My Color Music

So I heard there’s a new Muppet movie coming out. Apparently, Jason Segel—best known for his work in “Knocked Up”—is a huge Muppet fanatic. Which is why he signed on to star with Kermit and friends on the big screen.

And it has got me thinking … which Muppet would you want to be? I know, I know, it’s an obvious question. But an important one—because your answer says a lot about you. For all you Elmos and Beekers out there, I’d personally choose Animal … the drummer in the Muppet’s band, “Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.”

Sure, Dr. Teeth is cool because he plays the piano. But Animal definitely knows how to rock on those drums. Plus, he’s got some pretty sweet hair. It’s true.

You know, nothing says “summer” like the song “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis. It’s a great melody, but the video might be even better. I can’t explain the sudden mood lighting … or the reason Lewis keeps looking at the ceiling. But, hey, that doesn’t matter:

In our last song, “Pachelbel’s Canon,” we added even more chords to a progression to create some very cool sounds. By rearranging the major scale pattern, we ended up with something beautiful. And it’s a simple trick, really. All we did was take a few major and minor chords, switch them around a bit, and voilà! Like magic, we made something totally new out of an old, familiar pattern.

Of course, this isn’t magic at all … and nothing about it is random. Like everything else in music, there’s a simple logic to things. And with Color Music, we can see exactly what we’re doing. As it turns out, the colored notes reveal the natural flow between chords. Seriously … it’s sweet.

For example, can yousee how each measure of “Pachelbel’s Canon” passes between two, closely-related chords? Well, this kind of movement is really common in songs. In fact, if we go a little further, we can even rearrange all the chords … so that each one follows the color wheel sequence from the circle of fifths. Like a pleasant stroll through the color spectrum, this progression is pure bliss.

In the key of C, for example, notice how the root notes of each chord are rearranged in a circle-of-fifths pattern. because it has such a smooth flow, this kind of “circle progression” shows up in music all the time.

By cycling through these chords again and again, we can create some very cool progressions. And, of course, musicians have many other options to choose from. But a general “formula” for chord movement tends to look like this:

Jumping around between these different chords, we can move in a variety of ways. But this general “roadmap” shows us how songs typically lead toward the tonic chord (I)—from left to right. Eventually, we always return to the tonic (I) … our home sweet home.

To get a feel for the movement of chords in each key, try playing through the following progressions. Starting at each separate tonic (I), we can easily bounce from one chord to the next … gradually making our way back to the same tonic chord (I). As you play, try hitting each chord with both your left and right hands. After a little practice, you’ll be well on your way to building bigger and better songs.