The Chords That Should Not Work: Pop's Harmonic Rule Breakers

Piano Key A to G

Following on from last week’s episode, I had in my mind the idea of discussing unusual chord progressions in pop music: modern pioneers that pushed the boundaries of what was permissible to listen to. In this week’s podcast, let’s pick three perfectly eccentric examples of harmonic oddity in popular music classics, analyse their content, and speculate on how they get away with it! Following a brief reminder of David Bowie’s ‘Changes’, we’ll look at the following:

Wuthering Heights Kate Bush

Lay Lady Lay Bob Dylan

Mad About The Boy Noel Coward/Dinah Washington

Please write in to the podcast if you have other examples you think merit a mention - there are many - we just picked three here to keep the show short!

For more information: whaviland.com/podcast

Happy piano playing/learning!