Cheers theme

thomasross20

I've done a cool fingerstyle arrangement of this to accompany vocals but I want to ask some questions regarding the underlying chords:

http://www.guitaretab.com/m/misc-soundtrack/26927.html

Looks to be in A major. 

What about this line: G F# Bm E - where does this come from? What parent scale/key? I'm sure it shifts to minor here. 

Also during the chorus: 

A G D E - the Gmaj doesn't fit but sounds great - explanation? 

Cheers!

Thomas

stimpsonslostson

Finger picking… pfffttt!

I have no idea what key it's in, but I couldn't let a post about the Cheers theme pass without sharing this.

thomasross20

lol

viz

It's basically a load of secondary dominants. The section you refer to is momentarily in Bm. It has a G just to facilitate slipping down to the F# which is the dominant of bm. Then B is the dominant of E. And finally, E (actually a Esus, then an E) is the dominant of A, the key of the song. (The reason it's bm not B major is because the whole song is in A major, which has bm as its supertonic chord.)

If you play 2nd fret on the bottom E string, it's the F#. Then keeping to the 2nd fret, play the A string, D string and G string. You get F#, b, E, A. So they're all dominants of the note above. (Recognise the circle of 5ths, starting at the bottom and working your way up anticlockwise, in 4ths?)

viz

The second section you refer to - not sure what you mean that it doesn't fit. Lots of songs go from the I chord to the VII chord a tone below. It's like the 2nd chord in that white stripes song, what's it called. And if you are a D-er in Sweet Home Alabama, that goes D, C, G. Quite normal

viz

Let's have a listen to your arrangement, that sounds cool.

thomasross20

Will read this later - I get you regarding there being many V-Is in there. So the G has no real place, it just slips into the F#.

Do you reckon when this was written that they thought about all this or that they played whatever sounded good!?

I'm loving my rendition but I only made it up last night and I don't want to record it without vox - will update when those are good enough (hope to do it at one of the next gigs!)

viz

Cool.

Regarding whether they knew the theory, who knows, it's a very natural and easy progression that falls easily to the ear, so you certainly don't need theory to be able to come up with it. 

The G to F# to bm is a bVI-V-i, which is almost a ii-V-I too, because the G can actually be considered a substite for a C# chord (C# to F# IS a proper secondary dominant). It's a bit like a 'tritone substition'. In this case it replaces the absent ii as though it were originally a ii-V-i progression, but it's the same general idea.

So actually in that section we are close to having 4 secondary dominants in a row. 

The other nice little nuance is that the phrase is in two repeated sub phrases. The G F# bm bm is very similar to the Esus4 E A A. The sus4 in the E replicates the major 3rd of the G.

thomasross20

OK bugger it, I just recorded it but it's VERY rough!!! 

It's not so much fingerstyle as it is accompaniment for vocals (which need serious work). 

I'm at the stage now where it's like "let's just get this out" - not d!ck around only to record perfect versions. 

Let me know what you think - will post it on the vox thread in OT, too. 

viz

Spot on!

thomasross20

Cheers! (Sorry lol)
Tritone sub's - yeah I remember that from reading the jazz theory book - thanks for the reminder!

viz

As well as this G in cheers, and the tritone, which gives a substitute for the V in a ii-V-I (or a V-I), there's also the neapolitan chord, which gives a substitute for the ii. It's actually the same chord as in the tritone, it's just the chord it replaces which is different. Interesting stuff

thomasross20

Neapolitan.... One step too far for me, and I prefer mint ice cream anyway