Dark Chord Progressions


Hjorvard
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Hjorvard
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11/20/2008 6:27 am
I know a little bit of basic music theory, and I can play any power chord and know what key I'm playing in on the neck, as well as a large amount of the notes on the fretboard. In my entire time of playing guitar, however, I have hardly touched on chords. I can play most open major and minor chords but nothing more than that.

The stuff I play is usually improvised and created by feel through free form music creation in conjunction with varying techniques for phrasing and modal patterns and scales I have learned throughout the years. Most of what I play definitely comes out in a...darker, meloncholic form of neoclassical/romantic expression. I know the locrian mode produces a darker sound, as well as most harmonic minor scales.

What I want to do is learn some unique, dark sounding minor chord progressions, any help and advice would be appreciated.
# 1
shapertakh
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shapertakh
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11/24/2008 8:11 am
All i can say is that you should understand how progressions work....the dark or sad or "unique" will follow automatically.
# 2
Hjorvard
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Hjorvard
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11/29/2008 5:30 am
Well where would I get started as far as learning basic chord progressions in general?
# 3
Bryan Connolly
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Bryan Connolly
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12/05/2008 8:34 pm
Is there a particular song that you know of that has these kinds of chord progressions? I would learn as many of these types of songs as possible. I would also do a few google searches and see if there are any instructional articles on making these kinds of progressions. I did one already, but it's been hard to find any that are in tab form rather than note form/sheet music. Here's one from KVRaudio.com:

Okay, for "dark" sounds use this scale:

A B C D E F G# A (NOTE: you can transpose this scale wherever you like. I did it this way since it's much easier to understand than trying to explain it in terms of whole steps and half-steps.)

The chords are made from every OTHER note, so ACE, BDF, CEG#, DFA, EG#B, FAC, G#BD.

For "sad" sounds use this scale:

A B C D E F G A (again, transposable, but would you really want me to say whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, etc.?)

The chords are exactly the same as the other form, except the G# is now G.

So ACE, BDF, CEG, DFA, EGB, FAC, GBD.

if you write a progression you really like in one you can lower the G#s and hear the diff. Of course, the real skill in using the minor is selectively interchangeing the forms; a common trick is to NEVER use the G# except in the EG#B or G#BD(F) chords; it avoids the particularly dark sound of the CEG# augmented chord, and makes the melody more natural sounding, while still creating strength and harmonic tension in the V-I motion (V-I means moving from EG#B to ACE, which is much more powerful than EGB to ACE... not that power is everything, but there you go).
# 4
Hjorvard
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Hjorvard
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12/09/2008 10:26 pm
Thanks! This is precisely what I wanted to know!
# 5

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