The True Chords of The Black Parade

Have you ever looked at the chords to a song online and you check multiple places, but none of it seems quite right. Recently I was looking at a welcome to the Black Parade for reasons, and everywhere I looked, it had these chords. When I was a young boy, the father took me to the city to see emerging. And that's nice. It seems pretty close, but it doesn't seem quite right. It seems to be missing some of the emotional weight and nuance that I think this song has, at least in my memory. Now, is i

t possible that this phenomenon is psychological and I've built up the emotional weight of the song in my head? Yes. But I wanted to find out for sure. So join me as I take you through the steps I took to discover what was actually in the song, what the chords actually are. And spoiler alert those chords I just played the ones that everywhere you look online, it says, Those are the chords. I'm not quite right. All right. So let's start here. We are in the key of G. Major, and I'm going to need y

ou to be familiar with the concept of scale degrees, which is where you take your tonal center in this case, G and you call each note of that scale a number. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one. And if you're a singer, this will make a lot of sense to you. And I say that that one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one is for the very first latitude and chords are just made up of a group of those notes. Right. That means we can use the notes presence in the parts of the song to pars

e out what the chords actually are. And a chord built off of the first scale degree is a one chord. A chord built off of the second scale degree is a two chord. A chord builds off of the fourth scale, degree is a four chord, etc. So a one chord is made up of scale degrees one, three and five, and an inversion is when you have the same three notes one, three, five, but a different one other than one is in the bottom. So if you take that and put it up now we have three, five, one, it's the same th

ree notes, so it's the same chord. But now the three is in the bottom. So that would be the first inversion. Do that again. Now you have 513. Same three notes, same chord, different note in the bottom second inversion. So on the two chord we have two, four, six root position. Take that up and go for six two same notes, same chord, different note in the bottom first inversion. Does that make sense? Hey, if you need more information on inversions, go check out this video of mine anyway. Returning

to the chords in question of Welcome to the Black Parade. Everywhere you look online, it has those chords, which are a15 first inversions, 6541 first inversion fun. So how are we going to go about confirming whether or not those are correct or not? Well, we're going to hop in and look at the notes that are actually present. We start with the legendary, iconic piano motif. We can reasonably assume that all of the notes on the downbeat of this motif are the base notes of the chord progression, whi

ch is actually a really cool device called Element Base. Go check out this video for more information on that. And looking just at those base notes and following the conventions of a lament base, the chords that our Internet archive gives us are a reasonable extrapolation of what the chords would be. But that's looking just at the baseline. What about the other notes present? You know, like this one? This one. This one. Let's start by identifying what scale degrees would be present in the chords

given to us by the internet. We start on a14 and we know it's a one chord because it's a chord built off of the first scale degree. So it has scale degrees one, three and five. Then we go to a five in first inversion. We know it's in first inversion because the scale degrees are seven, two and five as you stacked those in order in thirds, you would get five, seven, two. So it's a five chord, but the seven is in the base, which makes it a first inversion. Moving on. Now, let's compare that to th

e scale degrees present in the main piano motif. 17365143625. Hi. So you see, there's a bunch of stuff here, right? In the first notes of the song that don't quite fit with what the internet says, the chords are. So let's hop back in and see what kind of other extrapolations and interpretations we can make that would be more accurate based off of what notes are actually present. The one chord is good, but we already have a discrepancy here when we get to the 5/1 inversion. We have the third scal

e degree here. It would make more sense to make this a three chord and second inversion. The six chord is good, but then we reach another discrepancy when we get to the five chord. We have a first scale degree here and the motif, which is probably implying this is not a five chord, but rather a one chord in second inversion. Then the fourth quarter is good. Another discrepancy follows with the one in first inversion. We have a sixth scale degree, which is probably implying this to be a six chord

in second inversion and then finishing it out, the two chord followed by the five, both looking A-OK. So let's compare one after another. Take a listen and see. Just based on the chords, which of these chord progressions sounds more like the song and maybe has a little bit more of the emotional weight and nuance that the song holds? I don't know about you, but I think the second example, you know, the one belt actually, half of the notes in the piano motif just has so much more melancholy and l

onging to it, which makes perfect sense considering the meaning and the story of the song. But we can't stop there. We have other musical information to look at. Let's take a look at the melody, the vocals. So I'll be singing this in Solfege, which, as a reminder in your scale degrees. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one. That corresponds to a latte, though there's lots of reasons why singing with solfege is preferable to singing with scale degrees. But that's for another day. Maybe ano

ther video for now. Just trust me. So do so. Don't use hold to do so too dirty last another day doubting herself. So once again, like with the motif, we have identified multiple discrepancies between the notes in the melody and the harmony. Oh, but, Maddie Gregg, aren't those passing tones and shouldn't actually be considered as part of the harmony? I think that this is a perspective rooted in institutional education. Just looking at sheet music and classical music and stuff like this, the truth

is chords are made across all of the instruments within a piece. And if a note is sticking around long enough in any given place, your ear will hear it as part of the harmony. It is an integral part of the flavor and color of the piece. Instigate keep that information and the actual harmonic material present in the piece behind, I don't know, sheet music literacy or the ability to just hear things by ear and transcribe by ear. That is an elitist perspective. If you ask me and I say no, it is pa

rt of the harmony. And of course you can use your best judgment contextually to say this one actually is a passing tone and I don't hear it as part of the harmony versus other parts where you say, Hey, actually that note to me sounds like it's actually part of the chord. And I think others even non-musicians, listening to the differences of these chords we're exploring into this video, would agree they are an integral part of the harmonic material, an integral part of the song. And if you want t

o fight about it, well, then you can go to the comments section of this video. Moving on, the one chord is looking good and then this seventh scale, the the T happens just like a 16th note before we change. So we can reasonably attribute that to the three chord that follows. And the same is true of the seven going up to the one right before the six chord. But then we land here on the fifth scale, agree, and we stay there for a bit, which makes me want to call this a six minor seven chord, and th

en we get to the one chord. In the second version, we have a bunch of tones to look at here. Luckily, we make our way to the four. Everything's all good. So going back to the 1/2 version, this is one of those moments where I'm going to use my best judgment to say that I think this seven is influencing the harmony more than the six here. The seven feels like part of the harmony, and the six feels just like a passing tone to me for multiple reasons, one of which being that we hit it twice in quick

succession and stay on it. It feels like it has an amount of weight to it right? Secondly, using my ear, I believe that adding a seven to this harmony, making it a one major seven and second inversion sounds more accurate to the song than adding a six to the harmony, making it a one add six in second version note. I think this is better the four, which is all good. Then when we get to the sixth and second version, looking at the way that the seven is comfortably between two notes that are prese

nt in our chords, I'm inclined to call that a passing tone. Plus, I don't think adding it to the harmony makes it sound more akin to the song. And then when we land here on the two chord, everything feels good. And as no vocals tell us on the five. So now it sounds like this getting pretty close. I'd say Nice. Now let's compare and contrast with the vocals again to see how the emotional weight of the song changes with these new chords that we have determined, then analyzed. When goes through you

the took to the city to see marching with us so the song took you to cities to see night and day. I think these are the nuances and our favorite songs that really make the difference and make them special to us. The heart of the songs is in these subtle nuances, or maybe they're not so subtle. I mean, these are pretty large harmonic changes to what we were finding online. So for several verses, this is exactly the chords that we are hearing. That's what's present. But then even more information

comes in. Now we get the snare mark coming in with this awesome guitar line. Thanks to Frank and Rick giving me a song each 30 days. I mean, this is just a perfectly composed counter melody to the vocal melody. Notice how both the piano line and the vocal melody kind of are moving in a downwards direction while this counter melody is moving in an upwards direction. That's some really awesome contrary motion. Hey, for more information on voice leading and motion within a piece, go check out this

video of mine. The other cool thing about this counter melody is it kind of jumps out and becomes more active. Just when the vocal melodies dipping down and becoming less active, they're trading. It's great. Maybe I should make a counter melody one on one video using NCR as an example. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in that? Anyway, let's take a look at how that new guitar kind of melody changes the harmony. Everything is all good on the one chord. And then we hit this that sec

ond scale degree on our 3/2 version, which changes this to a five and six in first and version. Things are lining up nicely on the six and the one major 7/2 version. But then when we get to our four chord, the guitar counter melody is playing scale degrees to five, neither of which are in this chord. So putting it all together, we're not really hearing just a four chord. They're really hearing a four, six, nine chord. That's just lovely. Anyway, this third scale degree can be interpreted as an a

nticipation of the six segment version. Therefore, I don't think it really changes the harmony after that. When we hit hard to chord, we have scale degrees four, three, one, a three in one hour outside of our core. Then they could be seen as passing notes encircling our target node of the second scale degree, getting us to the five chord where we're all good. Or they could be seen as changing the harmony so you don't hear it just as a regular two, you might be hearing it as a two minor nine, whi

ch does resolve very nicely two or five chord. You could also just play it as a regular two seven, which was nicely to our five chord. I actually enjoy the simplicity of reducing down from the four, six nine to the six minor seven in second inversion to a regular two chord. I like the way that simplifies down. I think it reflects the emotional content of the piece. Okay. Well, we've come a pretty far cry from those original Internet chords, right? I mean, these extrapolated, like basic lament ba

sed chords kind of sound like cheesy classical, right? Whereas these new ones have such new ones to them. Right? This one, this is probably my favorite. Oh, that six. Nine is so good. A four, six, nine. Wow. So good. But then the way it kind of backs off gets simpler at the end. Here, return it to just a25. It's almost like the calm before the storm, like the moment of quiet reflection you have before returning to the origin. Grand nuance of these chords, right? For me, it represents this concep

t that even though these big Grand Forks Grand chords, massively poignant experiences we're having, at the end of the day, they're very intimate and personal to us, just our memories, you know. And I love that they grow. I love that when it's just the piano motif, these certain chords are implied. But then when the vocals come in, it adds to it. And then when everything else comes in, it grows and blossoms and blooms into this even larger affair. It really does feel like it's representative of w

hat it's like to reach for and reflect on the memories and experiences you've had. Right. Like it starts as very interesting and then you start to explore it in your mind and remember and realize and feel how deeply poignant and personal and formative these experiences are. You know, that childhood, that nostalgia when your father took you to the city, it's at first you think, Oh, what a nice memory. And then you start to realize how deeply it affects you. These chords is the perfect representat

ion. It's such a lovely way to handle the telling of the story through song. And it might also explain why it feels like it holds such emotional weight and depth to us. The listener. So yeah, it turns out it wasn't psychological. It wasn't in your head. Those original chords we found on the Internet, they were not right. They weren't quite there. They did not accurately hold or represent the emotional weight of the song. Let's listen again to the difference between where we started and where we

ended up. After much analysis with food. The soon to be too soon to see versus windows to the sun. Certainly to the city to see. Much. The difference is night and day, if you ask me. And now we know the true chords of the black parade. So bringing it all the way back to the beginning, if I was going to play this on acoustic guitar, I would play it like this. When I news food, the food serving me to serve, to soothe much and the. So there you go. Thank you so much for watching and for sticking wi

th me. I hope you learned something. Please let me know what you thought down in the comments like share, subscribe. All that stuff. It really helps to channel growth so I can just make more content like this. And if you like MCO and live music, put July 15, 2023 on your calendar. My band has been doing a series where we play beloved albums front to back live in New York City. And on July 15th we are doing The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. We're going to try to get a free livestream up as

well. So be on the lookout for that and I hope to see some of you there. Otherwise, if you'd like to support me further, you can check out my patron. You can sign up to take private lessons with me. And again, thank you so much for watching. My name is Matty Greg and I hope you learn something today that you can take with you and use in your own music.