Coursera – DYM Lesson 2 videos (6)

Video #6 for Lesson 2 of Coursera’s Developing Your Musicianship class introduces us to progressions – specifically the I-IV-V chord progression.

6. I IV V Chord Progression (5:00) 

Professor Russell begins the video with, “So, we’ve talked about the major triad and minor triad. And if you remember, when we talked about the major triad, I constructed them starting on the 1 chord – in this case C major, the 4 chord – in this case F major, the 5 chord – G major, and then I went back to the one chord.” He plays the given chord on the piano for each of the three he mentioned. Then he continues with, “The reason why I did that is because those three chords, you hear all the time in songs.”

He explains that the 1 chord is also the tonic, the 4 chord is the sub-dominant and the 5 chord is the dominant chord. He calls the tonic our home base or tonal center. The 4 chord, or sub-dominant, is a step below the dominant chord, and the 5 chord, or dominant, has a tendency to go back to the 1. He says this is created by what is called the leading tone and that the dominant very often goes back to the tonic. He then says that we’ve all probably heard a dozen or so songs with those three chords in just the last few months alone and says that he’d like to play through a few progressions with those three chords and asks us to sing along using the root, or tonic, of the chord.

C-F-G triad progression

I-IV-V progression names

The first progression starts on the 1 chord, goes to the 4 chord, then to the 5 chord and then back to the 1 to start over again. So, from what I can see, that makes it a 1-4-5-1 progression, or what I think they write as I-IV-V-!. As he plays the progression, the Roman numerals for each chord, as well as the notation on the treble clef is highlighted to show us where we are in the progression.

The 2nd progression starts on the 1 chord again, then goes to the 5 chord, then to the 4 chord, then the 5 chord again, and finally back to the 1. So its 1-5-4-5-1 or I-V-IV-V-I. Its not all the same length though. I noticed that the initial I-V had 6 beats (I just tap my foot to keep time), then the IV-V each had 1/2 of that (3 beats each), so they were kind of like a single part (this might be a measure) when taken together, and then the final I had 6 beats again. So, it looks like the progression lets you know what chord to play, but they’re not necessarily equal in duration.

The 3rd progression starts on the 4 chord. This is interesting to me, because on Talkbass, they’re always talking about writing basslines that don’t start on the root, and here I am seeing a progression that actually does this. He doesn’t spell out the progression to us, like with the first two, but onscreen, we can see the chord light up (either I, IV or V), so its not hard to see that its a 4-5-4-1 (IV-V-IV-I) progression. We’re asked to sing the root to each of the chords again.

The last progression starts with the 5 chord. Like the last one, the Professor doesn’t tell us what the progression will be, but we can follow the chords that light up onscreen as he plays them and see that its 5-4-5-1 (V-IV-V-I). Finally, he closes up shop with, “The 1 chord, the 4 chord, the 5 chord. The tonic, sub-dominant, dominant. Okay? Major triads, 1 chord, 4 chord, 5 chord. All in the key of C.”

So, overall, this video was also informative, but some of the thoughts still feel incomplete – like he tells us that the sub-dominant (the 4 chord) is a step below the dominant chord, which is fine, but he doesn’t tell us anything about its function or any musical characteristic like how he said the 1 chord is the tonal center and the 5 chord has a tendency to go back to the 1 (I’ve heard this described elsewhere as tension and resolution). He also mentions the term “leading tone”, but doesn’t tell us what that is. Maybe we’ll learn the answers to these questions in another lesson.

• Lesson 2 index