• NELA
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Topic: A little help from the experts

Guy's n Gal's, take a look at Bonnie Raitt's version of "Thing Called Love.  The chord progression goes;

Verse

A         
C         G                              A
A                                               
C         G                              A

1st Chorus

F                  Bb                 C
F                  Bb                 C
F                  Bb                 C
F                  D                  A

Now, I can play this but the chord progression has me a little confused. In the 1st chorus, if the key is "A" then A will be the 1st chord in the progression,  C would be the 3rd chord in this progression (would this be Cm?) and the G chord would be the 7th chord (would this be a dim chord?) Normal chord progression follows 1 - 4 - 5 progression. Or woulfd this be in the key of "A" with the C & G chords just being "off" chords?

In the 2nd chorus the key would be "F", so the F chord would be the 1st chord in this progression, the C chord would be the 5th and the Bb chord would be the 4th chord. So this would be a 1 - 5 - 4 progression. I can understand this but it still gets confusing the more you get into the song. Take a look & see what you think. Could be a reward to the oerson who can help me figure this out (or not).

Nela

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  • Registered: 2011-04-11
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Re: A little help from the experts

I'm not sure what you're confused about really?   The F progression would be 1-b4 -5, to me anyway!  I'm not a music theorists but I think I got this one.   Just as if that were in the key of G.....then 1-4-5 (G, C, D).......it's the same in F except it's Bb with F so it's a b4..........at least the way I interpret it...... but what do I know??

It's a great song and you know the progression....at least on the instrument.....so why fuss over it on paper??

  • NELA
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Re: A little help from the experts

sselvia, welcome to chordie - I see this is your 1st post. The F progression is not where I am getting confused. It's in the verse where the progression is called out as A...C....G. A =1, C = b3 and G would be a b7. Think I got this right. This just ain't a 1 - 4 - 5 progression.

Nela

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Re: A little help from the experts

I wish I was an expert so I could follow along with the question... sad  I'm not!  Perhaps since we've had a little action here someone else will see this now and jump in.  If you don't get a response in the next few days however, and you're still looking for a better answer than what you've figured out the music theory section might be a good place to attempt a repost.  If you do, just mention it in here and I'll close this thread.  Good luck NELA!  I'm quite sure you know more than I do about this stuff!!  big_smile

Art and beauty are in the eyes of the beholder.
What constitutes excellent music is in the ears of the listener.

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Re: A little help from the experts

Verse is in A but there's some interesting flavoring going on. Instead of playing the 3rd scale degree as a C#m or C#m7, they lower the root of the chord to feature the flatted 3rd scale degree, which makes it a C7 chord. (Shout out to the blues scale.)The G chord represents the b7 of A. So it's actually a I-bIII-bVII progression.

Then the mofo changes key on ya. smile

6 Reply by NELA (edited by NELA 2011-04-13 00:08:00)

  • NELA
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Re: A little help from the experts

BGD, that kinda what I thunk. It's not a common progression which makes it kinda difficult but that how I playing it. Just wanted to see if what I thunk was the right thinkin'

Nela


BGD, you ever been in a music store there in Vegas called Vesley's Music. Jerry Vesley was a good hunting buddy of mine but we done kinda lost contact. He might have sold the store as I heard he had bought some land around Cedar City, Utah (where we hunted)

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Re: A little help from the experts

I was just corrected by a much better musician than me, who points out that there is no C7, just a C chord, perhaps a C power chord in the Raitt version of the riff. DAMMIT! I was close though. wink