Chord progression in E major key

Question by Eddie

Question: I'm a green hand. I've just started reading and studying songwriting theory on this website.

I've made a simple chord progression in E major key but I have a problem here.

E / B / C#m / A
E / B / D / A
E / B / C#m / A
E / B / D / Bsus4 B

There's a 'D' on second line and fourth line, between dominant chord B and subdominant chord A. But there shouldn't be 'D' in E major scale.

I'd like to know if there can be 'D' as it sounds not bad.

If there can be, what's the scale of the progression?

Answer

Hi Eddie,

The first "rule" of songwriting is... if it sounds good, use it! Allow yourself plenty of room for intuition.

The guitar chord progressions section is still expanding and, as mentioned in some of the lessons, the idea is that you'll eventually only use that scale as a foundation to build on.

Clearly, you've been experimenting independently, and that's great because you've found a movement that works outside that foundation scale and supports the other relationships we've learned.

That D major chord does indeed work, and it's a relationship I will be covering in a future lesson entitled "backdoor progressions".

That D major chord could be seen as a bVII in relation to the scale we've looked at.

I really like how you move from D to Bsus4. A really effective use of the dominant (V) position.

So, in summary, please don't restrict yourself to what's been taught so far in the songwriting section. There's much more to come and it sounds like you're one step ahead with all this so well done!