Two Chord progression q's

[Robb H]

So under the standard harmony rule, I, IV, and V are major, ii, iii, and vi are minor. Is the inverse true for a minor key?

Joe Bonamassa has a song called Driving Toward the Daylight, Chords are Em, G, D, C, C/G, and A (according to https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/joe-bonamassa/driving-towards-the-daylight-chords-1151994. Can I just use Em pentatonic to solo over that? I'm not sure how that progression works or the theory behind it anyway.

TYIA,
Robb

 

[Paleo]

At first I thought this was going to be questions about progressions with only 2 chords.

Anyway, I'll see what I can come up with.

Fasten your seatbelt. There's gonna be some "serious" theory fun time ahead.

So under the standard harmony rule, I, IV, and V are major, ii, iii, and vi are minor. Is the inverse true for a minor key?

1) If you mean are the i, iv and v minor, yes. But, the Major chords aren't the II, III and VI. They are the III, VI and VII, while the ii is diminished.

Check this out.


Chords in G Major:

G Am Bm C D Em F#mb5 = I ii iii IV V vi viib5 (Major chords underlined, Em in bold)


For E minor (which is relative to G Major), just write out the same chords, starting from Em, then renumber them:

Em F#mb5 G Am Bm C D = i iib5 III iv VI VII


Same chords, but now G, C and D are the III, VI and VII and Em, Am, and Bm are the i, iv and v.

Each chord keeps its quality, but its number (function) changes.

Can I just use Em pentatonic to solo over that?

2) Checked out the link and only the instrumental has an A chord.

The chords Em G D C are all in Em (i III VII VI) so, yes, you can play E minor pentatonic/E Aeolian.

The key of Em has an Am chord. Making it Major in the instrumental raises the C to C#.

Raising the C to C# in the Em scale calls for E Dorian, i.e. a Major 6.

However, if you are playing E minor pentatonic you are ignoring the 6 anyway.

(But you might want to throw the 6 in instead of the b7, i.e the "Pentatonic 6" sound. )


So, yes, you can play E minor pentatonic over the whole thing.

Or, E Aeolian til you get to the instrumental where you would switch to E Dorian over the A chord.

I think.

 

[MikeS]

The short answer is yes you can play Em pentatonic over all the chords in Driving Towards The Daylight.
(Em G D C)

 

[david moon]

So under the standard harmony rule, I, IV, and V are major, ii, iii, and vi are minor. Is the inverse true for a minor key?

Joe Bonamassa has a song called Driving Toward the Daylight, Chords are Em, G, D, C, C/G, and A (according to https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/joe-bonamassa/driving-towards-the-daylight-chords-1151994. Can I just use Em pentatonic to solo over that? I'm not sure how that progression works or the theory behind it anyway.

TYIA,
Robb

in that chord chart I'm not sure if I agree with the slash chord C/G. If I was playing bass I would be on the C. The guitar has some sus going on in the C- maybe the third fret on second string. So a 9 or add2

 

[ronico]

Fasten your seatbelt. There's gonna be some "serious" theory fun time ahead.

I'll go make some popcorn! As usual Paleo, You rock! Thanks for the info, though it may take me a bit to embed it, before I ask any ?s and confuse myself.

 

[Robb H]

Wow, that's going to take some time to digest. Thanks for the responses. I hadn't received any notifications on responses so hadn't checked back until now.

I had asked b/c I had ideas of writing a song and liked the sound of that chord progression in Driving Toward the Daylight. I think it might be well past my abilities, as is songwriting.

 

[Paleo]

I hadn't received any notifications on responses

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