2.2 Make Longer Progressions
When you listen to even a handful of Japanese songs, longer progressions is probably the first thing people notice as they aren’t use to it.
In the majority of Western music, the songs are based on a 3 or 4 chord progression that keep looping. They may change up the progression during the chorus or bridge, but it still generally sticks to a handful of chords and 1-3 variations of those chords. For example, C major→F major→G major in the verse, then F major→G major→C major in the pre-chorus, then C major→G major→F major→C major, in the chorus.
The song below, “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendez is a great example.
The verse repeats a vi-V-IV loop, then chorus is vi-V-IV-I, and the bridge is vi-V-I-IV.
That’s not to say no songs change it up, of course they do! As we saw in the last chapter, The Beatles are a great example of a band that isn’t afraid to challenge the norm. But the majority of bands will stick to the tried-and-true method of just repeating chords in a section, or even the whole song! “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billie Ray Cyrus only has two chords, and that repeats throughout.
In Japanese music, however, Marty Friedman says it best when he states that ‘Japanese music is more of a story, a journey, from beginning to end’. A single progression may use 8 or 12 chords before looping again, if it loops again.
And of course, there are some Japanese songs that use the tried-and-true method of 3-4 chord song loops, like One OK Rock, but I find a lot of the popular songs in Japan are definitely more creative with their progressions. I find when I listen to a new song, it does make me feel a certain way, but it does take a few more listens to really get used to the sound and flow of the song cause it’s hard to remember something that doesn’t repeat much.
A lot of common Japanese progressions don’t focus on the I, which would normally give one a good sense of resolution before looping through the pattern again. Rather, Japanese music plays around quite a bit with chords and creates this uneasy floating feeling where you really don’t know where you’re going next, and that’s a big reason why they love starting or ending with the IV chord as we saw in the previous chapter. You can’t predict it the same way you could a Western song that loves the resolution of the I chord.
Remember this as we go through the rest of this course. Even if we may start with a basic 4 chord progression, we can always add a totally different 4 chord progression right after to make a longer 8 chord progression. You can then put together a totally different 8 chord progression to finish off the verse or chorus. There’s no need to repeat or for things to get predictable.
I could name so many songs that utilize this, but definitely listen to these to start and get your ears more comfortable with this concept. If you really want to make Japanese-sounding music, you need to get out of the mindset that songs should be repetitive and predictable. Force yourself to add more chords and make longer progressions, and you’re well on your way to making more unique and interesting music!