Chord progression ideas?

[hoven]

Hey Everybody,
I was looking for some new ideas for chord progressions. I find myself relying too much on the typical I-IV-V stuff and I am trying to break out of that. :o

[the1andonly]

secondary dominants are a good way to break out of chord progression ruts. I'm assuming you know ahout the 7 chords you have for a scale, I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-viio. for all of these chords, with the exception of the viio, you can have a V-I or V-i cadence.

for example in C:
C - Dm - Em - F - G - Am - Bdim
now with secondary dominants:
G7-C - A7 - Dm - B7 - Em - C7 - F - D7 - G - E7 - Am - Bdim

[hoven]

Are secondary dominants always major or dom 7th chords?

[Zatz]

Hi hoven!

Are secondary dominants always major or dom 7th chords?

Either. But Dom 7 has more tension due to M3-m7 tritone interval in it. Still there's more to secondary dominant idea than just V7(X) -> X construction - you can extend the prefix and incorporate somewhat longer SD - for ex. [ii-V7](X) -> X

Let X be Cmaj. Then [ii-V7](X) -> X = [Dm -> G7] -> C.
SD's souldn't always be diatonic. Alter the above example this way: [Dm7b5 -> G7#5] -> C.

Subdominants can also be secondary as well.

Well, I guess everything may be secondary except for tonic and IV# chord. Why not approach some chord with a serie of ascending m3 secondary chords. For ex.:

Say you have to fill in before Cmaj chord. Why not try playing F#m7b5 -> (m3 up) -> Am7 -> (m3 up) -> C with pedal C tone through these 3 chords? Yea, I know this is crazy but I just want you to encourage to experiment with it!

Good luck,
Zatz.