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Chord Progression/Key issues


Necrox
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One night, I was messing around and came up with this progression I'm really fond of, but I have no idea how to lead it into a key to expand on it. I say lead into because there are too many notes for it to fit into one key.

 

It goes Em Eaug Gmaj (5th inv down) Bmaj (3rd/5th inv down) D#min F#maj A#min (3rd/5th inv down) C#maj

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You could classify the first 4 chords under some sort of E minor scale as Em, G and B are part of the E harmonic and melodic minor scale. The outstanding chord here is the G#aug which includes two common notes with E minor: C and E. The G# is borrowed from E Major and creates an unusual kind of tension.

The last four chords are simply a ii, IV, vi, I progression in C# Major.

 

To conclude, when you write a melody over these chords you can use E harmonic/melodic minor for the first half and C# Major for the second half. You can't go wrong by targeting 3rds and 7ths of each chord.

 

Hope that helps!

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Actually E aug. My bad

 

So that gives us the notes E G# B# (enharmonically: C). Considering the rest of the chords from the first half of the progression that are derived from the E harmonic minor scale, we can create a hybrid scale: the E minorMajor scale - E F# G G# A B C C# D D#. These notes will sound good if used with the right amount of taste over the progression.

To be safe or to give your composition a different flavour, you can use a different scale over each chord. For example:

Em - E melodic minor

Eaug - E Phrygian Dominant

GMaj - G Lydian

BMaj - B Phrygian Dominant

etc

 

There's plenty of room for experimentation in chord progression like this! 

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