New Order Chords & Chord Progressions?

Hello,

I am huge New Order fan (Like everyone here), I have always been interested in their chords, chord progressions and creation process. The period of time I am really interested in is early 80s, right after Movement and into PCL. More of their earlier, uptempo, songs like Temptation, Procession, EGG, Hurt, and a lot of tracks from PCL.

I have all their books, read some past interviews where you can get some bits and pieces about how they created some of their tracks, and checked out some chord sites, but those sites don't seem to be 100% accurate.

I could never really fully wrap my head around their chord progressions, they seem simple, but not, if that makes sense. I am pretty sure or at least it sounds like it to me that they used some pretty simple chords for that early 80s period (it really feels like they only used C, F, and sometimes a G chord most of the time. And for a little bit darker stuff they might throw in a Dm, at least to my ears that is what it sounded like). But it feels like I am missing something, maybe it is some way they used those chords or something like that. They made those simple chords not sound so simple and boring, but more moody, New Order-y, and awesome.

Any info or takes on or about those early 80s NO chord progressions and creation process?

Thanks.

Virtually everyone from the punk/post-punk era eschewed "musicianship" and didn't have any sort of formal training. They were figuring out things as they went along, so the first step to understanding is probably throwing out everything *you* know about chords. They were literally poking around and going "this sounds good with this." It may not be musically "correct", but it sounds good.

By her own admission it was years before Gillian used any of the black keys.

I love that majestic synth jam during the last 1/3 of The Perfect Kiss, and if you watch Gillian's playing in the video, she often plays a partial (2-note) or full (3-note) chord, along with an extra note on an adjacent key. You can hear the "right" chord, but it adds tension. It's not something a proper musician would necessarily do.

I dont know about how they created their chords. But maybe looking at some of their sheet music and music books might help in figuring them out.

I have one of their music books, but I don't really play music.

later -1

50poundnote wrote: Virtually everyone from the punk/post-punk era eschewed "musicianship" and didn't have any sort of formal training. They were figuring out things as they went along, so the first step to understanding is probably throwing out everything *you* know about chords. They were literally poking around and going "this sounds good with this." It may not be musically "correct", but it sounds good.

By her own admission it was years before Gillian used any of the black keys.

I love that majestic synth jam during the last 1/3 of The Perfect Kiss, and if you watch Gillian's playing in the video, she often plays a partial (2-note) or full (3-note) chord, along with an extra note on an adjacent key. You can hear the "right" chord, but it adds tension. It's not something a proper musician would necessarily do.

Yes. I think you are 100% correct here. By throwing things out and just doing what sounded right to them, really gave them their unique and original sound.