unusual chord progression and harmonic major scale ??

[possopo]

hi again:)

 

the new tune I'm working on is Imagine by John Lennon.

C / / / F / / /

 

F / / / Am / / / Dm / / / / / / /

G / / / G7 / / /

 

F / G / C / E7 / F / G / C / E7 /

 

nothing too difficult to work on (C major all the way) except for the very last chord.

E7 has a G# and I'm wondering what kind of theory is behind this.

it doesn't seem to be modal interchange (in C minor, there's an EbM7, not an E7) so I really don't know.

 

I also don't really understand what scale I can play on this specific chord.

C D E F G# A B... it looks to me like what I would call an Harmonic Major scale (?!)

[c+t in b]

you can view it two ways

 

The first is as a non-function III7 chord that doesn't resolve down a fifth. The second option is that you can also view it as a borrowed Deceptive Cadence from minor key V7-bVI

 

Heres one way to find the scale. Take the original Arpeggios and fill it in with notes of the home scale. E F G# A B C D E. Its Phrygian Dominant.

 

Picture Harmonic Major is the same as Harmonic Minor but with a natural 3rd

 

I don't have the melody in front of me, so this scale could be varied by whats played over top of it

[jonfinn]

I hear that E7 as "wanting" to resolve to Am. It's just how I hear it

[possopo]

c+t in b wrote :

E F G# A B C D E. Its Phrygian Dominant.

 

I thought phrygian dominant scale was the 5th mode of the harmonic minor scale.

so if we have Am as 1st degree : E F G# A B C D E

jonfinn wrote :

I hear that E7 as "wanting" to resolve to Am.

 

 

OK, I finally see it. so I could say E7 is the Vth of Am and the scale is the harmonic minor. and so, the song is modulating on Am here (instead of staying on C).

 

I wrote :

C D E F G# A B... it looks to me like what I would call an Harmonic Major scale (?!)

 

OK, I was wrong, the harmonic major scale would be C D E F G Ab B C.

 

I'm trying to understand where John Lennon took this from.

so it would be much easier for me to do it again (not to copy Lennon, but to make it easier to create harmonies already heard and to find them on my guitar neck or my piano before trying to find something more personal).

 

any idea if this pattern comes from a well-known rule. just like California dreamin' is using the Andalucian Cadence, Imagine is using... ???

[JonR]

 

I'm trying to understand where John Lennon took this from.

Good question - but E7 to F is not an unusual "deceptive cadence" in popular music.

No doubt he'd heard it before, and either copied it deliberately, or just found it while noodling on the piano (or guitar) and recognised it.

There were many other far more unusual chord changes he found, previously to this. Again, partly as a combination of stealing from his influences (which everybody does), and constant experimentation (which most people do, but each in his/her own way). It so happens that Lennon's influences were very broad (broader than most of his contemporaries, with the probable exception - luckily - of Paul McCartney); and he was always looking for the new and surprising, while remaining respectful of older rock'n'roll.

 

In fact, my ear is caught more by the little chromatic figure in the intro, which is a lot more unusual. In the F chord he plays A-Bb-B, resolving back down to G on the C (not up to C). It's highly distinctive, and (at the time) I hadn't heard anything like it before. It would be very common (in jazz at least) to run a chromatic A-Bb-B-C line on an F chord (in key of C, F or Bb), but it's that way he avoids the expected C that is characteristic, and special. It's the main "hook" of the whole tune, IMO.

In a way, I guess it matches the way he avoids the expects Am after the E - except (as I say) that's less unusual.

[possopo]

you're so right, I didn't even think of that. or I didn't even hear something special, A Bb B G just sounds so natural in the song (force of habit) when if you look at the theory, it apparently is nonsense.