Chords and progressions

A chord is several notes played at the same time. Chords carry the mood of a song more than anything else: the same beat sounds hopeful over one chord sequence and sad over another.

Three notes at once

On the last page, n("0 2 4") played A, C and E one after another. Play them together and you have a chord:

blank("house");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
track("arpeggio", n("0 2 4 ~").octave(3).s("epiano"));
track("chord",    n("[0, 2, 4] ~ ~ ~").octave(3).s("epiano"));

The comma inside the brackets stacks the notes instead of playing them in turn. A chord built from every other note of the scale (1st, 3rd and 5th) is a triad, the basic chord of almost all Western music.

Major and minor

Triads come in two main colours. Listen to these two chords, one bar each:

blank("house");
tempo(120);
track("chords", chord("<C Cm>").s("epiano"));

C is C major: bright and stable. Cm is C minor: darker. The only difference is the middle note, one semitone lower in the minor chord. In chord names, a capital letter alone is major (F, G), and m after the letter means minor (Am, Dm).

A progression

A sequence of chords that repeats is a progression. The bass from the last page already played the roots of ours: A, F, C, G. Here are the chords themselves:

blank("house");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
track("chords", chord("<Am F C G>").s("epiano"));
track("bass",   note("<a1 f1 c2 g1>").struct("x ~ ~ x ~ x ~ ~").s("sub_bass"));

A minor, F major, C major, G major, one bar each. This is one of the most used progressions in pop and dance music: it starts sad, lifts, and the G at the end pulls back to the beginning. The bass plays each chord’s root at the start of its bar, so the two agree.

Telling the song its chords

Writing the chords inside a pattern works, but claudius can do more when the song itself knows its progression. Set it once with prog(), and play it with chord("prog"):

blank("house");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
prog("A", "Am F C G");
bars_per_chord(1);
track("chords", chord("prog").s("epiano"));

prog("A", ...) names the song’s main progression A. bars_per_chord(1) makes each chord last one bar (a blank song starts that way; a 2 would hold each chord for two bars). chord("prog") plays whatever chord the progression has at each moment. Now the song’s harmony is in one place: other parts can follow it, claudius checks your melody against it, and a second progression for another section is one more line.

A bass that follows

The bass can follow the progression too. .root() makes a chord pattern play only each chord’s root, the note the chord is named after (A for A minor), down in the bass register:

blank("house");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
prog("A", "Am F C G");
bars_per_chord(1);
track("chords", chord("prog").s("epiano"));
track("bass",   chord("prog").root().struct("x ~ ~ x ~ x ~ ~").s("sub_bass"));

The bass plays A, F, C and G, the same rhythm as before, now taken from the progression. Change the chords in prog() and the bass changes with them.

Rhythm for chords

A held chord is calm. Chords played in a rhythm, called stabs, drive the groove:

blank("house");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
prog("A", "Am F C G");
bars_per_chord(1);
track("kick",   s("bd*4"));
track("chords", chord("prog").struct("x ~ ~ x ~ ~ x ~").s("epiano").legato(0.5));

The rhythm x ~ ~ x ~ ~ x ~ puts three chords in each bar, unevenly spaced (3 + 3 + 2 eighth notes). It is one of the oldest rhythms in dance music, and it rubs nicely against the steady kick.

You did not choose which A, C and E to play, or in which order. claudius picks the notes of each chord so they move as little as possible from the chord before. Musicians call that voice leading, and it is why the chords sound connected rather than jumping around.

A pad underneath

A pad is a soft, long sound holding the chords in the background. It fills the space and makes quiet sections feel full:

blank("house");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
prog("A", "Am F C G");
bars_per_chord(1);
track("pad", chord("prog").s("pad").role("pad"));

.role("pad") tells the mixer what this track is, so it sits quietly behind everything else. You will see roles again on the mixing page.

The numbers in the progression

If you print your song as a script (you will on the last page), the progression shows up as prog("A", "i VI III VII"). These are Roman numerals: they name each chord by its place in the key. i is the chord on the first note of the scale (A in A minor), VI the chord on the sixth (F), and so on; lower case means a minor chord, capitals a major one. Written this way, the progression works in any key: in D minor, i VI III VII is Dm, B♭, F, C.

Try this

Seventh chords add one more note on top and sound richer, jazzier: prog("A", "Am7 Fmaj7 Cmaj7 G7").
A brighter progression in the same key: prog("A", "F G Am Am").
Hold each chord for two bars with bars_per_chord(2). The chords, the pad and the bass all follow.
Arpeggiate the chords, playing their notes one after another: chord("prog").struct("x*4").arp("up").s("pluck").

The song so far

blank("house");
title("First Light");
tempo(120);
key("A minor");
prog("A", "Am F C G");
bars_per_chord(1);

track("kick",   s("bd*4"));
track("clap",   s("~ cp ~ cp"));
track("hats",   s("[~ hh]*4"));
track("shaker", s("sh*16").gain(0.4));
track("bass",   chord("prog").root().struct("x ~ ~ x ~ x ~ ~").s("sub_bass"));
track("chords", chord("prog").struct("x ~ ~ x ~ ~ x ~").s("epiano").legato(0.5));
track("pad",    chord("prog").s("pad").role("pad"));

Pitch lists every chord name claudius understands.

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