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6.15
When Chord Progressions Go Bad...
6.15.1
Common Chord Progressions: Problems, Part 1—Visual Identification
Here are a few examples of the kinds of common chord progressions inexperienced songwriters string together, mainly because they don’t know about the circular harmonic scale.
Having studied the above examples by songwriting masters, you will probably figure out pretty quickly how these progressions go off the rails (Figures 118 - 121). Using chord maps, you can visually identify the weakness just by looking at the patterns of arrows that correspond to consecutive fifths up, multiple third progressions, sequences of chromatic progressions, non-involvement of dominant and tonic chords, and so on.
This is not to say that such progressions could never work under any circumstances. A songwriter might figure out a way to make them sound palatable in the context of a cleverly-worked-out tune. But why bother with a lot of pointless effort, trying to fix a lame progression? They shoot lame chord progressions, don’t they?
Technically, there's no such thing as a “wrong” chord progression in the sense of “prohibited.” But there certainly are chord progressions that are easier for the brain to make sense of. That's what this chapter has been all about.