Omnibus/Chromatic Chord Progressions

[Chlysm]

This is something that intrigued me ever since I heard the Ocean Loader 2 theme. I always wondered how they got that fantasyscape like sound without resorting to something cliche' like a 2 tone scale (i.e. Original Star Trek Theme, Come Sail Away). So I picked it a part and analyzed the chords.

Generally speaking it follows a progression of Bb/Bsus4, F/Fsus4, Ab/Fm, Cm/Csus4 and the notes within those chords to make it chromatic are Bb, A, Ab, G.

Trying to find information about this technique seems to be difficult as it mostly seems delegated to Jazz making it somewhat obscure. Another term I found for this was called an Omnibus progression, but the examples I've seen all ascend rather than descend so I don't know if that makes a difference.

 

I've also done some experimenting myself and there is alot you can do with this IMO. I even made my own song following a similar chord progression (link).

 

I'm not that well versed in Theory so I'm interested in hearing some educated insight on this.

 

[Nabeel Ansari]

Firstly, can you rewrite the progression? The way you wrote it doesn't really indicate a chord progression. I thought you were writing slash chords "bass note/top chord" but then you wrote "Cm/Csus4" which doesn't make much sense. Do you mean by "/" you don't know which of those two it is?

Beyond that, this chord progression isn't anything complicated.The only noteworthy thing that distinguishes it from regular plain old harmony is between the 2nd and 3rd chord which seem to be F major to F minor. It's common in fantasy/sci-fi type harmonies to use a major chord and then a minor chord right after. This change right here is probably what caught your ear; the rest of it is fairly simple.

Here's a cool technique you can try:

("^7" means major 7th chord and "m7" means minor 7th chord) 

C^7 -> Cm7 -> B^7 -> Bm7 -> Bb^7 -> Bbm7 -> A^7 ->... and so on. Pretty neat trick to get a very long progression that continuously changes the tonality. It's basically the same chord change, but the 7th is also changing along with the 3rd. You'll notice it simply can be seen as "lower the 3rd and 7th, then lower the 1st and 5th, then lower the 3rd and 7th, then lower the 1st and 5th" etc. etc.).

Or, instead of continuing it, Just throw one or two of them into a regular progression. It's a good way to "shift", and that shift is the same shift you hear between what you label " F/Fsus4" and "Ab/Fm".

[Chlysm]

On 12/29/2015 at 0:30 PM, Neblix said:

Firstly, can you rewrite the progression? The way you wrote it doesn't really indicate a chord progression. I thought you were writing slash chords "bass note/top chord" but then you wrote "Cm/Csus4" which doesn't make much sense. Do you mean by "/" you don't know which of those two it is?

 

The slashes in this case indicate that the chords briefly alternate to the Sus4 or it's relative minor for a half note and then returning back to the major chord and then going to the next one.

(example. Each chord = half note)

*Bb Key*===================================*Ab Key*======================================
(Bb),(Bb),(BbSus4),Bb |(F),(F),(FSus4),(F) | (Ab),(Ab),(Fm),(Ab) | (Cm),(Cm),(Csus4),(Cm) 


The suspended chords aren't 100% essesntial to the 'feel' of the song. The effect can be achieved by picking any major progression and playing the I and V chords, then dropping a whole step to play the chords I, and vi in that progression

You can even try a I & iii (drop a whole step) then I iii(sus4)/vii(sus4).

 

 

 

The key change what sets it off for me. It seems like it adds alot of character to the song. In some ways, it does depend on how you look at it. In the un remixed version, the song starts out with a chromatic descend using the following notes, (Bb, A, Ab, G) and these notes are utilized in the chords of the main harmony. Plus you can another chromatic progression during the half time of the song Which essentially leads me to believe that this song was written around a chromatic progression.

The other way to look at it is like you said, the Fm (or Ab) key change in a key that would otherwise entirely in Bb.

You'll have to forgive me if I'm not making sense initially as I'm not formally trained if you hadn't guessed already.

 

 

 

 

Quote

Beyond that, this chord progression isn't anything complicated.The only noteworthy thing that distinguishes it from regular plain old harmony is between the 2nd and 3rd chord which seem to be F major to F minor. It's common in fantasy/sci-fi type harmonies to use a major chord and then a minor chord right after. This change right here is probably what caught your ear; the rest of it is fairly simple.

Here's a cool technique you can try:

 

("^7" means major 7th chord and "m7" means minor 7th chord) 

C^7 -> Cm7 -> B^7 -> Bm7 -> Bb^7 -> Bbm7 -> A^7 ->... and so on. Pretty neat trick to get a very long progression that continuously changes the tonality. It's basically the same chord change, but the 7th is also changing along with the 3rd. You'll notice it simply can be seen as "lower the 3rd and 7th, then lower the 1st and 5th, then lower the 3rd and 7th, then lower the 1st and 5th" etc. etc.).

Or, instead of continuing it, Just throw one or two of them into a regular progression. It's a good way to "shift", and that shift is the same shift you hear between what you label " F/Fsus4" and "Ab/Fm".

 

 

I'll definitely give it a shot. I've been going through a phase trying unorthodox progressions and my own personal variants of chromatic chord progressions seems to produce a jazzy sound which I don't have much experience with. But I really like the direction these experiments are taking me musically. When I wrote my song built around chromatics (in my previous post) it was really one of those moments when the song seems like it's writing itself. and it's so different from anything else that I've made which makes it even more unbelievable. 

This is another song where I think similar is going on, but more complicated.

 

 I world really like to pick this song apart one day, but have no idea who wrote this. I recorded it years ago off of my Commodore Amiga. I'm starting to think it might be Jeroen Tel (who went by several psuedonyms that I don't recall), but his style was unique, Anyway, I suspect there might be something similar going on. Without trying to match the chords my best guess for the body of the song is that he's alternating between Major chords, and dropping down using a Sus(2/4) chords. (i.e. Dsus4 - Csus4 - C). There is probably alot more to it considering the various parts of the song, but I think the song is probably based around a progression like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nabeel Ansari]

I hear almost no chromatic motion in that song. :/ I should point out that recognizing chromatic voices in your chords is not the same thing as figuring out what that chord progression is or how it functions. You can have chromatic voice leading and it can be completely incidental and innocuous (or it can define the emotion). It's not enough to say "I see chromatics in here, there's something fancy going on". All that you can tell from chromatic voices appearing is that something non-diatonic is happening, but as far as what, it can be a range of things, and is case by case.

In the case of your first song, it is a change from F major quality to F minor quality. The second song doesn't have any such change. Even if you hear chromatics in there, it's not the same chord change and doesn't function the same way. At least, from what i heard, I listened to it like once. Provide timestamps and I can listen again.

[Chlysm]

Here is the beginning of the Original Ocean Loader. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njTxV8blffc&feature=youtu.be&t=47s

 

And then the end https://youtu.be/njTxV8blffc?t=3m38s

 

The original hangs on the chromatics alot more. Even if it's not a chromatic progression. I feel like the composer picked the 4 notes and then chords to go with them.

 

As for the second song. I haven't really taken the time to figure out by ear. I didn't say that it followed the same exact idea but something similar perhaps like just dropping a whole step then playing in that key. Either way I doubt the song is soley played in one key.