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

[Tim Koozin]

A clear example of the I--II--IV--I chord pattern can be found in Rod  
Stewart’s “Stay With Me” (the main part of the song, after the  
intro).  The pattern is easily played with barre chords with bass  
notes on only the 5th and 7th frets, very comfortably within a box on  
the fretboard, although it lacks a pentatonic sound:

Stay with Me
    A  B  D  A
A--------5-----
E--5--7-----5--

The Donovan example is quite different to my ear in that you do get  
the dominant chord immediately after the three chords in question: C-- 
D--F--C--G.  This pattern could still fits neatly in the fretboard  
box, using two diagonal moves between the A and E string:

Atlantis (transposed to A)
    A  B  D  A  E
A--------5-----7--
E--5--7-----5-----

But Donavan doesn't play it that way.  It's more folksy voicing, with  
F maj7 on the third chord. On the YouTube video, he is using a capo  
and who knows what all is going on.

Tim Koozin


On Aug 30, 2009, at 8:30 PM, Nicole Biamonte wrote:

> Dmitri wrote:
> BTW, I wouldn't be totally shocked to find I-II-IV in some kind of  
> New Orleans jazz context.  I can almost hear it in my mind's ear,  
> can you?
>
> I think you could probably find a I-II-IV-V turnaround fairly  
> easily, but I'm skeptical of I-II-IV on its own in that  
> repertoire.  I don't know an earlier example than "Eight Days a  
> Week."  I also can't find a good example of bVII-I-bIII; does  
> anyone have one?
>
> 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).
>
> Since the original poster asked about sources, I'll note that Allan  
> Moore briefly discusses this progression in "Patterns of Harmony,"  
> Popular Music 11/1 (1992).  He interprets it as a third- 
> substitution for I-bVII-IV.
>
> Nicole Biamonte
> Assistant Professor of Music Theory
> University of Iowa
> _______________________________________________
> Smt-talk mailing list
> Smt-talk at societymusictheory.org
> http://lists.societymusictheory.org/listinfo.cgi/smt-talk- 
> societymusictheory.org


Dr. Timothy Koozin                    tkoozin at uh.edu         (713) 
743-3318
Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Theory
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
120 School of Music Bldg
Houston, TX 77204-4017




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.societymusictheory.org/pipermail/smt-talk-societymusictheory.org/attachments/20090831/df03e0ad/attachment-0003.htm>