Saw VI
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I'm a musician, and I need to find out more about the music theory and what not…?
There are several questions that I could ask, but the only one that comes to mind is, what do people mean by common and uncommon chord progressions? For example, I saw one that was:
I-V-VI-IV, what does all that mean? Thank you if you can help. ^_^
mitch is right, but here is a little more detail.
"scale degree" refers to calling the 1st note of the scale "1" the second note "2" on up to "7" and then starting over again at "1"
we write scale degrees with these little marks on them when we are just talking about the single note
^ ^
1 2 … etc
we also use numbers to talk about intervals, notes a step apart are called 2nds, notes two steps apart are called 3rds.
so when we talk about chords we want to use numbers too, but we’ve already used regular numbers for two other things. so with chords we use roman numerals, this also lets us use uppercase and lowercase to show the quality (like major or minor) which we couldn’t do with normal numbers.
the most basic chord in music theory is a triad. a triad is built by starting on one note (called the root), then skipping a note to the 3rd above, and then skipping another note to the 5th above. so if you build a triad on scale degree 1 it will use the scale degrees 1,3,5, if you build one on scale degree 7 it will use the scale degrees 7,2,4
for naming these triads, we use the roman numeral that matches the root.
if you build a triad on scale degree 1, you will label it "I" (it’s major in a major key)
if you build a triad on scale degree 2, you will label it "ii" (it’s minor in a major key)
this system is for basing the name of the chord on how it fits into the key you are in, so the same exact chord will have a different roman numeral in different keys.
in C major, the chord CMaj = I
in F major, the chord CMaj = V
in D major, the chord CMaj = bVII
(on that last one, you have to use the flat because D major normally has C# so you have flatted scale degree 7 to make that chord, chords that only use notes in the scale are called "diatonic" so in D major, CMaj is "non-diatonic")
so, that pattern looks a little weird the way your wrote it because naturally the triad on scale degree 6 would be minor so i would expect I-V-vi-IV instead. Major VI is non-diatonic.
mitch’s explanation of chords "wanting" to go certain places is correct. as far as this being a "common" chord progression. if you play it on the piano, it will sound normal and familiar… but not as familiar as "I V vi iii IV I IV V" 
remember, if you are already a musician, theory is just learning words for stuff your ear already knows.
bka | Jan 29, 2010
A good resource for you would be www.musictheory.net.
It is all explained there with interactive help.
Malcolm D | Jan 28, 2010
"I" refers to the Tonic, usually the start and end of chord progressions.
"V" refers to the Dominant, basically the 2nd most important chord.
"IV" refers to the Sub-Dominant, another important chord. They’re all important tho. Depending on the chord progression. They each represent a scale degree, so there are 7 of them (and the 7 of them can have different qualities, but lets not get into that).
I-V-VI-IV (or I-V-vi-IV, which would make better sense) basically translates to moving from the Tonic, to the Dominant, to the Sub-Mediant, to the Sub-Dominant, and from there I would expect it to move to the Dominant again, followed by the Tonic. Lets say we are in the key of C Major, the chords would be C-G-Am-F.
Common chord progressions generally follow this pattern:
"I" can go anywhere.
"III" wants to go to "VI"
"VI" wants to go to "IV or II"
"IV or II" want to go to "V" or "VII"
"V" or "VII" want to go to "I"
So the example you gave follows it for the most part, but the V to VI strays a little bit from the pattern, but that’s alright, the pattern can sometimes work backwards, but it’s not very common.
So I hope that helps, if you still have questions, let me know! I love music theory 
Mitch | Jan 28, 2010
Ricky Savage