Explaining Progressions
This post is an excerpt from a theory book I used while taking Music Theory classes in college. It comes from observations of the usage of progressions by classical composers in common practice. This isn't concrete, but it can be used as a guideline to make your music flow and sound better using progressions. The theory book uses Roman Numerals to represent numbers. I'll give u the Roman Numeral version and the Number version:
I is followed by IV or V, sometimes VI, less often II or III
II is followed by V, sometimes IV or VI, less often I or III
III is followed by VI, sometimes IV, less often I, II or V
IV is followed by V, sometimes I or II, less often III or VI
V is followed by I, sometimes IV or VI, less often II or III
VI is followed by II or V, sometimes III or IV, less often I
VII is followed by I or III, sometimes VI, less often II, IV or V
1 is followed by 4 or 5, sometimes 6, less often 2 or 3
2 is followed by 5, sometimes 4 or 6, less often 1 or 3
3 is followed by 6, sometimes 4, less often 1, 2 or 5
4 is followed by 5, sometimes 1 or 2, less often 3 or 6
5 is followed by 1, sometimes 4 or 6, less often 2 or 3
6 is followed by 2 or 5, sometimes 3 or 4, less often 1
7 is followed by 1 or 3, sometimes 6, less often 2, 4 or 5
I don't know how much help this will be to anybody, but if you can benefit from it, then that's great. This helped me a lot when I was writing music in 4-parts. We had to write out progressions w/out going to the keyboard using these guidelines. Then, our professor would play them in front of the class. It was very interesting, to say the least, to hear what some students were coming up with.
