Chord Progression - Harmonizing The Scale

Harmonizing The Scale

As well as the cyclical underpinning of chords, the ear tends to respond well to a linear thread; chords following the scale upwards or downwards. In the 17th century, descending bass lines found favour for "divisions on the ground", so that Pachelbel's canon, the Bach orchestral suites (the famous Air on a G String), and Handel's organ concerti all contain very similar harmonisations of the descending major scale. When this was reintroduced into mid-20th century pop music, it brought with it many baroque trappings (The Beatles' "For No One", Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and The Steve Miller Band's "Dear Mary" and "Baby's House").

At its simplest, this descending sequence may simply introduce an extra chord, either III or V, into the I - VI - IV - V type of sequence described above. This chord allows the harmonisation of the seventh step, and so of the bass line I - VII - VI.... This strategy underlies Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman" and Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry". The baroque examples descend for an octave, while "A Whiter Shade of Pale" manages a stately two octaves, before "turning around" through the dominant chord to recommence upon the key note.

Ascending major progressions are not as common but many exist: the verse of "Like a Rolling Stone" ascends by steps to the fifth, I-ii-iii-IV-V before descending again to the key-note, IV - iii - ii - I—the latter being another common type of harmonisation of a descending major scale. The Four Pennies' hit "Juliet" and The Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere" both use similar ascending progressions.

The descending chromatic scale has also formed the basis of many progressions, from the "Crucifixus" of Bach's B Minor Mass, through Beethoven's Thirty-two Piano Variations, to songs such as Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate", George Harrison's "Something", and Lucio Battisti's "Paradiso", a hit for Amen Corner when translated as "(If Paradise Is) Half as Nice".