What are your favourite chord sequences/progressions?

[Bassoonery]

What a geeky title. Basically there are some pieces that have maybe just two or three bars of sublime harmony and chords that takes me to a whole new level when I play it. Beautiful chords; not necessarily clever or original but somehow they have a magic about them. This thread is for anyone to list some of the musical moments that are particularly magical, so we can all share and enjoy them, and maybe meet some new pieces!

There are so many but for me the three that jump to mind at the moment are:

Beethoven 5th piano concerto opening to slow movement
Chopin op42 Grande Valse 9-15 bars after the sostenuto (and repeated later)
Handel Suite 3, Double V, last 2 bars.

[sneekymum]

fav chord sequence - a Phrygian cadence

[Boneman]

Sounds like a new disease! Could you enlighten me please?

[reith]

Yes - you catch it from sitting about 3" too far to the right at the piano. The only way to excise it is to have a stereoectomy.

As to Bassoonery's question - I don't know. Usually some pleasant unusual sound appears in each piece and you know that you can only use it once there or it'll lose its magic. I did a nice perfect cadence on V11a-I9a recently. Gave the close a different ring, sort of.

Reith

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by reith

I did a nice perfect cadence on V11a-I9a recently. Gave the close a different ring, sort of.

Reith

I really wish I had stayed awake when we did that cadence! What notes are there in it Reith?

[sneekymum]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Sounds like a new disease! Could you enlighten me please?

Imperfect cadence ending on the dominant chord of the relative minor key.

e.g. in Cmajor we might go C,G7,C,C7..C,F,E (heartbreaking)

[Boneman]

Glad you wrote down the english version mumykeens! all that Imperfect etc lost me

[Will Kirk]

I like progressions that are rather non-typical

for instance, I IV V is the most typical progression out of all of them

whereas I like progressions such as

I II VI

I II III

V IV vii'

and the like

[reith]

Originally Posted by Boneman

I really wish I had stayed awake when we did that cadence! What notes are there in it Reith?

Uhhh, I must've nodded off. What cadence was that?

[ttw]

Some progressions have different uses than others. It would be useful to have a list of such.

Establish a key: I,V,I,V or I,vi,ii,V or I,vi,ii,V7 or I,ii,V7,I for example. Cadences: ii,I64,V7,I or Ge6,I64,V7,I or Fr6,V7,I or IV,V7,I or ii06,V7,i, etc.

Just moving along without going anywhere: I,IV,viii0,iii,vi,ii,V7,I (or all sevenths) or I,V7,vi,III(V7/vi),IV,I,ii,V7 or I,vi, IV, ii, viii0, V7.

There are others.