-I creates a strong resolution, so reaching V from a chord built on its V, plays on that expectation, making it ever more inevitable and, ultimately, reinforcing the sound of the prevailing key (a concept we will be explaining in more detail later). Here’s a simple table that shows how, with a basic knowledge of chord substitution and diatonic sevenths, we can jump from a Three-Chord Trick sequence of major triads to a smooth, seemingly sophisticated ii-V-I in just two stages:
Three Chord Trick IV V I
F G C
Stage 1 substitute ii for IV
Basic ii-V-I ii V I
Triads Dm G C
Stage 2 add flatted 7ths
ii-V-I ii7 V7 I
with flattened Dm7 G7 C
7ths
In just the same way that V-I creates a strong resolution, so reaching V from a chord built on its V, plays on that expectation, making it ever more inevitable and, ultimately, reinforcing the sound of the prevailing key
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Voice-leading in a ii-V
Just as we showed the voice-leading in a V-I to be inherently structured for movement, so the ii minor has an in-built mechanism beyond just the ‘down-a-fifth’ action of the root. Specifically, the 3rd of the ii ‘wants’ to push upward to the root of the V (even if this is a whole tone rather than a semitone); while the seventh of ii (when it appears) is the icing on the cake as it pulls down by a semitone into the third of the V.
ii7(Dm7) V7(G)
formula note voice leading note formula
67th C down semitone B 3rd
63rd F up a tone G root
root D down perfect 5th G root
This time the 5th degree has been omitted in order to emphasize the importance of the 63rd (and the 67th if it is present) as the source of the most essential voice-leading in the change.
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a) Ending a section with a prepared
Perfect cadence
Simply by putting a ii minor chord ahead of the V, we are ‘priming’ the dominant and thereby encouraging the listener to hear the eventual movement to I from ‘further back’ in the sequence. Once again this is a formula with which a songwriter can lead us through a chord progression. From dozens of possible Beatles examples, let’s take one with a strong accompanying lyrical theme:
C Bm Am D G
ev-ry sin-gle day of my life
ii V I
The message is conclusive and convincing. It doesn’t need elaborating on or qualifying in any way – a feeling that’s reinforced by both the lyric and the musical context. For here’s a progression that represents the inevitabilty of being led home to the tonic – not just from the V, but with the help of another descent of a fifth preceding it. In ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, the descending bass line points the way as we do the IV-iii ‘walk’, at which point the ii-V-I delivers a mighty musical ‘full stop’ at the end of the sentence.
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This ii-V-I cadence can be seen to round off, in a similarly conclusive fashion, numerous Beatles progressions – usually in the context of a resolute statement, or sometimes with a suitably fine musical-lyrical metaphor – perhaps with connotations of ‘returning home’.
‘Golden Slumbers’ is a case in point. Listen to how the Dm is pointing the song ‘homeward’, just as Paul says. Immediately we arrive ‘home’ on the C chord just as we’d expect. In this case it’s too early in the progression for a formal cadence – especially with the melody rising up. But it’s only a short delay before we’re back home, finally climaxing with the same ii-V-I on the suitably mellow lyric, ‘lullaby’, as the melody now also lands on the tonic. Again, musically, it’s the end of the paragraph.
Am7
Once, there was a way to get back
vi
Dm7 G7
homeward Once, there was a way
ii V
C
to get back home
I
E Am Dm9
Sleep pretty darling, do not cry,
iii vi ii
G7 C
And I will sing a lullaby
V I
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This notion of ‘going around the block’ is important as it demonstrates that we can target the tonic from more than just the two successive descents of perfect fifths that comprise the ii-V-I. In just the same way that we ‘tacked on’ a ii ahead of the V, we can work backwards again to chain these chords in a longer sequence of fifths. First with vi before the ii, then iii before the vi (as here in ‘Golden Slumbers’), and, ultimately, vii before iii in a giant musical conga of descending fifths.
Am7
Once, there was a way to get back
vi
Dm7 G7
homeward Once, there was a way
ii V
C
to get back home
I
E Am Dm9
Sleep pretty darling, do not cry,
iii vi ii
G7 C
And I will sing a lullaby
V I
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John Lennon also had an intuitive understanding of the versatility of the discrete ii-V-I device. The entire verse of ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ can be instantly deconstructed as an extended vamp on the tonic followed by a ii-V-I. Think of the lines ‘you can’t get/see/hear me’ in the various verses, with the singer (just like the progression) having the last word to match the finality of the sequence.
E
You tell me that you've got everything you want
I
And your bird can sing
F#m B
But you don't get me
ii V
E
You don't get me
I
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Let’s take the last line of the bridge from ‘Tell Me Why’ as it provides an important point of comparison with our next discussion. Notice in particular how, once again, the ii-V-I here creates a feeling of a progression being self-contained, with a Perfect cadence taking us to a point of rest (this time with a melody that also homes in on the restful tonic). It creates a point of resolution, both musically, and semantically in terms of John’s sobering, soul-baring admission.
Tell Me Why
Em7 A7
cause i really cant stand it im so in love
ii V
D
with you
I
This is in direct contrast to using the ii-V as a powerful method of creating unreleased tension that drives a song into the next section.
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b) Ending a section with an Imperfect cadence Compare the tension-free end of the bridge of ‘Tell Me Why’ we’ve just seen (which isn’t propelling us inexorably into the next verse) with the equivalent point in ‘It Won’t Be Long’. Here the effect is markedly different even if ‘coming home’ is once again a paramount theme in every sense. While we are ‘coming home’, as John Lennon tells us, we aren’t doing so quite yet. We have to wait in anticipation just a little bit longer (like John) for the eventual fulfilment. The cadence is said to be Imperfect because of this ‘hanging effect’,
A B7
I'll be good like I know I should
F#m B7
Your coming home, your coming home
ii V
imperfect cadence
In the key of E now, the F#m again primes the dominant B chord. This time the sequence of chords that comprises this discrete song section ends not with a ii-V-I resolution but with the ii-V chords on their own. The tonic does follow – but only as we start the next verse after a notable delay in which we are left ‘hanging on the dominant’.
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Nevertheless, The Beatles demonstrated that the ii-V sequence could be used in any setting – even in a bluesey number like ‘Oh! Darling’, which shows how ii and V can alternate on their own, setting up gentle tension by delaying the cadence to I, an idea that would come to be a staple of pop music over the subsequent decades.
Bm7 E7
Believe me when I tell you
ii V
Bm7 E7 A D A E
I'll never do you no harm
ii V I IV I V
A
Oh darling
I
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ii and V can alternate on their own, setting up gentle tension by delaying the cadence to I, an idea that would come to be a staple of pop music over the subsequent decades. Check out the verse of George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ which features four repeats of ii-V before moving on to I;
Em A Em A Em A
My sweet lord Hm, my lord Hm, my lord
ii V ii V ii V
A D
I really want to see you
V I
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ii and V can alternate on their own, setting up gentle tension by delaying the cadence to I, an idea that would come to be a staple of pop music over the subsequent decades. Simply Red’s ‘Holding Back The Years’ has been described as ‘one interminable Two Five’.
Dm9 G13
Holding back the years,
ii V
Dm9 G13
thinking of the fear I've had so long,
ii V
Dm9 G13 Dm9
When somebody hears, listen to the
ii V ii
G13
fear that’s gone,
V
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Special mention should also be made of ‘Devil In Her Heart’, the Richard Drapkin song covered on With The Beatles. This song doesn’t wait to use ii-V-I as a ‘wrap-up’ idea, as we have been stressing, but exploits it from the start, as a cyclical gambit for both the intro and the whole of the verse.
Devil in Her Heart
Am
She's got the devil in her heart
ii
D7 G
But her eyes they tantalize
V I
Am
She's gonna tear your heart apart
ii
D7 G
Oh her lips are really thrilling
V I
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Listen also to the start of ‘I’m A Loser’ where the repeated Am-D theme creates some ambiguity and instability – until, that is, the opening line of the verse confirms that this move is indeed just a key-defining ‘ii-V’, in G major.
[Intro]
Am D Am D
I'm a loser, I'm a loser,
ii V ii V
Am Fmaj7 D
And I'm not what I appear to be.
ii V
G D F G
Of all the love I have won or have lost,
I V
G D F G
There is one love I should never have crossed.
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let’s dip finally into Abbey Road where The Beatles choose a cyclical ii-V-I, this time with psychedelic minor 7th and 6th extensions, for their ethereal vamp on ‘Sun King’.
F#m7
Quando para mucho mi amore de felice
ii
B6 E6 F#m7
corazón Mundo paparazzi mi amore
V I ii
B6 E6
chicka ferdy parasol
V I
F#m7
Cuesto obrigado tanta mucho que canite
ii
B6 E6
carousel
V I
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The Four-Chord Cycles revisited – ‘ii-V-I-vi’ Now let’s return to the Doo Wop sequence, which can also be seen to contain an irresistible ii-V-I movement within its structure. If we now start the sequence a bar late, we arrive at an important variation: ‘ii-V-I-vi’ – another four-chord pattern that appears throughout pop music. The Beatles can be heard going through the ‘ii-V-I-vi’ motions on various cover songs, most notably in the neat middle eight of ‘How Do You Do It?’
Am7 D7 G
You give me a feeling in my heart
ii7 V7 I
Em
(ooh - La -La)
iv
Am7 D7 G
Like an arrow passing through it
ii7 V7 I
Am7 D7 G Em
suppose you think you're very smart
ii7 V7 I vi
A7 D7
But won't you tell me how do you do it?
II7 V7
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The Four-Chord Cycles revisited – ‘ii-V-I-vi’ Sure enough, Paul McCartney would feature it across the course of The Beatles’ career on songs as seemingly far removed as ‘All My Loving’ (‘Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you, tomorrow I’ll miss you’ , and ‘The Fool On The Hill’ (‘Nobody wants to know him they can see that he’s just a fool’
[Verse 1]
Em A7
Close your eyes and I´ll kiss you,
ii V
D Bm
tomorrow I´ll miss you
I vi
Em7 A7
but nobody wants to know him, they can
ii V
D6 Bm7
see that he's just a fool
I vi
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Meanwhile, if we ‘undo’ the ‘ii-for-IV’ substitution implicit here, the same sequence can be seen to have a rockier ‘cousin’ in the form of ‘IV-V-I-vi’ – another progression that The Beatles used in some surprisingly diverse settings down the years. We can spot it in ‘I Should Have Known Better’ (‘And when I ask you to be mine’, in G major); where it slowly rehashes the same C-D-G-Em sequence of the euphoric title refrain of ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’, with both songs winding back to a natural point of rest with a plain IV-V-I.
C D G Em
I wanna hold your hand
IV V I vi
C D G
I wanna hold your hand
IV v I
C D G Em
And when I ask you to be mine i-i iiiine
IV V I vi
C D G D G
You're gonna say you love me too.
VI V I V I
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Substitution summary – the diatonic ‘families’ The ‘hand in glove’ relationship between major and relative minor is part of a bigger picture that allows us to select chords for simple sequences with almost guaranteed results. For a songwriter can regard chords as not just being constructed from the parent diatonic scale but as belonging to smaller ‘families’ of chords within that harmonised scale. Indeed each of I, IV and V major triads can be seen as being ‘assigned’ minor chords to which they are related through either a major/relative minor relationship or just the sharing of common tones.
I The tonic family: I, vi and iii
IV The subdominant family: IV and ii
V The dominant family: V and vii
Moreover, just as we saw with the major triads themselves, each of these extended families of I, IV and V can be seen as representing, respectively: ‘stability’, ‘movement away from the tonic’, and ‘movement towards the tonic’. When attempting to fathom even the most complex songs by ear, it is useful to know that these three groups are the most likely minor chords to appear in a song.
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Theory tells us that iii minor – being, as we said, part of the tonic family – should be able to substitute for the ubiquitous vi chord within both our ‘I-vi-IV-V’ and also the Doo Wop version. Sure enough, The Beatles oblige in ‘I Feel Fine’, whose middle eight neatly demonstrates both variations in the space of its two constituent four-bar cycles.
G Bm C D7
I'm so glad that she's my little girl
I iii IV V7
G Bm Am D7
She's so glad shes telling all the world
I iii ii V7
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In terms of appreciating The Beatles’ development as songwriters, the ‘I-iii’ move alone should be seen as a dramatic departure from the now numbing predictability of the ‘I-vi’ that we’ve seen so far at almost every turn.
[“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”] was a bit of a formula song. We knew that if you went from E to G#minor you could always make a song with those chords, that change pretty much always excited you. This was one of those. Certainly “Do You Want To Know A Secret” was. The nice thing about it was to actually pull off a song on a slim little premise like that’.
E G#m F#m B7
I don't want to kiss or hold your hand
I iii ii V7
E G#m F#m B7
If its funny try and understand
I iii ii V7
A A6/C#
There is really nothing else I'd rather
IV
E G#m Gm F#m
Listen
I iii ii
B7 E G#m Gm F#m
Do you want to know a secret
V7 I ii IV
B7 E G#m
Do you promise not to tell,
V7 I iii
Gm F#m C
whoa oh, oh
ii
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Both songs are in the key of E and, uncannily, the chord sequence in both is virtually identical. McCartney’s opening gambit of a major tonic chord (E major) that travels to a minor chord two whole steps away (G#m) kicks off the verses just as he describes. Both songs even make the return journey back to the tonic through the standard ii-V-I cadence that we have just been exploring. The only difference is the brief Gm chord in ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ which merely acts as a chromatic passing chord that fleetingly links the two minor chords.
Verse
E G#m F#m B7
I don't want to kiss or hold your hand
I iii ii V7
E G#m F#m B7
If its funny try and understand
I iii ii V7
A A6/C#
There is really nothing else I'd rather
IV
E G#m Gm F#m
Listen
I iii ii
B7 E G#m Gm F#m
Do you want to know a secret
V7 I ii IV
B7 E G#m
Do you promise not to tell,
V7 I iii
Gm F#m C
whoa oh, oh
ii
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The iii chord is traditionally called the mediant, as it is the harmonic point mid-way between the tonic and the all important dominant. As a result, it represents root movement of a third interval from the tonic, in contrast to the fourths, fifths and seconds we have been so far exploring. But can we see this as another Beatles ‘formula’, to use McCartney’s own term? Let’s just say that the same slick-sounding ‘I-iii’ chord change spans the very earliest Beatles songwriting excursions through to the very last – and in this very specific context of an opening change in a verse. Listen to McCartney’s ‘You’ll Be Mine’ on Anthology 1.
You'll Be Mine
A C#m
When the stars fall at night
I iii
F#m A
You'll be mine and I know
vi I
Beneath the crackle and hiss (and Tony Sheridan’s unhinged crooning) the harmony shifts unmistakably from I-iii in support of the descending melody line as the vocals enter.
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Meanwhile, Beatles experts will know that Paul’s ‘Love Of The Loved’, dating from as far back as 1961, and recorded two years later by Cilla Black, is another that opens on the same premise of I-iii thirds root movement before wending its way through a myriad of rather more novel changes.
E G#m
Each time I look into your eyes
I iii
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McCartney’s ‘formula’ – The ‘iii-chord Trick’
McCartney didn’t have a monopoly on this particular songwriting device – just listen to Lennon’s verses in ‘Help!’ or ‘A Day In The Life’. And let’s not leave George out of it – having modulated to the key of A in the bridge of ‘Something’, I-iii is the first change in a sequence that mirrors that of ‘Help!’ almost chord-for-chord. Just to go full circle, fast forward to ‘Real Love’, the very last ‘Beatles’ song of all, as John’s ‘little plans and schemes’ are revealed as (musically at least) just a neat move from, yes, the same ‘E major to G# minor’, albeit subtly disguised by the bass line. Forget the Three-Chord Trick – welcome to the rather more sophisticated ‘iii-chord Trick’, another of the many Beatles harmonic formulas that each of these songwriters would exploit.
A C#m
When I was younger so much younger than today
I iii
C Em Bb F G G+ *
I get high when I see you go by
I iii
G Bm Em Em7
I read the news today, oh boy
I iii vi vi7
G Bm C
Now it's time to say goodnight,
I iii IV
C Em
All my little plans and schemes
I iii
A C#m/G# F#m7 A/E
You're asking me will my love grow,
I iii vi
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Let’s compare the ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ ladder effect, (involving I, ii and iii) with an elaborate substitution occasionally found within 12-bar blues and R‘n’ B songs based on this structure. If this sounds like an unlikely source for The Beatles, then listen to their version of Chuck Berry’s ‘I Gotta Find My Baby’, on Live At The BBC. Here they use a similar harmonised scale ‘walk’ from G up to Bm7 and back down to create a specific highlight in the final verse
‘I Gotta Find My Baby’ The ‘I-iii scale walk’ in the 12-bar blues
bar # 7 8 9 10 11
formula I7 ii7 iii7 6iii7 ii7 V7 I
key of G G7 Am7 Bm7 B6m7 Am7 D7 G
Bars 7 and 8 can be seen as just embellishing two bars of G with the harmonised scale walk, before resolving with a ii-V-I. The melodic sound of the iii chord is because the 5th degree of the chord can be seen to mirror the natural 7th of the key, in contrast to the flat 7th, which of course typically sets the bluesy mood. So, in our example, while the G7 chord here stresses the F natural, bar 8 introduces the sweeter sound of the F#.
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The ‘I-iii scale walk’ in the 12-bar blues
The most famous blues song that uses this idea is surely Bobby Bland’s version of T-Bone Walker’s classic 1947 slow blues, ‘(They Call It) Stormy Monday’. The Allman Brothers would do exactly the same with their later version, while John Mayall and Eric Clapton would similarly walk-up from G to Am and Bm in the solo of ‘Little Girl’ on the legendary 1966 Bluesbreakers ‘Beano’ album.
The melodic sound of the iii chord is because the 5th degree of the chord can be seen to mirror the natural 7th of the key, in contrast to the flat 7th, which of course typically sets the bluesy mood.
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The ‘I-iii scale walk’
‘Ask Me Why’ clearly shows how The Beatles managed to incorporate this ‘walk’.
intro
E E F#7 G#7
I love you '
I I ii7 iii7
F#m7
cos you tell me things
ii7
E E F#m7 G#m7
I want to know and its true
I I ii7 iii7
F#m7
that it really only
ii7
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James Ray’s ‘If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody’ must be mentioned again here as an influential favourite covered by The Beatles in their early gigs. ‘It was a really good one to have in our act as it got attention from the more discerning people in the audience’, McCartney explains on Rock & Roll Roots. Paul refers especially to the novelty of the song’s 3/4 waltz time in contrast to the ‘four-to-the-bar’ predictability of most rock ‘n’ roll of the time.
G Am7 A#m7 Bm7
if you got to make a
I ii #ii iii
Bm7 Em7 Em7
fool of somebody
iii vi vi
Bm7 Bm7
if you got to make a fool of someone
iii iii
Em7 Em7 C
Do you
vi vi IV
Having climbed up to iii, in similar fashion to ‘Ask Me Why’, the song develops into a sophisticated progression by going on to vi, something that many of The Beatles examples listed in our ‘I-iii’ chart would go on to do.
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Many examples listed in our ‘I-iii’ chart would go on to the vi chord. In songs like ‘Help!’ and ‘A Day In The Life’, ‘I-iii-vi’ is a defining sequence in the verse, while Harrison’s ‘Something’ uses almost the identical sequence as ‘Help!’ for its bridge. The comparison here demonstrates the versatility of this type of classic sequence, appearing equally appropriate in frantic pop rock as in the tenderest of love ballads.
A A C#m
And now my life has changed in oh so
I I iii
C#m F#m
many ways, My independence seems
iii vi
D G A
to vanish in the haze.
A C#m/G# F#m7 A/E
You're asking me will my love grow,
I iii vi
D G A
I don't know, I don't know
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Even more cleverly, The Beatles recognised that the same chordal relationship ‘works’ wherever a songwriter chooses to draw arbitary divisions in terms of song ‘sections’. For example, you don’t need to run the sequence starting on the I chord. From a resolved I chord you can begin directly with ‘iii-vi’ as the opening gambit for a new sequence. But The Beatles’ harmonic horizons widened when they began using the ploy as somewhere new (and seemingly novel) to go to when searching for ideas for their famed middle eights. And never more smoothly than in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.
Hard Days Night
Bm Em
When I'm home everything seems to be
iii vi
Bm Gm Em
right When I'm home feeling you
iii
C7 D7
holding me tight, tight, yeah!
A glance at the guitar fretboard when playing any of these songs confirms that all these ‘iii-vi’ moves should indeed ‘work’, because of their root movement. For the iii lies a fifth above the vi and it therefore has a natural tendency to move to it, creating ‘stops’ along the Cycle Of Fifths, the songwriter’s tailor-made ‘root map’ that we can now explore further.
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The mediant and the Cycle Of Fifths
If there is one winning formula in popular music, it is those progressions whose roots follow a predetermined movement descending in intervals of a fifth. If we said as much with the Doo Wop turnaround that’s because this, too, is nothing more than a particular excursion along the same cycle. the cycle is an unashamedly formulaic system for exploiting the natural
tendency of diatonic chords to follow this predetermined path. It provides a very simple way of appreciating how generations of classic pop songs actually work in practice, as we will demonstrate in a full range of Beatles songs.
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Let's focus on the fifths movement - a song can literally revolve around this cycle continuously or use it as a temporary stepping
stone, a musical 'merry-go-round', jumping on and off at will, enjoying its potential for perhaps a few bars before moving on.
Complete songs have been built around this idea in such vastly differing contexts, including evergreen jazz standards (Johnny
Mercer's 'Autumn Leaves')
[Verse 1]
Am7 D7
The falling leaves drift by the
vi II
Gm7 Cm7 F B7
window, the autumn leaves
V I IV VII
Em Em
of red and gold.
iii iii
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Let's focus on the fifths movement - a song can literally revolve around this cycle continuously or use it as a temporary stepping
stone, a musical 'merry-go-round', jumping on and off at will, enjoying its potential for perhaps a few bars before moving on.
Complete songs have been built around this idea in such vastly differing contexts, including definitive rock ballads (Gary Moore's 'Parisienne Walkways')
Am Dm7 Dm7/G
I remember Paris in forty-nine,
vi ii ii/V
Dm7/G Cmaj7
Champs-Elysee, San Michelle and old
ii/V I
Beaujolais wine.
Fmaj7 Bm7b5
And I recall that you were mine
IV VII
E7 A Bm/A A5
In those Parisienne days.
iii vi
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Let's focus on the fifths movement - a song can literally revolve around this cycle continuously or use it as a temporary stepping
stone, a musical 'merry-go-round', jumping on and off at will, enjoying its potential for perhaps a few bars before moving on.
Complete songs have been built around this idea in such vastly differing contexts, including perennial disco anthems ('I Will Survive')
[Verse 1]
Am Dm
At first I was afraid, I was petrified,
G
Kept thinking I could never live without
Cmaj7
you by my side.
Fmaj7
But then I spent so many nights, thinking
Bm765
how you did me wrong,
Esus4 E
And I grew strong; and I learned how to get along.
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Let's focus on the fifths movement - a song can literally revolve around this cycle continuously or use it as a temporary stepping
stone, a musical 'merry-go-round', jumping on and off at will, enjoying its potential for perhaps a few bars before moving on.
Complete songs have been built around this idea in such vastly differing contexts. Perhaps the most appropriate use of the circle was 'The Windmills Of Your Mind' (the soundtrack to the film The Thomas Crown Affair), whose themes of 'spirals' and 'windmills' mirror the exact same hypnotic path of the music.
Round, like a circle in a spiral,
B7
like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
Em
on an ever spinning reel
E7
Like a snowball down a mountain
Am7
or a carnival balloon
D7
Like a carousel that's turning,
Gmaj7
running rings around the moon
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The inevitability (and certainly cliched nature) of the pattern may seem like the very antithesis of The Beatles 'novelty factor' that we have been so keen to stress. But the cycle invariably 'works because of the ebb-and-flow of tension and resolution that is naturally built into it, with the penultimate dominant V consolidating this flow of fifths as it cadences to the tonic.
The Beatles first transformed its use in pop in the chorus of 'Can't Buy Me Love', where it created a stunning contrast alongside the unadulterated 12-bar blues of the verse. Here's the intro, starting (for simplicity) on the second of the two opening Em-Am moves. Follow the arrows anticlockwise (from 7 o'clock!).
With its underlying almost perpetual motion, this stretch of 'Can't Buy Me Love' is a textbook example of how five of the seven diatonic chords in the harmonised major scale can work their way inexorably towards the final tonic destination in one seamless run.
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Again, here is a songwriting truth that would resurface throughout The Beatles' career. Abbey Rood's 'Golden Slumbers' is another look at the symmetry of the sequence as the line 'Sleep pretty darling' cues the run E7-Am7-Dm7-G7-C.
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While all these songs represent extreme examples, many songs feature 'sub-sequences' of the cycle, such as
'vi-ii-V-I', 'ii-V-I' and (last but not least) plain old V-I. While The Beatles would no doubt have heard the sound of the cycle on early jazz standards, another of their early inspirations, Bobby Vee, released 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes'. That song features a memorable jump of 'iii-vi' before cycling
repeatedly around 'ii-V-I-vi' for the title refrain (original in the key of B).
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Remember that the Cycle Of Fifths reflects root movement - not the quality of the chord built on that root. Because of this we will be revisiting it regularly in connection with what are called secondary dominant chords: major triads built on these same roots, and
which often exist almost purely for this purpose. Similarly the cycle accommodates sequences with 'mixed 'n' matched' chords of both major and minor quality - just as long as their roots follow the predetermined pattern.
Later, in a minor key setting, we will
also see how The Beatles used the system to revolve through a mesmerising 'super cycle' of all seven dlatonic chords. We will also
see them use it in pioneering fashion, moving anti-clockwise (i.e., down a fourth) in settings where it extends the Plagal concept 'backwards' before finally culminating in IV-I. And we'll be widening the cycle to take in not just dlatonic chords but also non-dlatonic, or chromatic, chords as we move into darker, rockier territory.
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Reversing direction - the 'vi-iii' minor drop
We briefly mentioned the potential for 'anti-clockwise' movement around the cycle and a quick introduction to the 'descent of a fourth' is useful here. For the notion of the iii now being the target for vi - rather than the other way around, as we expect - can also be seen as an important trademark of Beatles music and another route to harmonic novelty.
'I Will' is a great example of how
McCartney avoided being stuck in the Doo Wop rut, by jettisoning the Cycle Of Fifths (after just one hearing) in favour of the mediant, thereby thwarting the potentially cliched movement.
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This idea has particular application as a delaying device, with I-vi-iii, keeping us in the tonic family for longer but with a distinctive variation of the earlier I-iii-vi 'prolongation of 1'. This was a subtle development back in the early sixties and The Beatles would have
encountered it in their cover of Bobby Vee's 'More Than I Can Say', a song that appears to be a four-chord cliche but which unfolds delicately '-vi-iii-II7-V-I' with the drop to iii 'making' the song at the climax of the line 'I'll love you twice as much tomorrow'. Meanwhile, as early as 'Please Please Me', The Beatles were showing their ability to 'unfold' a major chord (in this case IV) by
using this same idea. Think back to the dramatic 'pre-chorus' section that builds the pressure cooker effect.
While the song is in E major, this section is all about building tension within the IV chord (A). The F#m and C#m chords
themselves, which brilliantly help to harmonise the rising line in the backing vocals, can be seen as part of the family of A that's
trying to assert itself as a tonality (the vi and iii of A, respectively) - just as Lennon is trying to impress himself on the subject of the song. It's through this that the song winds itself up like a spring, exploding back to E for the chorus.
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Meanwhile, George Harrison's 'I Need You' alternates vi-with-iii for a similar delaying tactic (Please come back to me, I'm lonely as can be')
F#m C#m F#m
Please come back to me, I'm lonely as
vi iii vi
Bm
can be. I need you
ii
A Aadd9 Asus A
I need you,
I
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There are many other such 'minor drops' from vi to iii in The Beatles' catalogue, including songs as emotionally wverse as 'She
Loves You' and 'Julia', where they appear as sandwiched between I and V, in a 'ready-packed' cycle neatly mixing seconds, fourths and fifths. 'Across The Universe' is a great example, with Lennon prolonging the tonic through I-vi-iii before leading us effortlessly
to the second strain with a 'ii-V.
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Finally, let's not forget that not only can the mediant extend the tonic in this way, it can also substitute for it directly. In this way a song can give the impression of radically changing direction when it is merely exploiting the possibility of substitution within the
tonic family. The Beatles had grasped this concept completely as early as 'There's A Place' on Please Please Me, where the dominant moves not back to I for a second strain but to an emphatic G#m.
This 'V-iii' is just an alternative to either the standard 'V-I' or the 'V-vi' we previewed in 'Drive My Car'. Yet here the new harmony
mirrors perfectly the theme of the singer giving us a fleeting glimpse of that special 'place' - his mind.
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Meanwhile, this mini-scale
'walk' from iii-IV is a useful idea on which to start a bridge, where it gently prepares for the typical ii-V push to the dominant at the song's climax. As Lennon cleverly constructs on 'Nowhere Man'.
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The Beatles deliver the ultimate 'iii-for-I' substitution on the very last chord of
' Ask Me Why'. Headed resolutely for a finale on the tonic of E major (after alternating with the IV), the listener can only swoon as a delicately unfolding G#m7 leaves us with the softest of jazz lullaby endings.
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The mediant and melody
For all the novel root movement and harmonic texture provided by the iii, it is the scope that the chord provides for the melody which The Beatles exploited most cleverly. Specifically, the chord allows a songwriter to highlight the natural 7th of the parent key in contexts beyond a rising leading note (i.e. the 3rd of V7). By supporting the 7th as a chord tone (the 5th) of the more stable medlant, The Beatles achieved melodle colour in ways that few rock on' roll acts had attempted. This type of melodic premise was in stark contrast to most rock n' roll melodies of the era which focused on the bluesey flattened 7th, leaving the leading note typically associated with the more melodic, soft pop ballads of the era.
But then again, one of The Beatles' most striking contributions to songwriting was the way in which they would compose melodies with both these sevenths - sometimes juxtaposing them within a song to create startling new interest. 'She's A Woman' is a case in point. The melody starts by making use of the flat 7th in the repeated verse motif, only for the bridge to kick off with a highly rare, ear-catching jump of a major seventh interval to the natural 7th. Here The Beatles were using the mediant to distance themselves conclusively from the familiar strains of R 'n' B.
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The elusive 'vii' chord
So far we have avoided discussion of the mysterious m765 chord which appears 'naturally' on the seventh degree of the harmonised scale. And for a very specific reason. For with its root, minor third and flattened fifth, this chord features a diminished triad - a particularly dissonant-sounding chord that rarely features in pop. The dark sound of this m765 construction is put to regular use in the more appropriate minor-key setting where it appears as part of the equivalent ii-V-I sequence. Still, even in that downbeat
context, it is most associated with jazz and classical music.
As a result, the leading note as a root for anything more than a passing chord has become rather under-utilised in pop music. However, in a very select group of songs, The Beatles nevertheless show us how to substitute in its place a regular minor seventh chord: namely one with a perfect fifth rather than a diminished one, creating powerful, ear-catching
effects in the process. In discussing this maverick 'vii7, on the leading note - without question the most stylish and sophisticated chord we have so far
encountered - we will make the distinction between two types of Beatles settings. First, those progressions that descend away from the root in a cyclical fashion. These are the focus of the remainder of this chapter. Secondly, a category (notably taking in Lennon's
'Julia') that creates a different type of tonal ambiguity, where a modal analysis - specifically the Lydian mode - can arguably help us better understand the effect on the listener.
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The cyclical vii7
One of the most eloquent and perceptive insights into the subliminal effects of Beatles music was made by American music critic Ned Rorem back in 1968. And it concerned just a couple of very specific, delicate chord changes on the Revolver album. "Here, There And Everywhere" would seem at mid-hearing to be no more than a charming show ballad but once concluded it has grown immediately memorable. Why? Because of the minute harmonic shift on the words 'wave of her hand', as surprising and yet as satisfyingly right as that in a Monteverdl madrigal .. .
A close look at the extract confirms that this moment indeed corresponds to a striking McCartney novelty. After a pleasant, walk up the diatonic scale, we reach Rorem's 'minute harmonic shift' in bar 5. This turns out to involve the not-so-minute root movement of a descending augmented fourth - six semitones from C to F#m - which then moves neatly down a fifth to B7. This root movement makes for a striking variation from the simple, 'close seconds' that went before. More importantly, Norem is picking up on the emotional power of the new harmony that is tantalizingly suggesting a shift in the key center. After the gentle even bland - opening phrases in bars l- 4, vital musical tension indeed appears fleetingly on the lyric 'wave of her hand', in what is one of the finest instances of The Beatles playing on our expectations. The listener is being gently programmed to expect a return to the G tonic chord, or at least a mild variation of it (perhaps in descending seconds, as we hear in
'If I Fell'). But the F#m7-B7 move stops us in our tracks.
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The pull to vi
For the first time since the altered dominants of Chapter 1, we have moved beyond our cosy diatonic framework. Not only is the
viim765 appearing as a straight m7 thereby introducing a non-diatonic C# , but the following chord built on the mediant is a dominant 7th, complete with a major third rather than a minor third as our G scale would suggest. And this brings in a second 'non-scale' note, the D #. Technically, this is an early encounter with what will emerge as the vital principle of modulation: the process of moving to a new key centre.
Rorem's 'minute harmonic shift' is precisely the fact that, with the F#m7 to B7 change, we have jumped on the Cycle Of Fifths and are feeling an inexorable pull towards the darker territory of E minor. More specifically, the aural effect results from the fact that the underpinning of the solid, stable G major tonality is being undermined. Indeed, the emotional intensity develops not just on arrival at E minor but from the anticipation created by the minor 7th chord as it alternates with the
dominant a fifth below. In this sense, the move can be seen as an isolated, new and fresh 'ii-V-to-tonic' resolution when viewed from the point of view of the impending E minor.
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In the case of 'Here, There And Everywhere', clearly the context is a fleeting chord change in the middle of a verse sequence. When we do finally arrive at Em it is only for two brief beats, after which we are immediately headed back to G (from whence we came) by means of a conventional ii-V-I in the parent key. Some would argue that we don't have time to feel established in a new key - and hence it's not worth thinking of the chords in terms of a new tonality. It is in such situations that we can adopt a compromise approach recognizing the role of what is called a secondary dominant.
we can regard the role of that rogue B7 as being a powerful primer, taking
us inevitably to the relative minor. In this sense the appropriate Roman numeral moniker is not just III7 (reflecting the major triad) but, better still, 'V of vi', an abbreviation that attempts to capture the fact that the chord is the dominant V chord of the vi chord to which it is headed. This terminology will become clear when we see secondary dominants in a range of applications in Beatles songs. Our reason for introducing it here is to demonstrate how (on its very select appearances) a vii chord acts in conjunction with a III7 headed for vi. The secondary dominant itself is therefore a 'partner in crime' in producing this compelling cyclical harmony descending away from the tonic.
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McCartney dldn't just use this idea in 'Here, There And Everywhere'. A certain ballad entitled 'Yesterday', recorded one year earlier (to the day), also featured a truncated version of this very same vii-'V of vi' -vi idea. Here it constitutes what is arguably the single most famous songwriting move of McCartney's career. For pivotal to the songwriting novelty of 'Yesterday' is this disarming device, which is set in motion when we're only one word into the song! Look at the very second bar of the verse.
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Suffice it to say that this move was exceedingly rare in sixties pop music - though special mention should be given to a couple of songs in very different settings. Firstly, Neil Sedaka's 'Breaking Up Is Hard To Do', from 1962. The verse here begins predictably with a Doo Wop cliche, but the sudden drop to a vii-'V of vi' -vi over the line: " if you go then I'll be blue', is surely a vital element in turning an innocuous ditty into a classic that has notched up 5 million (and counting) airplays.
verse
A F#m D E
Don't take your love away from me
A F#m D E
Don't you leave my heart in misery
A C#7 F#m
'If you go then I'll be blue
D Bm* E
'Cause breaking up is hard to do
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Moon River hinges on the same 'minute harmonic shift', which succeeds in turning a pleasant 'tune' into a timeless classic. Here the chord is a bona fide vii765 , and we have similarly labelled the sequence according to both the key of E major and the key of C# minor purely to demonstrate that two interpretations can be applied depending on your point of view.
This dichotomy - and the ability to view such progressions in relation to two different tonics - may appear unduly academic. But it will soon emerge as the secret to appreciating the catalogue of Beatles songs that are compelling for the very sense of tonal ambiguity they create. It will also help in reconciling the seemingly contradictory interpretations offered by Beatles musos down the years over the same extracts of Beatles music.
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The message for now is that songwriters should know that the chord built on the vii, followed by the dominant chord down a fifth (III7) takes us to a vi chord in a far stronger way then if we'd just jumped to it from the tonic or walked to it via a brief base note on vii.
What should be seen as a mini harmonic package instigates a genuine feeling of movement away from the parent key, however briefly, and as such is ripe for a complementary lyrical treatment. In the case of 'Here, There And Everywhere' the move perfectly matches the 'wave of her hand'. In 'Yesterday', it mirrors precisely the pivotal sense of time distortion invoked by Paul's opening salvo, as he invites us to share his feelings of the previous day. However you label it, this cyclical move 'from the vii' is a stylish masterstroke in a pop song. And, as The Beatles already knew implicitly, all it takes is a 'minute harmonic shift' ...
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