“Good Thing” by the Fine Young Cannibals features the unique chord progression D-F-Am-G. As a whole, this progression doesn’t fit into a major scale. There’s no key that has two major chords a minor third apart like D-F. But the roots of the chords fit nicely into a minor pentatonic scale. D-F-A-G are the first four notes of D minor pentatonic (D-F-G-A to be more specific). Play the guitar pentatonic patterns over the progression and you’ll hear that they fit well. Notice that the vocal melody focuses on these same scale pitches too.
Later in the song you hear key changes with the chords Em-A and F#m-B. You can think of these changes as ii-V in D and E.
Interesting stuff. In the website http://www.harmony.org.uk, the author has a section about popular music and discusses “blues-modal” harmony. Early rock musicians were experimenting with major chords where traditionally a minor chord would be; probably to give the song a harder edge.
The author believes this approach was first used by bands like the Rolling Stones, the Who.
Without Fretboard Theory 1 and 2, I would have no idea the scales or bass line to play over this chord progression. This teaching system is really good.
Desi, Great. You are a teacher who makes things seem very simple. I am enjoying a lot your Pentatonic DVD