Vera "Not A Werewolf" Lycaon @Thaminga@awoo.space

isn't it amazing how Y2K was only 10 years ago

undead
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beastars legosi's dead

now imagine for a moment if I dumped all that information in a place where it can't be conveniently hidden behind the CW after you're done reading ​

Oh, before I forget: IVmin (extend to IVmMaj7 if you feel like it) makes for a great dominant chord, too. Not all that suitable for subdominant function unless you follow it up with a more standard dominant chord and can't really be moved around in the same way as the others unless extended, though.

But yeah. Even just sticking to diatonic I've found some fun stuff this way - from delightfully pop-sensible stuff (e.g. vi-I-IV-V and all of its rotations, vi-IV-iii-V likewise for something darker, and ii-V-I-vi specifically as a cool variation of the ol' rhythm changes) to some... spicier ideas (ex. IMaj - bVIMaj - IIImin - VMaj that's -technically- a sub for the four chords of pop, or IMaj - bIIIMaj - IVdim - VIImin to go the pseudo-Andalusian route).

I've been experimenting with this idea for a good-ass while now and I just keep finding more stuff this way, I swear.

Specifically this is all from the perspective of the major scale, even if you don't ever actually end up using the I chord (i.e. the end result isn't in major at all) in the process of all this - it just serves as a means of keeping track of which chord goes where.

That said, yeah - chord substitutions. Basically, you can just subdivide chords into a particular class that determines where in a given progression they would typically go; a la traditional functional harmony these would be tonic, subdominant and dominant, though I'll be using them kinda differently here - mostly because generally speaking the first chord in the progression, regardless of what class it's in will be the one that feels like 'home'. That said, the vast majority of progressions in popular music tend to be either tonic-tonic-subdominant-dominant (a la classical functional harmony, also the so-called '50s progression common in a lot of pop music from the mid-20th century), tonic-subdominant-tonic-dominant (a la the ol' Four Chords of Pop and its variations), and tonic-tonic-dominant-subdominant (a la the Andalusian cadence {sorta}, also employed in blues music and its direct derivatives).

Now, as to what goes where? The tonic chords are fairly straightforward - the diatonic ones are just IMaj, VImin and IIImin - the root notes of Ionian/major, Aeolian/minor and Phrygian respectively. Those aren't your -only- options however; personally I've found VIMaj and Imin do the trick just fine. IIIMaj not so much, though - more on that in a bit.

Next, the subdominant chords. Your primary options are IVMaj and IImin again, though this category is a pretty big and loosely defined one - it's only really defined by what it *isn't*. Here we see a rule of thumb that we'll also see back more definitively for the dominant chords, which is to say you can, for the most part, substitute these with their counterparts either a minor third (in either direction) or a tritone away; given that IV and II are already a minor third apart, this basically just means any major or minor chord on II, IV, bVI and VII. Augmented chords work well here, too - on any note at that, though given the fact they're technically on three degrees at once unless you venture outside 12 tone equal temperament (at which point basically all of this starts to fall apart anyway) that list exhausts all your options for those too unless you want to strictly define a root note for it through voicing. Other than that, if you're feeling -especially- weird... honestly, you can probably use literally anything that doesn't fit the bill for the other categories, but you'll have to play that by ear.

Finally, the dominant chords. VMaj and VIIdim diatonically, and six more options that while they don't have quite as much potential to feel like 'home' in a chord progression in spite of starting on them, will work just as well for the function's sake as far as I've been able to glean. Again, anything of the same chord quality that's either a minor third or a tritone away (the ol' tritone substitution) will work for this. This leaves you with VMaj, bVIIMaj, bIIMaj and IIIMaj, as well as VIIdim, IIdim, IVdim and bVIdim. Some of these will sound very familiar; of the major chords (often extended to dominant sevenths in practice) only IIIMaj isn't commonly used, and VIIdim and IIdim (often likewise extended to dim7 or m7b5) both have their place especially in older songwriting.

I suppose this same concept -does- hold up for tonic chords as well to some extent, but only if you ignore IIImin for the purpose (bIImin, Vmin and bVIImin don't exactly sound like tonic chords, lmao) and if you don't do this with the starting chord - there is a need to keep things rooted one way or another, here.

I suppose there's more systematic ways to go further still by extending stuff to seventh or even taller chords for instance, but I -really- haven't done enough research to go about explaining how to do that reliably for all this - shit's gloriously messy at the end of the day, and what really matters is what works, first and foremost. Even this doesn't exhaust every chord progression that sounds nice by a long shot (and indeed, some of them get pretty weird especially when you venture super deeply into chromaticism); it's just yet another system out of many.

as it turns out you can pretty much just take any familiar chord progression you like, substitute chords with whatever else works the same way (e.g. I with either vi or iii and vice versa, IV with ii and V with vii°, with far more possibilities if you're feeling spicy) and start from any place within that progression to get something that works the same way while having a *totally* different mood and feel to it

I may or may not have worked some of these out into a big txt file

keto toast sandwich

Shit, what kind of energy do I have anyway, while people are asking

groverfield

me: oh lord I could never be a mom, I have like no maternal instincts whatsoever
also my werewolf ass, fawning over pictures of wolf puppies: they're so tiny and fluffy I just want to pet them and keep them safe with me ;.;

me, living further north than even the vast majority of my Canadian friends: okay but where the fuck did the snow go, I feel cheated

(actually I know exactly where it went but ssssh)

like even just messing around in some pretty basic territory like relatively consonant EDOs that aren't 12 (e.g. 7, 10, 19, 22, 31, 41 and 53 if you're feeling spicy) there's some shit you can just -do- with these things that you really can't with ordinary tuning and vice versa - each system has its own features and limitation and it's really interesting to mess around with that and see what you get if you ask me

listening to microtonal music like "god some of this shit is genuinely pretty and unique but fuck if I didn't wish it was easier to actually make"

really, -really- need to just get off my ass and start drawing art again

maybe now that I've gotten some semi-decent sleep I can give that a shot today