Can someone alalyze this progression for me?

[James Hetfield Acne Scars]

the chords are E-G-D-A. I dont recognize these as belonging to one scale so im assuming they are borrowed from some others or something. I just want to know where they are coming from and what key this is in.

[Blackbelt1]

Those notes are all found on the A minor pentatonic scale.

 

~Blackbelt

[revmcintyre]

Really new to analyzing Chord Progressions, but here is one possibility:

 

Key of D

 

II - IV - I - V

 

E G D A

 

Revmc:cool:

[Poparad]

Here's another take:

 

Everything fits in the key of D, except for the E chord, but here's why it works:

 

Whenever you move from one major chord to another by the interval of a major or minor third, it's called a "chromatic third movement." The movement of E major to G major is up a minor third.

 

Some other examples are E - G# - A, C - Ab - G, or E - G - A

 

The reason why chromatic third movement works so well is because all the voices between the two chords will move smoothly by half steps, whole steps, or will remain the same, which is the basic principle to any chord progression sounding good.

 

On the end of the progression, where it would assumedly repeat, the movement of E to A is by a fifth, so that's all nice and fluid.

 

 

 

Or, you could just look at the whole thing as being a series of major chords. This would be the "parallel harmony" or "constant structure" approach. Try stringing together any set of seemingly unrelated major chords and they will usually work out ok. It worked for Kurt Cobain...

[bongfodder]

Well Poparad answered your question but if you just want a simple way to solo over it I'd go with Em pentatonic.

 

Playing that with Dom7 chords sounds familiar,what's it from?

[Poparad]

Originally posted by bongfodder Playing that with Dom7 chords sounds familiar,what's it from?

 

The blues.

[James Hetfield Acne Scars]

Has anyone ehard "Calling Dr. Love" by Kiss? This progression is in that song. It all centers around E so it couldnt be D could it?What key is that song in?

[revmcintyre]

There is another possiblity that this is in the key of D but is using the E dorian harmonized scale.

 

E dorian

 

E F# G A B C# D

 

Revmc:cool:

[bongfodder]

 

Originally posted by James Hetfield Acne Scars Has anyone ehard "Calling Dr. Love" by Kiss? This progression is in that song. It all centers around E so it couldnt be D could it?What key is that song in?

 

 

It's E minor,where'd you come up with the major chords?they're power chords.

 

But that's not what I was trying to think of.

[LDF]

I think someone already said this but it appears to be in D major with the D minor pentatonic scale thrown in. The minor pent. would include an Ab which would account for the G# in the E.

 

This level of theory isn't my strong suit so I can't look at it in any other light. The minor pentatonic is about as far as my advanced chord structuring goes...........

[James Hetfield Acne Scars]

 

Originally posted by bongfodder It's E minor,where'd you come up with the major chords?they're power chords. But that's not what I was trying to think of.

 

 

 

Not the live version. The whole song is clearly major chords. The studio version are power chords, yeah but not on Alive II.

[bongfodder]

 

Originally posted by James Hetfield Acne Scars Not the live version. The whole song is clearly major chords. The studio version are power chords, yeah but not on Alive II.

 

 

Sorry don't know Kiss that well.Still your root progression is Em so even with the major chords off it I'd go with minor pentatonic for scale.

 

Think of And Justice for All intro,EM,DM,CM,Bm,BbM7b5 dosen't follow any one scale but still works.

[acousticbilly]

You could (as other folks said) interepret this sequence of chords a few different ways. For my money, that progression is probably centered around either E or A.

 

If it's E, then I might use the following combination of scales:

 

E - E major

G - E minor

D - E minor

A - E major

 

On the other hand, if it's A, maybe I might go a little more like this:

 

E - A major

G - A mixolydian (D major)

D - A mixolydian (D major)

A - A major or A mixolydian (D major)

 

Anyway, just tossing out ideas...

[buddastrat]

That is a very common progression in rock. As already stated it's not in one particular key. But, if I remember correctly the Kiss song uses E5 to G to D to A. If it's that, then it is in key. E dorian would work great for all of it.

 

It's also the chorus for Pearl Jam's "Alive"

 

It's sounds cheesy to me when an Em pentatonic is played over it. Mostly for the E major chord. It's the thing guitar players do when they don't know what else to do sort of thing. There are lots of pentatonic options for that.

 

It's also the chorus for Man in the Box by Alice in Chains. Though they use fifths and not triads. There the Em pentatonic sounds great- no thirds.