[Smt-talk] I-II-IV as a progression

[Nicole Biamonte]

   I think I-II-IV belongs to a family of 025-based pentatonic-triad
>> progressions like the blues "axe-fall" (IV-bIII-I), the "Green Onions" riff
>> (I-bIII-IV), and similar dominant-based versions (I-bVII-V and V-bVII-I).
>>
>

>  On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 11:17 PM, Paul Steinbeck <
> paul.steinbeck at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't see the family resemblance. The "025-based" progressions in songs
> like "Green Onions" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" move (rootwise) along the
> minor pentatonic scale of the home key, in an unambiguously bluesy [035]
> fashion. The three roots involved in the I-II-IV progression do not, and the
> pentatonic scale(s) they belong to point to other keys (IV and ii).
>

Yeah, "Green Onions" wasn't a good example since it functions as a melodic
riff rather than a harmonic progression.  I'm thinking more along the lines
of the chord progressions I-bIII-IV in The Beatles' "Back in the USSR" or
(I)-bIII-IV-I in Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild."  These sound bluesier than
I-II-IV because they use flat-side triads instead of sharp-side, but I don't
think they're functionally very different.  I also don't think that the
tonic of a pentatonic scale is always so clear.  All best,

Nicole Biamonte
Assistant Professor of Music Theory
University of Iowa
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