Chord Progressions
Music moves away from and towards the tonic home key. As shown below, it tends to move to the subdominant key and then to the dominate key. One should look at a specific area of the Circle of 5ths and restrict where a composition can move to (i.e. which keys). Common chord progres- sions in G major are G - C - Am - D - G(I - IV - ii - V - I) and G - Em - Bm - D - G
(I - vi - iii - V - I). These chord progressions are based on the G major scale (G A B C D E F# and G).
When one looks at the circle of 5ths, on should concentrate on the tonic home key and its adjacent neighbours (the IV and V keys are closest -- and the least dissonant choices). Movement in a piece of music often will go outside these bounds, but the departure is usually only momentary unless the key signature itself changes. At times, these rules for harmonic movement can be broken, but one has to consider how this will effect movement overall. There are many possibilities available when referring to the Circle of 5ths, but not all will produce melody/harmony that are pleasant to the ear. Grating sounds can sometimes occur.
© 2013 -- Reed Music Publications