Avoiding the Tonic Chord: A Subtle Energy Builder

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Song energyThe overall energy map of a successful song is a line that looks like a stock market chart: over time, lots of ups and downs, but hopefully mostly in an upward direction. Music where the energy constantly builds without the normal ebb and flow are rare; Ravel’s Bolero is the only one that comes immediately to mind. So as composers of music, we’re always looking for good ways to build energy. One way that you can build energy in a subtle way is to create chord progressions that avoid the tonic chord.

The tonic chord is the chord that represents the key of the song. If your song is in F major, F is the tonic chord. Typically, all chords will act like steps that move away from and toward the tonic chord. You’ll often think of progressions that start on F and end of F, like these ones:

F  Gm  Bb  C  F
F  Bb  Dm  C  F
F  Dm  Gm  C  Dm  Bb  C  F

From an energy-level point of view, chord progressions start at a low energy (on the tonic chord), and energy builds as listeners sense that the tonic chord is being approached again.

The longer you delay that return to the tonic chord, the more (usually) the energy builds. Listeners feel a certain release of energy when the tonic chord makes its reappearance. We know its coming, particularly as we approach the dominant chord (the chord built on the 5th note of the key), and that knowing is what builds up energy.

So you can use this energy by creating progressions that avoid that tonic chord. If you want to build a lot of energy, keep focusing on the dominant chord, as listeners practically scream out that they want to hear the tonic.

But you can be more subtle than that. Try using progressions that focus on other chords – ones built on the 2nd, 6rd, 4th and 6th degrees of the scale you’re using.

Here are some progressions that help to subtly build song energy by avoiding the tonic chord:

KEY- F major:

  1. Gm  C7  Gm  C7  Dm  Bb  C  Dm
  2. Dm  C/E  Bb/D  Am  Gm  Am  Bb  C
  3. Dm  Bbmaj7  C  Am  Bbmaj7  C  Gm  Am

In a way, these kinds of progressions make strong harmonic suggestions of being in the relative minor key (particularly #2 and 3). But if you closely examine the progressions, you’ll actually see that they’re more reminiscent of the kind that feel like they want to move to F major, mainly due to the positioning of the dominant chord (C) near the end.

These are great progressions to use in verse melodies, because their avoidance of the tonic chord makes them “fragile” (somewhat tonally ambiguous). So you’ll build a good amount of tonal energy as your verse progresses.

Switching then to strong progressions in the chorus, that do feature the tonic chord, will work extremely well. They’ll make your chorus feel like the natural answer to the verse you’ve written.

Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website.
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3 Comments

  1. Hi,

    I have been using your techniques Gary in my songs – i bought the downloadable books a while ago – and have found them very useful.

    One of my most recent songs (in the Key of G) completely avoids the tonic until it gets to the chorus, it is used sparingly in the bridge/break/middle8 section. Chords are:

    Verse: Em – D – Am – C
    PreChorus: Em – C – Em – D (here the D rings outs…..where is that G?)
    Chorus: G – D – C – Em – D – Am – C

    FYI the song is aiming for an epic/anthemic feel in the chorus. The verses kind of chug along, for want of a better word, and slowly the energy builds in the pre-chorus until the chorus explodes the song into life.

    I like using a pre chorus for some of my songs to build the energy especially when the chorus has a strong hook.

    Gary what are your thoughts on the following? Say for instance the song is in a major key and the bridge section switches to using chords from the natural minor key of the major key? I have used this in a couple of songs and it works rather well, especially if the last part of the bridge falls back to the V chord of the major key.

    Great website and excellent books.

    Cheers,
    Paul (England)

  2. This is something I have yet to be able to do. Very hard. I think my favorite example of a song that avoids the tonic is Rhiannon, by Fleetwood Mac. Great song with great tension — all backed by one of the best rhythm sections ever.

    • Hi Jeff:

      Yes, a good example. It does give us the tonic chord (C) at various times, but it’s always meant to brighten up the pervading feel of Am. Much of the song dwells around Am, but mostly in a way to avoid giving us C.

      Thanks for writing,
      -Gary

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