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I am working out the chords to a ballad in C.
At one point I have a bar starting out with a D chord which changes to an F in the next bar. There is a passing note in the bass on the 4th beat of the D chord bar, the passing note is E.
I have a D chord above the passing note, but it doesn't sound quite right. I believe there is a passing chord above the E bass that would sound better, but I can't find it.
The section looks like this:
Am............Am/E..D..........D/E..F..........G............
The bass is exactly what I want. I need a better chord above it to get from the D chord to the F chord.
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My first suggestion is:
Am/E
The passing chord from the previous bar. Worth a try. I think it sounds ok, although D/E isn't that bad either. So:
Am............Am/E..D..........Am/E..F..........G............
Another possibility is Bm/E
Bm being the relative minor of D. Of course, if you don't like D/E than you might not like Bm/E either.
Have you considered Em? It's a simple enough solution.
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Thanks, pinglis
The Am/E is very close to what I want. Closer than the D/E.
The D/E wasn't bad, I was just hearing a chord change in there also. It is a particular chord sound I am looking for.
The Em is just a bit too chromatic.
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If you're in the key of C, then wouldn't the D be minor?
In any case, you could try C/E.
ROG.
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How about, Am............Am/E..D..........Em..F..........G............
--Mac
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ROG -
C/E works well in BIAB, I may go with that. It didn't work so well on the keyboard where I was trying to work on it. For some reason I never tried the C in BIAB.
D chords ( II ) are not that unusual in C. The VII chord is common in rock music and V7 is very common. All have accidental notes.
Mac -
An Em7 seems to work in BIAB also. I think getting the right inversion has a lot to do with it.
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C/E didn't sound quite so good to me, but I think it depends on the style. It's almost the same as Am/E so it would definitely work - maybe you're getting a better inversion.
As for D instead of Dm - it seems to me that D is a little more interesting. D is the "V of V" chord in C - in other words D is the V chord in G major and G is the V in C major, so there's definitely a case for using it.
It also adds a little tension because of the F# in the D chord moving to the F (natural) in the F chord.
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Rather than the "five of five" view, I prefer the one of simply relizing that the F# in the D chord is the Flat Five of the key of C.
--Mac
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