Post 3: Revengeance

WEEK 3: Research 2, now with new info!

This week I’m going to build in last week’s work about chord structure. Now that we know how chords are built, we need to learn how to use them. This is called chord function, and it builds up chord progressions, which do a lot to set the tone for the music.

There a 3 ways a chord can function:

• Tonic
• Dominant
• Subdominant

This chart, from openmusictheory, shows the 3 functions.

Quick side note, when I say the “I” chord, that means I’m referring to the 1st scale degree. So, the I in C is C, the II is D, and so on.

The tonic chords are able to be thought about like home. The other chords lead to a tonic chord in one way or another.

In the key of C, the tonics are C(I), Em(iii), and Am(vi).

The dominants lead to the tonic strongly. When I play a dominant, it naturally wants to resolve to the tonic chord.

The dominant chords in C are G(V) and B°(vii).

Finally, the subdominant chords act somewhat like dominant chords. They can either lead to the tonic, but not as strong as the dominant, or they lead to the dominant.

The subdominant chords in C are F(IV), and Dm(ii)

When functional chords are put in order, they form a chord progression. There are thousands of ways to arrange chords in order, but some of these are the most prevalent. These are used in various ways. I'm not totally profiecient on how they are used though, so my compositions may or may not contain them. I will continue in the near future to research and write new things based on said research.