Songwright

Last post I mentioned some common chromatic chords.

Over the weekend I also got involved in a very silly debate about the comparative ‘cultural significance’ of Radiohead and Aqua. It involved the sort of long pretentious discussion I was thankful to have left behind in my student days, and I should probably be ashamed of myself, but it was fun.

And it also made me think of that overplayed early Radiohead hit ‘Creep’.

The chord progression in this song is worth a look because it uses two chromatic chords I mentioned before. The song is in the key of G, and starts of with a G major chord. There then follows a B Major chord.

Is B major in G major? No it isn’t, it requires a D sharp that you don’t find in the key. So it’s a chromatic chord – the third chord of the scale only major when it ’should’ be minor.

After that we get chord IV, C major. Which is in key, but the next chord isn’t because it’s C minor. Chord IV only minor.

So G B C Cminor. The B and C minor chords are chromatic. If you turn it into a C major version you also get the first chords to the verse of Space Oddity C E F Fm. Isn’t that interesting?

So don’t be afraid of stealing those ideas, definitely nothing new about them.

I promise I’ll stop talking about Radiohead sometime soon.

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