Hey gang, look how far we’ve come. We started the musician basics elective at zero, and now we’re talking about this common chord progression. Let’s break it down, because as I mentioned, it’s not as complicated as it looks.
We start with this F to an E, the V chord for a destination, which is A minor. And then it’s just a II V I to cycle back to F, G minor 7 to C7. We’re simply dropping down to that E7 from an F, a half step above.
That brings us back to A minor with this little major 7 embellishment. I’m resolving to a D7 with some color tones by superimposing an E triad on top. Technically it’s a sharp 11, but it’s just a creamy chord, don’t get distracted by it.
The real juice is in the motion between the A minor and the II V I, because we’re going to slide our way down from that A minor to the G minor chromatically. And to get away from these boring root positions, we’re going to invert the chords, or better yet, start building them with extensions. That’s where the nines and the flat nines are coming from, and it gives it a lot more excitement.
If you’re in my MBE class, let me know and I’ll shoot you a MIDI file for this. And if you’re not, this is the kind of stuff that we talk about, well, at least by the end. So if someone who belongs in a Beat Kitchen class, share this post.
