Daily Archives : January 24, 2014

Cmajor          D minor           E minor           F major            G major            A minor             B diminished

    I                    ii                   iii                     IV                     V                      vi                   vii

Roman numerals! I know. Exciting! And it is exciting, because you’ve now risen to a new level of knowledge.

Well, ok, not yet. First you need to understand what these are for.

Don’t ask me why we use roman numerals, and not regular arabic numerals for chords. The answer won’t help (I’ll tell you at the bottom of the page; you’ll see). I’ll tell you why they’re useful, though. They’re useful because they point to a chord’s function.

A chord function is basically what the chord is generally used for. For example, the function of the I chord (the C major chord in the key of C) is to provide a sense of coming home. That’s why it’s almost always at the end of a song. It makes things feel final. The V chord’s function is to create tension, and goes to the I chord most of the time: G (V) to C (I). All the other chords have functions as well, but they aren’t quite as well defined as these two.

 Instead of telling you what those functions are, I’ll show you. They’re basically defined by where the chord is most likely to go.

This roman numeral thing has been around for centuries. Some of the most familiar chord progressions you’ve ever heard follow these rules. And you know what they say about rules. You have to know them to break them. If that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t be showing this to you.

Here are the rules:

The I chord (C major) can go to any chord it wants.

The iii (E minor) chord almost always goes to the vi (A minor) chord.

The vi (A minor) chord almost always goes to the ii (D minor) chord or the IV (Fmajor) chord.

The ii (D minor) and the IV (Fmajor) chord almost always goes to the vii (B diminished) chord or the V (G major) chord, and those two almost always go to the I (C major) chord

If you like diagrams, it looks like this:

iii  –  vi  –  [IV/ii]  –  [V/vii]  –  I      or      E minor – A minor – F major or D Minor – G major or B diminished – Cmajor – anywhere.

As we go forward, I’ll plug the roman numerals onto chords that I use. After a while it’ll make sense. Don’t force it. Unless you’re one of those people who like forcing things, in which case be my guest.

Ok. So now use that song form from the last post and write a chord progression for it. Follow these  roman numeral chord movement rules I just outlined  until you get used to them. Then start breaking those rules, and see what happens.

Then read the next post where I do the same thing.