The VI and the VII appear naturally in every minor key and it’s why it appears in so many riffs based around the minor pentatonic scale. The VII harmony is also a great tool too.

If you know the pentatonic scale well, you’ll understand why this is so powerful. This is a great tool to use when creating rock chord progressions because it magnifies the minor 3rd interval relationship between the root and third note of the scale. Here again you’ll see the use of the III chord in the context of a minor key. This chord progression is from “Sweet Disposition” by Temper Trap in D Major:

A lydian scale: A – B – C# – D# – E – F# – G#.

E major scale: E – F# – G# – A – B – C# – D#.

Here’s another breakdown in case you don’t understand: This is all there is to using modes! To use any mode, just pick the key and start on a different chord than the root, which is E in this case. That’s because the chords all belong to the key of E major, and the progression starts on A major. Many R&B, Blues, and Country progressions will go up to 12 bars or more, but that’s not an aspect of this music.īut you also saw me mention that this progression is in A Lydian.

When writing indie chord progressions, or any rock music really, it’s a better idea to create riffs and progressions that are shorter. You’ll see only 4 bars here and 2 before. This progression comes from Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” and it’s in E Major/A Lydian:īefore we break this one down, take note of the amount of bars we’re using here and in the previous song. So experiment with these chords and see what works for you. It’s okay to use i, iv, and V! The problem is that you’re going to sound like pop, reggae, early rock n roll, or something brighter than you may want with Indie. This one is implying minor chords and throwing in the III chord, which is used quite a bit in rock music, particularly grunge. So like we said in the previous section, many chord progressions are looking to find sounds other than the typical combinations of I, IV, and V. F# minor scale: F# – G# – A – B – C# – D – E.To understand how these chords fit into this key, let’s break down the key signature: This is an important thing to understand with indie music and rock music as the minor chords will often give a sound you don’t want. The lowercase roman numerals denote minor harmonies, though the song is using power chords. Our first progression is from “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” in F# Minor, by the Arctic Monkeys: However we’ll go over many instances in detail throughout the rest of this article. Unfortunately there’s no set method of going about doing this as it depends on the context of the chord progression, the key, and the actual shapes being used.

They’ll also use chords that are not perfectly in the key of G major either like the A major chord or B major chord, for example.Īdding onto all of this is the use of chord shapes other than barre chords and basic chord shapes so they can use other combinations of intervals. What Indie music often does is use chords based off the ii (Am in the case of G major), the iii (Bm), or vi (Em). These chords are created by putting a major third and perfect 5th on top of the root note (G, C, or D).Īll of these notes come from the major scale we broke down, which follows the formula of whole steps and half steps: W – W – H – W – W – W – H. G major scale = G (W) A (W) B (H) C (W) D (W) E (W) F# (H) – G.Let’s briefly break down the G major key: To do this, it’s important to understand some basics of key signatures of musical harmony. To get this sound you need to start making chord progressions that don’t rely solely on the I, IV, or V chords as is common in blues and lots of rock music. Indie music can be seen as a blend of pop, punk, and rock. The Chords & Progressions Of Indie/Alternative Music I – I – I – I – vi7 – vi7 – IV7 – IV7 in E Major.I – I – V – V – IV7 – IV7 – I – I in B Major.The Chords & Progressions Of Indie/Alternative Music.

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