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Plagal progressions (pop/rock harmony) |
This page is based on a resource created by Bryn Hughes (CC BY–SA).
The IV chord, while certainly an extremely frequent predominant/subdominant chord in common-practice repertoire, has an even more prominent place in pop/rock music. Perhaps borne out of the 5-6 neighboring motion found in shuffle-blues guitar accompaniment patterns, an alternation between I and IV is a common occurrence in numerous genres.
In "Soul Man" by Sam and Dave, the chord progression used in the verse consists of an alternation of I and IV (listen carefully to the bass).
<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:067BMq0jBm7AGaxmiizwCr" width="300" height="80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>A similar oscillation between I and IV can be found in the verse to "In the Midnight Hour" by Wilson Pickett.
<iframe width="300" height="240" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FGVGFfj7POA?rel=0" frameborder="0"> </iframe>This kind of chord progression isn't limited to Soul and R&B, of course. The beginning of "After The Gold Rush" by Neil Young features a similar progression (it deviates after the the words "...drummers drummin..." Also, note the discrepancy between the melody notes and the chords throughout).
<iframe width="300" height="240" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1e3m_T-NMOs?rel=0" frameborder="0"> </iframe>The "double-plagal" progression (Walter Everett's term) is an expansion of the plagal progression discussed above to include the "IV/IV" chord prior to the IV chord. This is perhaps more simply explained as bVII-IV-I (or simply VII-iv-I in minor). The most famous instance of the double-plagal progression is likely the coda from "Hey Jude" by The Beatles:
<iframe width="300" height="240" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eDdI7GhZSQA?start=185" frameborder="0"> </iframe>The "applied IV" chord can be used in sequence, similar to the descending-fifths progression in common-practice music. In the version of "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix, the verse consists of three iterations of the plagal motion in a descending-fourths pattern, which results in the progression: bVI-bIII-bVII-IV-I, in the key of E major.
<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:3VMMmMR4IYL28n7oKHyUoD" width="300" height="80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>