Tuesday 18 May 2010

The Minor 4 Chord (pt3)



The Beatles were masters of slipping chords that didn’t fit the key into their songs. Chord like the minor 4 (iv). Last time we were looking at progressions where they went from the major 4 (IV) to the minor 4 (iv) like this change from In My Life (the iv is Dm)

There are A places E I remember all my D life Dm though A some have changed

25 or 6 to 4


Now lets look at the second most common change – from the minor 6 to the minor 4 (vi to iv)


Ask Me Why (Verse) -  vi, iv, II7, V, I (Key of E)

That C#m I, I, I, I, I should Am never, never, never be F#7 blue B


She Loves You (verse) - I vi iv, V (in G)

She G loves you and you know that can’t be Em bad,
She Cm loves you & you know you should be D glad


Any Time At All (verse) -  I, iii/VII, vi, iv/bVI (in D)

D If you need some F#m/C# body to love,
Bm Just look into my Gm/Bb eyes


I Will (verse tag, as a weird passing chord) - I7, IV, V, vi, iv, I (in F)

F7 Sing it Bb loud so C7 I can Dm hear you Bbm F


The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (verse) - III, V, vi, iv (in C)

He’s the E all-American G bullet-headed Am Saxon mother’s Fm son


The Night Before (verse) - vi, iv, vi, iv, I (in D)

Bm Now today I Gm find,
Bm You have changed your Gm mind D treat me…


The iv resolves to the I chord in every song except Ask Me Why & You Won't See Me..


For a modern example check out If It Kills Me by Jason Mraz. The Chorus progression (in D) is I, iii, vi, iv

D Well all I really want to do is
F#m love you, a kind much closer than
Bm friends use, but I still can't say it after
Gm all we've been through


Once again your homework is simple. Try to get this chord progression into one of your songs!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Matt. Since you are in an updating mode: I don't really understand the 'You won't see me' example...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rob! The reason you don't understand is cos it's totally wrong! Thanks for being an eagle-eyed reader. The key is A not D which means Bm is ii.

    Correcting it now. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Rob - Of course that means the example now belongs in a completely different post!

    http://beatlessongwriting.blogspot.com/2010/06/minor-4-chord-pt4.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMG - I'm just learning theory (circle of 5ths) and having a hell of a time with Beatle songs (til now!) Thanks!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome! More circle of fifths stuff here

      http://beatlessongwriting.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ticket-43-use-fourths-luke.html

      Delete