Combo vamps
Dorian also has longer vamps. Not too long, but 3-4 chords is a sweet spot for Dorian. Rock music expectially likes to do these longer vamps (and glue those longer vamps to turnarounds).
Before we begin, let me introduce a concept to help simplify the examples we’re about to see:
The Substitution Principle in Dorian Many Dorian chords sound like "two sides of the same coin":
i7 ↔♭IIImaj7 (tonic colors)♭VIImaj7 ↔ii7 v7 ↔♭VIImaj7 (this one is key in this lesson)IV7 ↔vi7♭5
And so what this means is that a lot of the vamps below will be substitutes for one another as well - think, same fundamental energy, different variant. Notice how much of the energy is shared, and how much is different - this is a key aspect of harmonic fine-tuning when making choices in Dorian.
Here’s what I see as the high level view of the most common moves. Notice how most of these are fundamentally interplay between the
Rising energy progressions:
- The rising vamp:
i7 -ii7 -♭IIImaj7 -IV7 - The rocking chair:
i7 -ii7 -♭IIImaj7 -ii7
Three-chord power falls:
- The
♭VII -IV drop::i7 -♭VIImaj7 -IV7 - The
v -IV drop:i7 -v7 -IV7
Four-chord power falls:
- “Heat Waves” vamp:
i7 –♭VIImaj7 -v7 -IV7 - “Heart Skips” vamp:
i7 -v7 -♭VIImaj7 -IV7
^ These are the three-chord power falls but expanded with internal motion between a
Launched vamps:
- "Radioactive" vamp:
i -♭III -♭VII -IV - "Get Lucky" vamp:
i -♭III -v -IV
^ These are the three-chord power falls with an added
There are tons of variations here; for example, Sowing Season by Brand New extends the
And there are some other interesting patterns that aren’t common enough for me to describe here; one pretty simple but unusual vamp happens in the verse of 15 Step by Radiohead: