Hi. I have done a track with chord progression A, C, D, F, G. All chords are major. How to define a scale/key of the track? Does modulation occur or borrowing chords? There doesn’t exist a scale with all major chords. I am not a music theory expert hence my question is. Thanks.

 

There are so many ways of approaching this.
Firstly, I'm assuming that you gave us the chords 'as in the progression order' and not just as an alphabetical list of the chords used (that matters, the answer could change a lot if that's not true) BUT IF that IS true, and your progression does follow A->C->D->F->G->A, then you're probably focussed on 'A' as the home key. Note: I just said 'A' - I didn't say A Major or A minor.
But you probably assume A Major and then you struggle to figure out how that F -> G -> A can all be in the same key.
You're probably considering options that seem to contradict like...
"is it really in A Major? and, if so, then what's going on with the C Major, F Major, and G Major chords?"
OR
"is it actually in A minor? and, if so, then why am I playing an A Major chord? and how do I explain the D Major?"

Here's a link to some other people discussing some of that (just the F->G->A part of the story).
https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/22223/how-would-you-describe-f-g-a-chord-progression
That should get you started - no point in me copying and repeating it all here.

Just as an aside: I'll hazard a guess (only a guess) that if you were improvising with A minor pentatonic over your chord progression (most of the time), it would probably feel more natural than trying to exploit A Major. But, of course, it pays to follow the actual chords when improvising.

 

A minor

 

Not to be flippant but... does this track with all major chords sound good? If so then, well, good, don't worry about it. Just keep finding notes that work. If not, then, fix that and quit worrying about a scale that doesn't matter.

 

Yes, this is a chord progression and not alphabetical order, A,C/D, F, G. All chords are major and not minor. My exercise was to make an all-major-chords track.
The track sounds quite well I think. It’s not cacophony

 

Last edited: Mar 26, 2022

Good advice.

Doesn't surprise me at all that it sounds good.
Great and simple pop songs have always shown how effortless it is to break out of strict diatonic while giving theory buffs slightly tricky problems to analyse.

For those five chords...
One old example would be Scorpions "Rock you like a Hurricane"
Transpose the A,C,D,F,G (to E) and just play power chords E,G,A,C,D
But someone might argue that the power chords could be ambiguous major-minor

Change the progression order to C,G,D,A,E - and use unambiguously Major chords - and you get "Hey Joe" - a real Classic.

If the Rolling Stones had played 'Brown Sugar' riff in your key it would have been C,A,F,G,A (they actually used Eb,C,Ab,Bb,C)
all major chords plus nice 'sus' and 'ninths' embellishments = maybe something to explore for yours too?

Most guitarists I've known started off doodling around using all major chords.
The world still hasn't exhausted all the possibilities.

 

I am not buying into this other than this post as most of these go rapidly left...
You can define using what is written and known or if your ears can hear note/scale/harmony relationships, define your own without any knowledge. The latter requires perfect pitch, or exceptional relative pitch.

To cite an example an A triad over a Bb triad. The notes in 1st position bottom up are Bb, D, F, A C#, E. To anyone who never studied a single scale, they might naturally think all of those notes are the scale. If someone said "Oh, that's the 6th mode of a D harmonic minor scale" they'd also probably go "HUH?" - They would not know the G is missing based on what I suggested because it simply is not present in the chord tones. The point being there are documented standards in scales, some genre dependent and some not. Most people tend to work with what they are given.

Summary - The notes that work best for the melody, Modulation, key shifting, transposition are only useful if that is where the song needs/wants to go. That's my take on it anyway. @AdHeesive gave some great chord examples of using all major chords in known classics and his examples are good examples of tune going where the writer heard it or wanted it to go. I am 99% sure they were not thinking "Which key am I going to shift to next?" when they wrote them. 'Little Wing' by Jimi Hendrix is another good example of mixing and matching and cycling.
Nirvana created their own sound using all majors and unusual shifting to keys most people may have completely avoided because that is where Cobain heard it going. Foo Fighters in many ways are an extension of that.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 4, 2022

Don't break theory rules - this is why Hendrix, Cobain and many others are no longer around. Music is dangerous.

 

I´m wondering if any of you really played the OP progression just to hear how it sounds. Of course sounds good and as hedgejones said A min fits well.

 

Just for introduction (there are a lot of points in this technique that it takes a long time to dominate):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord-scale_system

Just remember that this is just a technique proposed by some improvisers and is not a main part of music theory. Music theory involves many other areas (theories that sometimes don't fit well with this technique).

 

Les Dawson is of course now dead too...

 

I like that question. and I wonder whether the answer is influenced by a culture of 'Instruments versus DAWs'.
For me it was an instant one-minute exercise - just pick up a guitar and hear it.
Aside: I bet people who tried it on an instrument played it as [A] [C] [D] [F,G] the last two chords shared in one bar.
Of course, it doesn't have to be like that but I fell into that structure immediately and I bet most other people did too.

Without instant access to an instrument, how many people would bother to put it into a DAW just to explore it? Just a lot slower!
I'll confess though - actually I did that too - but only because I've been messing around with SunDog, exploring its facility for assembling strum patterns, so that chord sequence example just got tossed into the fun.

 

I just relooked at this. I answered your question on a tangent because I did not fully understand what you were asking. On this revisit I do completely.

1. In that sequence based on pure majors, A is by itself first using default major keys is A major, then C and D put it in Gmajor. F and G in C major. I gather it then repeats the cycle? You could also look at it if it is repetitive as ||A | C | D | F |G | A | C | D | F | G ||. Depending on how you wrote or write a melody, theoretically Amajor triad and a G major triad are also part of Dmajor.
2. Modulation yes. Borrowing chords as in relatives? or substitutions? I will only use relative minors and not go off center. Your progression is Amaj, Cmaj, Dmaj, Fmaj, Gmaj.... A relative minor set equivalent using those chords would be || F#m | Am | Bm | Dm | Em ||

"Light my fire" by The Doors uses Am to F#m.
"Sittin on the dock of the bay" by Otis Redding uses an all major pattern in a similar fashion.

I do not think any tune should be written with a fixed mindset of "I must always write diatonically". The sound, rhythm and melody of what you write is far more important. Many famous tunes follow their own path which validates that writing process. Sorry for being off on a tangent before.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 4, 2022

if you dont want to modulate and change key on the Amjor chord that belongs to a different key, i think your best option is A minor or A minor pentatonic
scale

 

There's a chance you are simply moving between different keys within the same song. Check out these videos by David Bennett:

(The "Mrs Robinson" example is quite nice)

 

If by C/D you mean a C chord with a D on the bottom..
(making it sound closer to Dsus2-4-b7..)

A - A Mixolydian
C/D - C Lydian/D Mixolydian, same notes..
F - F Lydian
G - F Lydian (or G Mixolydian same notes)

That would be my natural approach/response,
however there's surely more options/possibilities that other musicians will gravitate to, or that analysis/experimentation could bring..

 

Last edited: Jun 5, 2022

Ok, so I took my guitar and played your chords progression.
For me it's immediately clear that if you want to use only one scale, that would be A pentatonic minor.
While doing it, everything fits, but the the F major chords sounds like a passing chord to the G.
So I feel better playing the progression that way, timewise: ||:A |A|C|C|D|D|F|G:||
It sounds as a very classic rock progression.
Of course, I supposed that we are not talking about any major 7th chord, as that would change every thing.

 

Last edited: Jun 5, 2022

Nice one..

While completely different, your approach is also correct,
it gives different harmonic effects, and it borrows more from the Blues mentality,
with the ambiguous effect of playing a minor pentatonic scale over a Major chord, etc..


Even tho I'm a guitarist, I've figured this out with a Piano at hand,
and so this had a direct influence on my perception, and the way I defined the harmonic context/changes.

Not only every musician could have a different approach, or come to a different conclusion,
but the instrument you're using also influences/changes your perspective.

 

It also completely depends on who or what the backing is.
A Pentatonic Minor A,C,D,E,G,A I agree will work mostly as long as the major 3rds are not stated prominently in every chord in the backings as some chords will clash - though blue note slides should be obvious to the ears. The minor pentatonic leads to a bluesier sound and potentially implies dominants if played a certain way too.
The C# in the A and as you mentioned the major seventh, the E against the F will work definitely but there is no F in that scale or a B and the D major also has an F# as its 3rd... The trick is in the backing but yes, the pentatonic if the author wants a 'one-size-fits-all' is possibly the better choice. The D Pentatonic minor will also have a similar effect D,F,G,A,C,D though the F will be dark depending on chord voicings. Using both might be equally as effective. Your form makes more sense for that scale as unfortunately, the author did not lay out the lengths of each chord. That also determines the approach.
As you said there are many possibilities. The pentatonic also locks you into a specific sound which may or may not be a good idea depending on the tune.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 5, 2022

In this comment

I understand that nmkeraj stated 1 bar for A , half bar each for C and for D, then one bar each for F and for G.

Of course there are countless possible approach.
Specially if we are not looking to use one scale only on the all chord progression.
On the F chord, even playing an A pentatonic minor, I'm immediately tempted by the F third, which would add a very beautiful effect / variation.
To add more "critic" to my approach, the tempo is also crucial. If it's a very slow piece, staying in the F while keeping that A minor pent, would be a bit harder.