Harmony in pop/rock music

Harmony in pop/rock music does not always follow the same norms and patterns of
classical-era music. Thus, functional-bass notation does not work for all situations.
Instead, we will primarily use Roman numerals for our analysis of harmony in pop/rock
music, occasionally using functional bass as a supplement to help us make sense of a
particular harmonic pattern or relate it to what weve studied in classical harmony.
One key difference between rock and classical harmony is that chords in pop/rock
music are almost always root-position triads or seventh chords. This affects the rules
of harmonic syntax, as 6/3 chords in classical progressions are replaced by 5/3 chords in
pop/rock progressions. (For instance, the classical progression IVIV6 becomes IVVI.
The same bass line does the same work, but by using a 5/3 chord instead of a 6/3 chord,
the functional progression changes to something that would break the rules of
classical syntax.) This can make harmonic analysis a little tricky in pop/rock music,
especially since there is no published theory of rock harmony that is equal to Quinns
functional theory of classical harmony. However, it makes chord labeling and harmonic
dictation simpler. Most of the time, all you need is the scale degree of the bass.
Following is a chart of bass scale degrees and the roots/Roman numerals most typically
associated with them. Keep this chart handy when transcribing and dictating rock
harmonic progressions. As you can see, most bass notes typically go with a single
chord.

BASS

5/3 OR 7

do

re

II

mi/me

[III]

fa

IV

sol

la/le

VI

te

VII

ti

6/3 OR 6/5

[IV]

Bass scale degrees and commonly associated harmonies in pop/rock music. Less
common chords are enclosed in square brackets.
Harmonic functions in minor
Harmonic functions in minor keys of pop/rock songs, particularly in the last couple
decades, tend to deviate from classical syntax in different ways than major-key songs.
See the Harmonic functions in minor resource for more details about this.

Schemata
There are a number of common stock chord progressions that recur in many pop/rock
songs. Typically, these stock progressions, or schemata, will occur in cyclical patterns;
that is, the same progression will repeat multiple times in a row. This is particularly
common in choruses of verse-chorus songs, but also happens in verses, strophes, and
bridges. This is helpful for identifying harmonies by ear, since in addition to listening
for bass scale degrees and considering whether the harmonies are chords of the fifth
(5/3 or 7) or chords of the sixth (typically 6/3 or 6/5), we can listen for common patterns

that weve heard in other songs. Following are a number of common schemata for
pop/rock harmonic progressions.
The 50s doo-wop progression
||: I VI IV V :||
or
||: I VI II V :||
The Singer/Songwriter progression
||: VI IV I V :|| (in major)
||: I VI III VII :|| (in minor)
||: I V VI IV :|| (With or Without You variant)
||: IV I V VI :|| (deceptive variant)
The Puff progression
I III IV . . . (to begin a phrase)
The blues progression
||: I - - - | IV - I - | V IV I - :|| (12-bar blues)
||: I - - - | I - - - | IV - I - | V IV I -:|| (16-bar blues)
The Pachelbel progression
||: I V VI III IV I IV V :||
||: I V6 VI III6 IV I6 IV V :|| (stepwise bass version)
I V VI III . . . (to begin a phrase; truncated version)
The lament progression

||: I VII VI V :||

The circle-of-fifths progression (in minor)
||: I IV VII III :||

Plagal progressions
||: I - IV :||
||: I - bVII - IV - I :||
||: bVI - bIII - bVII - IV - I :||
Rocks tonal systems
Walter Everett has posited six tonal systems to which most pop/rock songs belong. The
following sections summarize four of these with examples (all but 1 and 6the most
and least tonal). See Everetts 2004 article in Music Theory Online for a more detailed
exploration of these systems.
System 1: Pop/rock tonality that strongly resembles common-practice classical tonality
(major and minor keys, with parallel-key borrowing).
System 2: Pop/rock tonality that draws on diatonic modes (such as Dorian, Mixolydian,
Aeolian).

System 3: Pop/rock tonality that strongly resembles common-practice classical tonality,

but which borrows from diatonic modes.
System 4: Blues-based pop/rock tonality.
System 5: Minor-pentatonic-based pop/rock tonality.
System 6: Chromatically inflected minor-pentatonic-based pop/rock tonality.

The Singer/Songwriter chord progression

||: VI IV I V :|| (in major)
||: I VI III VII :|| (in minor)
Like the 50s doo-wop, this is a four-chord cyclical progression. It has been around for
some time but became increasingly common beginning in the mid-1990s with
singer/songwriters such as Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Joan Osborne, though the
chord progression can be found in a variety of musical styles.
This progression is interesting in two particular ways. First, like the 50s doo-wop, it can
begin its rotation in places other than the first chord. For example, U2s With or
Without You cycles through this progression with phrases starting on tonic:
||: I V VI IV :||
The second interesting feature of this progression is its mode ambiguity. The same
chordsdepending on the passages before and after a series of repetitions of the
progression, and depending on which chords in the cycle begin and end itcan project
a feel of major or of minor. In other words, Am F C G can sound like VIIVIV

in C major, or like IVIIIIVII in A minor. In fact, some songwriters take advantage of

this duality in songs that modulate back and forth between relative major and minor
keys, as well as in songs with some parallel ambiguity in the text (hence its usefulness
for those mid-1990s songwriters). An example is What About Love by Heart, which
has an obvious D-minor intro, a D-minor/F-major verse using the singer/songwriter
progression, and a chorus obviously in F major.
Lastly, we find a deceptive variant of this progression from time to time. Here the
cycle of chords begins on IV in order to end on VVI, allowing phrases to end with a
deceptive cadence. Mexico by Jump, Little Children incorporates this deceptive
variant (as well as the original version). Listen to the last two phrases of each strophe.
Both phrases employ the deceptive variant, except the final phrase has its last chord
elided by the I chord that begins the next module. The result is a phrase ending with a
deceptive cadence, followed by a phrase that ends with VI, or deceptive cadence (DC)
=> perfect authentic cadence (PAC).
||: IV I V VI :|| (deceptive variant)