AboutDr Colin Expertise I can answer questions from students of "classical" composing, arranging, notation problems and music theory, writing for instruments and voice and writing music for education. I can answer questions about orchestration but I do not cover questions about pop or rock music, pop song writing or electronic music.
I taught for many years in UK up to "A" level theory and composition. I have spent many years in music education, initially (like everyone else) as a teacher. Then I moved on to advisory work (teaching teachers!) and also lectured, giving many workshops for teachers in developing music education skills and techniques. For a time I worked as a teacher-lecturer at London University's Institute of Education and eventually worked full-time as a Music Education Adviser to schools in part of London, offering advice on music education and curriculum development.
Experience I started composing music at the age 14 (it was mostly rubbish, since you asked) and now have a large number of compositions to credit as well as many publications, especially for instrumental music and choral music. I have also written several acclaimed works for large orchestra and choir. My work has been published particularly in the UK (under different names)(notably by Boosey & Hawkes, Novello, and Schott) but also in the USA and the Netherlands.
My music for elementary players (several publications) has been performed and broadcast worldwide. I am now retired from my previous job as Music Education Adviser. These days I spend most of my time composing and arranging. I am currently working on instrumental arrangements of world national anthems for my National Anthems website and also completing a suite of very easy piano solos and duets for elementary players. For many years I have used the music program "Finale" for all my music writing activities.
Organizations International Society for Music Education;
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Publications "The Times" Educational Supplement; "Hi-Fi News and Record Review". For several years, I used to write for many of the state music education periodicals in the US and I also wrote several influential articles on instrumental music teaching for "Music Teacher" magazine in the UK. (UK).
Question hello,
In many text about harmony and voice-leading its said that some chord progressions and some root movements are more powerful and have more progressive effect. for example the ascending 2nd and descending 5th and 3rd root movements are strong but descending 2nd, and ascending 5th and 3rd are not. can you please explain the factors which causes a progression to be strong an one to be weak and less effective?
the second part of my question related to the first part is considering the progression of descending of 5th that is suggested to be goal-oriented and very strong. but the full progression of this kind that is I-IV-Vll-III-VI-II-V-l includes movement from VII that is a dominant chord to II that is predominant. isn't that a retrogression? can you please explain me what is wrong here?
thank you in advance
Answer Hi Sina,
Many thanks for contacting me, but I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you with this. Your first question, about some chord progressions being more powerful than others is an interesting one.
However, it is extremely difficult to answer in a limited space available. The answer lies in acoustic principles. Because of the way that the major and minor scales are constructed and because of the mathematical relationships between the notes, there are different degrees of dissonance when different notes are combined. As you may know already, every note has a series of overtones of the harmonic series. The overtones create what we might call "harmonic tension" in chords or combinations of notes. Normally, we cannot hear the overtones but with practice, you can train yourself to hear at least the first or second note of the harmonic series.
In medieval times, (when presumably, people had sharper hearing) the major third was considered a discord, because of the clashing third and fourth overtones between the two notes. This is why nearly all music of the time ended on an octave or fifth. If you are a bit vague about this, there are several websites that explain the harmonic series: (cnx.org/content/m11118/latest/.
Another issue is that of equal temperament, but this is somewhat specialised and might be going beyond what you really need to know.
Don't forget that a progression of chords has both a vertical and horizontal component. By "vertical" I mean the chord placed in isolation, with its overtones combining to produce the unique "flavour" of that chord. But chords rarely exist in isolation, except in music theory classes. Nomally chords are part of a progression. That's what I mean about "horizontal". So when you play a progression of chords, there's all sorts of fascinating musical chemistry going on. Chords "react" to each other because of the internal tensions within each chord. This is why some chord progressions simply don't seem to work, even though it is sometimes hard to explain why.
I have been thinking about the examples you've given: e.g. the ascending and descending 5th and 3rd root movements being considered "strong". I can see why the descending 5th root movement sounds strong because it is similar to the familiar dominant-tonic root movement of a perfect cadence. The descending minor 3rd would take you to the relative minor of the previous chord which would make sense. The descending major third would take you to a chord where the previous tonic becomes the third of the new chord. Again, quite effective.
However, the ascending third root would take you to the minor version of the dominant chord of the relative minor (I told you it's difficult!) and this would perhaps be considered "weak". Again, the reasons are purely acoustic. But wait. Please do not assume that "weak" means "bad". Sometimes a "weak" progression is exactly what the composer wants to use!
Turning to your second question, I cannot see anything "wrong" with the chord progression you cite. However, it does not work well if you are using root position chords. (The vii chord is a strange animal anyway) It would sound a bit awkward if all the chords were in root position. The IV to vii in root position doesn't work well because you are going from a fairly assertive chord to a vii which is, quite honestly, neither here nor there. The rest of the progression works fine. It might work out better if you used a third inversion of the vii chord.
Finally, there is another issue here which relates to whether we feel that chord progressions are strong or weak. I believe it is partly to do with the way the human brain interprets the sounds of chords and their ever-present overtones of the harmonic series. We do not hear with our ears: we sometimes forget that the ears do not send a hi-fi audio signal to the brain: they send only electrical impluses that can be interpreted only by the brain. The ears just collect the sounds while the brain does the listening and interpreting. Maybe there are some clues here, but I suspect very little is known about this area of knowledge. There's a Ph D here waiting for someone!
I am impressed by the high quality of your questions. You obviously give a great deal of thought to music. May I ask, are you a music student? If you want, you can contact me directly using my email address, doctorcolin<at>csloxinfo.com. Of course, substitute the usual sign for <at>.
In the meantime, I wish you well with your studies and I hope that what I have written makes some sense!
