Now, here’s the chord progression you gave us.

So, you said the chord progression is in the key of F major (AKA Ionian), which means the diatonic chords we can use are as follows: Fmaj, Gm, Am, B♭maj, Cmaj, Dm, Edim.

Besides, using the exact chords in this example isn’t important, as the lesson here is about non-diatonic chords, which you can then apply to any chord progression. We haven’t had time to listen to the song and double check your analysis, so we’ll just work with the information you’ve given us. Okay let’s get to the chord progression in your question now. By the way, non-diatonic notes are also referred to as chromatic notes, because the chromatic scale contains all 12 notes. So, all the notes of a diatonic chord are in the scale, but one or more notes of a non-diatonic chord are out of the scale. Simply put, diatonic refers to notes that are in the scale, and non-diatonic refers to notes that are not in the scale. Your chord progression can safely venture out of its scale by adding a non-diatonic chord, which is a chord that contains one or more notes from outside that scale, as long as that non-diatonic chord still contains at least one note from that scale.įirst, let’s just solidify the terms “diatonic” and “non-diatonic”. I’m wondering if you have any tips for how you would approach breaking the ‘rules’ in this way?” Thank you Knut, this is an advanced and awesome question, and you’ve already made some wise observations, so we’re excited to connect these dots for you, starting with our one-sentence answer: Now onto my question: The Dmaj and Emaj chords are outside of the scale, while the rest of the chords conform to it. I think that the song is written in F major (Ionian). I’ve determined the chords used to be Fmaj/A → Dmaj/A → Emaj/B → Dm → Emaj. The first part of this track mainly consists of a chord progression and a synth riff. Knut from the electronic music hub of Tromsø in Norway, emailed us with this question: “I’ve spent some time analyzing an old track from The Prodigy called ‘Out of Space’. How to Write a Chord Progression Using Chords Not in the Key

Chord progressions b flat major