My Funny Valentine Chords Jerry Garcia
Post sad chord progressions
- Thread starter rockdoctor42
- Start date
- #1
Edit: Yes, I know D minor is the right key for this kind of thing.
- #2
I'd use the wrong ones, make sure they were all slightly out of tune, chain the audience to their seats, and just keep playing the same thing for hours and hours, badly.If you were writing a song and you wanted to rend your listener's souls from their bodies and make them weep uncontrollably, what chords would you use?
That ought to do it.
- #3
- #4
1)7
2)
3)5
4)
5)
6)
Not saying you just play those notes, but you write lines around that sound. Also consider what the harmony is doing, My Funny Valentine is a good example, minor chord with a descending bass line with a melody that plays around the 9th of the chord. That gives you that maj7th interval between the 9th and 3rd.
- #5
Utilizing that D minor diatonically in F Major would be your relative minor.
Chart out your chord melody with 9th chords. Add the 2nd to each chord.
e.g.
6th string root - 135 = 1359
1---------------
5---------------
---3------------
------(1)---9---
-------5--------
1---------------
Write the rest out and continue from the 1 chord for chord melody.
Here are your fingerings:
1359 (9th=2nd)
2463
3574
etc.
- #6
- #8
But more important are tempo, tone and dynamics. You can play almost anything slow and gentle, and it will create that reflective mood that could be described as "sad" Adding maj7s and 9s will just accentuate it.
Play maj7 chords fast, however, and it will just sound "jazzy", not sad at all.
Here's a nice example of a "sad" mood being created in a major key, by using a slow tempo and maj7 chords:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRKqfrct070
Here's an even clearer demo of the maj7/9 effect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n35C0j3LLB0
- nostalgic mood created largely by the maj7 chords.
She sings a maj7 (F# over a G chord) on the word "here's" (0:28), and the next word ("where") is an added 9th (D on a C chord).
In the bridge too, at 1:16, the word "makes" is F# on a G chord.
Then at 2:17 she raises the chorus phrase and sings "here's" on an A - added 9th on the G chord.
IOW, she's instinctively (and/or consciously) going for those "sweet notes" that capture the mood.
And here's a classic example of adding a 9th to a minor chord, to create a darker mood (and notice that the theme and lyrics really make the most of the effect):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9g5cPHNT9M
The mode is aeolian - plain natural minor - but the dark mood is largely created by the production, rhythmic feel, doomy pseudo-Gregorian-chant-style vocal, and the reverb effect. The Em(add9) chord comes at 0:40, and in the title phrase of the vocal, which accents the 9th, F# (1:19, 2:38), adding the "poignant" effect.
As Nigel Tufnel might have said, "none more black". 
Meanwhile, here's a demo of the restless intensity that added 9ths can have when you add them to EVERY chord in the progression (major and minor) - and render the chords as staccato arpeggios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs
- the repetitive add9s help create the mood. Poignancy (loss, yearning) becomes a dangerous obsession. OCD expressed musically.
- #9
IMO, that minor iv effect is a useful indicator of "mystery", or "spookiness", rather than sadness as such.
Radiohead have used minor iv chords often to express "something not quite right". Examples:
"Creep" - Cm chord in key of G; it's there every time, as the 4th chord in the loop, but usefully darkens the mood of each line, especially "so f****** special" (0:56)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp95olCn3lY
"My Iron Lung" - Cm in key of G again. Again the last chord in each loop.
"No Surprises" - Bbm in key of F. In this one the bright, tinkly music-box effect of the opening F major arpeggio is subverted by the following Bbm6 (0:06, etc); it's clearly saying "the garden is pretty, but something is lurking in the undergrowth..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5CVsCnxyXg
(Otherwise, this song is pure diatonic major key throughout; so - because the Bbm6 is only there between verses - the dark mood is created mainly by the measured tempo.)
A less screwed up mood - but still setting up a "dark" question mark - is expressed by the minor iv chord in "It's Now or Never". It accompanies the line "to-morrow, will be too late" - hinting at the sexual urgency underpinning the otherwise romantic mood of the song. ("Yeah, I love you and all that, but mainly I just gotta have you now....")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0-FBlfvgxo
- 0:30.
The Beatles, too, understood the minor iv effect. It adds a useful depth to "She Loves You", an otherwise fully "up" major key mood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0YifXhm-Zc
- 0:32 Cm6 in key of G.
And before that, the guitar highlights an added F# on the rundown on the Em chord - so a hint of poignancy, before the subtle insistence of the Cm. (She loves you, man, this is serious.)
Here's another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPKYPI1jjdg
- instrumentally at 0:40, then in the bridge at 1:07 and 1:40 - "I would be sad" . (Gm in key of D.)
- #10
Are you a student of Tap?If you were writing a song and you wanted to rend your listener's souls from their bodies and make them weep uncontrollably, what chords would you use?Edit: Yes, I know D minor is the right key for this kind of thing.
- #12
It wouldn't go anywhere else, no matter how badly the audience might want resolution, or change, or anything but that repetive, unrelenting, sullen chord.
Em slays...
- #13
Play slow, like 60 in 12/8
CmM7.........Am7
---------l------
-4-------l--5-
-4-------l--5-
-5-------l--5-
-3-------l----
---------l--5-
- #14
IMO, that minor iv effect is a useful indicator of "mystery", or "spookiness", rather than sadness as such.
All your examples are quite apt, but really the locus classicus for the iv adding mystery has got to be "Sleepwalk"
- #15
What is sad sound?? The IV changing to the iv could also be used in an uptempo jazzy blues going through changesAll your examples are quite apt, but really the locus classicus for the iv adding mystery has got to be "Sleepwalk"
G7 l C7 l G7 l G7 Db7 l
C7 l Cm7 l Bm7 l Bbm7 l
Am7 l D7 l G13 Bb13 l A13 Ab13 ll
it's all context
- #16
It's words that make a song sad don't you think?
- #17
by the Left Bank, when it was a hit I hated it, I would change the station.
But then Linda Ronstadt did a slow version and with her help I heard the words for the first time, and these are deep words that I connect with heavily, now I've sat down with my guitar and worked out a solo version of it. I like the progression more than Tears In Heaven, and the words are just about as reflective but nowhere near as tragic. (progressions are similar)
Listen to the sad words and one of the very best voices in our lifetime
- this was written by a 16 year old.
Linda, she melts my heart
- #18
Good point. But it's a kind of chicken-and-egg thing.Perhaps the title of this thread should be "what chords complement sad songs?"
It's words that make a song sad don't you think?
Maybe the lyrics of sad songs have caused us to make associations with the kind of chords (or changes or settings) traditionally chosen for those songs. But then why did composers choose those settings in the first place?
And does "why" matter, if those associations are accepted anyway?
But it's quite true that instrumental music is much more subjective in its emotional associations. A piece that one person might find "sad", another might find "uplifting". Those kind of moods are very close; in the same way that fast and loud music might be "angry" or "jolly", "scary" or "exciting".
Even with lyrics, effects vary. Witness how some people find Leonard Cohen "depressing", while others find him "witty", or "inspiring". None of that is to do with his chords....
IOW, looking for the answer in chords alone is maybe missing the point...
- #19
Ah, but I always loved that song! Left Banke's version was the best, with the Four Tops a close second.The saddest song I've heard in the last two years is the old pop hit "Walk Away Renee"
by the Left Bank, when it was a hit I hated it, I would change the station.
I love the way it swoops into the chorus after a verse of a mere 8 bars.
(and the odd use of an A7 chord in key of G, resolving to G - not D - is part of it.)
I think its secret is something to do with the combination of sad lyrics (perfect adolescent self-pity) and a triumphant major key progression. (Without the words, it's a pretty upbeat sound.)
There's quite a few of those vintage pop/soul tracks with that same recipe.
If both words and music are sad = too depressing.
Both words and music happy = too superficial, trivial, irritating.
- #20
Hey Jude, one of the great sad songs, is a straight major chorder, with the exception of that one small Tears in Heaven part in the B section.Good point. But it's a kind of chicken-and-egg thing.
Maybe the lyrics of sad songs have caused us to make associations with the kind of chords (or changes or settings) traditionally chosen for those songs. But then why did composers choose those settings in the first place?
And does "why" matter, if those associations are accepted anyway?But it's quite true that instrumental music is much more subjective in its emotional associations. A piece that one person might find "sad", another might find "uplifting". Those kind of moods are very close; in the same way that fast and loud music might be "angry" or "jolly", "scary" or "exciting".
Even with lyrics, effects vary. Witness how some people find Leonard Cohen "depressing", while others find him "witty", or "inspiring". None of that is to do with his chords....
IOW, looking for the answer in chords alone is maybe missing the point...
Source: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads%2Fpost-sad-chord-progressions.1455276%2F
0 Response to "My Funny Valentine Chords Jerry Garcia"
Post a Comment