Can somebody give me the low-down on chord progressions and cadences?

My teacher at school kind of went over it. We have been doing I-IV-V-V7 progressions for a while, I'm completely lost!

(I'm 17, in high school, taking a piano period, but unfortunately the only student in "Piano 2" and in a "Piano 1" class, so I have to basically teach myself")

I know that it is a pattern that most music follows in order to sound like "music", and a cadence is how the piece ends.

How is a IV chord and V chord build lets say in C major scale? I know how to play them, but have no understanding where they come from except that they are the subdom, dom, etc. But if you want a dominate chord in C major, wouldn't it simply be a G major chord instead of the G7 chord?

Either one will function as the dominant. Adding the seventh increases the tension and its need to be resolved.

Hey ihave12fingers - Many others here will gladly and expertly explain chords and chord progressions to you shortly in this thread, but I just wanted to make the somewhat profound observation that if you really have 12 fingers then you're eventually going to be able to play some truely amazing chords and some incredible progrssions! I'm suffering from "finger-envy"

JF

There's a thread in this forum called Nursery rhymes revisited, where especially Jazzwee explains chord progressions and other things very well. It would probably do you good to read it.

If you'd like an answer from someone who's a complete beginner, read on:

Taking the (diatonic) C major scale as an example, it consists of seven notes (the eight note brings you back to C), and each of these notes are the root of a chord in C major.

I: C major chord
II: D minor chord
III: E minor chord
IV: F major chord
V: G major chord
VI: A minor chord
VII: B minor chord

All of the major scales follow this pattern, so if you were to transpose the I-IV-V progression from C major to F major, you would simply look at the first, fourth and fifth notes of the F major scale and know that these notes are the root of the chords and that the I, IV and V are all major chords. Hence: F major, Bb major and C major.

To all of these chords you can add minor or major sevenths, ninths, elevenths and so on for flavour.

Was that clear? And perhaps more importantly: did it answer your question?

Each of the notes of a scale have a number, as you refer to (written as a Roman numeral), AND have a name.

The names of the major diatonic scale in America are:

tonic (I), supertonic, mediant, subdominant (IV), dominant (V), submediant, leading tone.

So, in the key of C, the dominant (not "dominate") chord is G. If it is a seventh chord (G7), it is the "dominant seventh" of C.

One reason for the common usage of I, IV, and V chords in music is that the IV and the V are related to the I.

To illustrate, the C chord is c-e-g. The F chord (sub-dominant of C) is f-a-c, and thus shares the note "C" with the C chord. And, the G chord (dominant of C) is g-b-d, and shares the note "G" with the C chord.

If you have ever been in a paint store, or a Home Depot, they have cards that help people select paint tones.

The cards have the main color (say yellow), and several other colors that harmonize with it (say red, green, brown).

Think of the chords of music in a similar way. If the key of the piece is C, then that is the main chord (known as the "tonic", see above).

The harmonizing chords will be the Sub-dominant, the Dominant, and also others, for example the relative minor of the Tonic, which in this case is A minor.

So you can go from C to any of the harmonizing chords and it will sound good.

Take a look at the piano keyboard.
At first glance, it appears to
be a maze of black and white keys,
52 white and 36 black on an full
88-key piano--comparably fewer
on smaller keyboards. But there's
actually a simple pattern in all of
it. Note that the black keys
occur in a identical pattern of
2 and 3 black keys all along the
keyboard. These two and three
black key groups mark off the "C
octaves," that is, the 7 white
keys surrouding each group of
2 and 3 black keys are the "C
octave," the notes, C D E F G A B,
going to the right on the keyboard.
If you play these 7 white keys
in succession, you get the
familiar-sounding "do re me fa
sol la ti" scale that everyone's
heard at some time in his life.

Each group of 2 and 3 black keys
marks off the same group of
notes, C D E F G A B, but at
a higher pitch as you go up
the keyboard. And the 5 black
keys themselves are the same
notes too, at a higher pitch
as you go up the keyboard. And
so there are really just, 7 + 5
= 12, different notes on the
piano, not 88.

Moreover, from the above, you can
see that the piano is a "C instrument,"
since that 7-note C scale is
right there staring you in the face,
so to speak, all of the time on
it.

Now play the 7 white keys, C D E F
G A B, the "C major scale." Then
play the 7 three-note chords
(triads) that begin on each
of these 7 notes, that is, C E G,
D F A, E G B, etc. These are
typically designated with the Roman
numerals for one to seven, and they
are given specific names, but
that's not really important.

What is important is that using
those 7 "C triads," and the white
keys only, you can immediately
improvise songs in the "Key
of C major." Playing the 7
C triads with the l.h. and
white keys only with the r.h.,
you can improvise all kinds of
songs. For example, while playing
the 7 C triads in succession going
to the rt., that is, C E G, D F A,
etc., you can play any white
keys with the r.h. and you'll
have a song, in C.

This thing about "progressions"
and "cadences" is nothing
really new, after you've done
the above. You played the
7 C triads in strict succession,
but you could have also played
them in any order and you could
still improvise a song by
playing white keys with the
r.h. A "progession" is just
a sequence of C triads that
are not in strict succession,
that is, instead of I II III, etc.,
you might play I IV V, or any
other combination. (A V7 chord
is just a V triad, G B D, with
another note added on top,
G B D F, and it can be used
instead of a V triad. So instead
of I IV V, you could play I IV V7--
they sound very similar.)

A "cadence" is just a term for
a progression that is used
to "conclude" things. For example,
you might hear IV V I as a
kind of "conclusion," because it
has a nice "concluding" ring
to it. But again, this is
nothing new. The important thing
is that using the 7 C triads,
and the white keys, you can
improvise in C major.

All of this also applies to "keys"
other than C major. For example,
the key of F major is based
on the F scale, F G A Bb C D E.
The 7 F triads are then F A C,
G Bb D, etc. And similarly, you
can improvise songs in F by
using the 7 F triads in the l.h.,
and the white keys and one black
key, Bb, in the r.h.

Moreover, since there is only
one note different between C and
F, they can be said to be closely
related, and you can switch from
one key to the other in the same
song without much trouble.

And so forth.

I couldn't figure out how to edit my post, but the seventh (VII) chord would be a diminished one and not a minor one, I guess.