Best link to explain the labeling of Chord Progressions

[cdkrugjr]

Originally Posted by Cobby

Well that's a little disappointing. I was hoping there would be a way to say "go up a step to the new key" without getting tied to specific keys. ("I=II", or something like that)

Numbers systems were initially created to speak of chords in the abstract, without being tied to a key. That way you could talk about how a “I-VI-II-V-I” pattern works in general, and then apply it to multiple keys.

Studio players who’d learned harmonic analysis adopted it as studio shorthand especially in the 50s and 60s when pop music chord changes got a lot simpler with the rise of R&B when you wouldn’t necessarily know the right key for the singer when you went into the studio.

When I play a song myself, I already know the key, so the case for “Nashville Numbers” is less compelling. Currently in church music, there are people who regard making your musicians decode harmonic analysis on-the-fly as a cure for all that ails their music program. This is exactly as successful as you might expect.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Cobby

Well that's a little disappointing. I was hoping there would be a way to say "go up a step to the new key" without getting tied to specific keys. ("I=II", or something like that)

Well, there's a very easy way to "say" it, if you're talking to musicians in a live situation! Just say "go up", by however much you want.
You can say it in half-steps, whole steps, or (if the others are educated enough) by interval. E.g., "up a minor 3rd" for 3 half-steps, and so on.

That would be for the kind of change where you take a whole song up (or down) to a new key and continue in that key. Often called the "truck driver's gear shift", or the "Manilow key change". It can be any amount, but is usually a small amount: 1, 2 or 3 half-steps. (I know a couple of cases of 4 half-steps.) It serves the purpose of kicking some more energy into the song, to let it continue beyond the point where it might start getting boring or repetitive.

And of course, you can use the same language if you're transposing a song - e.g., to suit a new singer. You can, of course, just specify the new key, and you'd probably do that too for clarity. e.g., for a song in G, with a singer who can't get as high, you could say "let's take it down a 4th, to D", to whatever

Of course, for the kind of key change that happens within a song, as part of the composition itself, we can say things like "modulate to the dominant", or "to the subdominant" or "to the relative minor", for common moves like that (e.g. at a chorus or bridge).

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Well, there's a very easy way to "say" it, if you're talking to musicians in a live situation! Just say "go up", by however much you want.
You can say it in half-steps, whole steps, or (if the others are educated enough) by interval. E.g., "up a minor 3rd" for 3 half-steps, and so on.

That would be for the kind of change where you take a whole song up (or down) to a new key and continue in that key. Often called the "truck driver's gear shift", or the "Manilow key change". It can be any amount, but is usually a small amount: 1, 2 or 3 half-steps. (I know a couple of cases of 4 half-steps.) It serves the purpose of kicking some more energy into the song, to let it continue beyond the point where it might start getting boring or repetitive.

And of course, you can use the same language if you're transposing a song - e.g., to suit a new singer. You can, of course, just specify the new key, and you'd probably do that too for clarity. e.g., for a song in G, with a singer who can't get as high, you could say "let's take it down a 4th, to D", to whatever

Of course, for the kind of key change that happens within a song, as part of the composition itself, we can say things like "modulate to the dominant", or "to the subdominant" or "to the relative minor", for common moves like that (e.g. at a chorus or bridge).

Seriously good stuff!