chord progression

[mastershake]

hey does anyone here have a recommendation for a book or website that explains chord progression really well? it really pisses me off when i'm looking for a particular tone while playing something and i can't figure out what chord i need because i have trouble understanding chord progression.

[anthony]

hey does anyone here have a recommendation for a book or website that explains chord progression really well? it really pisses me off when i'm looking for a particular tone while playing something and i can't figure out what chord i need because i have trouble understanding chord progression.

 

I found this one to be pretty good for that sort of thing:

 

http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Songs-Guit...8530&sr=8-1

[WaronWar]

That's a loaded question within itself because there are thousands of different answers to that question. In the end, just go off chords you know (keep building up a vocab of chords though) and see what sounds right to your ear because your ear always is the final answer.

[markosis]

Yes. A combination of applied knowledge and experimentation is what I would recommend. Like, put your hand in the shape of a chord you are familiar with, and try to raise or lower certain notes within the chord and see what you can find that sounds good.

[cmackey34]

Also, www.ultimate-guitar.com has a lot of online lessons (free) and does a fairly decent job explaining certain concepts. I've always preferred a trial-and-error approach to building chords and tones. Like markosis above me said - just move your fingers around the fretboard in shapes you know and change them a little.

[TCP]

Majorly speaking

I III VI like to chill out together

II IV are a bit more up tight but can go where they please

V VII wowowowowow go back home man go back to the tonic! the tonic!!!!

 

That's ALL you need to know!!!! What? You want to play in the minor key? Get a tissue!!!

[Moe_Syzlak]

I've always advocated (although usually when someone asks about learning modes) the following order of understanding:

 

- Make sure you know your fretboard (be able to find any note on any string instantly)

- Understand intervals

- Understand triads (basic chords)

- Understand arpeggios (for extended chords; adding the 7th for example)

- THEN understand modes

 

Chords are just stacks of intervals and scales (modes) are really the same thing as chords.

 

As far as understanding chord progressions, well that's a bit trickier. Sure there are standard progression such I-IV-V or the ii-V-I in which the same notes (from a common scale) comprise the chords. The Circle of Fifths is probably the best place to go to understand how these common progression are built. In the ii-V-I in C, for example, you have Bm-F-C because it is built on the major scale and in the C major scale the "two" is minor etc. But you could build a progression on any mode and get different results. The fact is this is all just a guide and a progression is good if it sounds good to you. Music theory is really just about organizing thoughts and I don't look at it as hard and fast rules. There are plenty of songs that change key with every chord change, for example.

 

Okay, that's probably more info than you wanted (and I've probably confused everyone as this was not the most eloquently written post ever), so I'll stop now

[froggie]

> You want to play in the minor key?

 

but there'll be aint nobody that could sing like him!

[TCP]

True enough my Australian friend, true enough. You can use my rules for the minor key, just think of the parallel major. So if you're in Am, use the rules for C major and SHIZAM.

[ginandcigarettes]

As far as understanding chord progressions, well that's a bit trickier. Sure there are standard progression such I-IV-V or the ii-V-I in which the same notes (from a common scale) comprise the chords. The Circle of Fifths is probably the best place to go to understand how these common progression are built. In the ii-V-I in C, for example, you have Bm-F-C because it is built on the major scale and in the C major scale the "two" is minor etc.

 

Just to be clear, ii-V-I in C is Dm-G-C.

 

 

To understand this in terms of the circle of fifths, look at the circle above. If you followed the roots of the chords D G C, you start on the D and you would see that you are cycling down one degree (counter clockwise) on the circle until you arrive at C.

 

Look at the progression C Am Dm G. If you played this, it would sound like dozens of songs from the 50's. Now look at the circle of fifths. The progressions starts on the tonic (the note at the top of the circle) and jumps over to A. Then you cycle back one degree at a time until you arrive at the beginning of the progression.

 

Sometimes things don't work on the cirlce of fifths, so another common thing is moving through the scale going up or down one note. Take C Em F G. It starts on the tonic jumps up a couple of notes (E) then up one note (F) then up one more (G). You might recognize this from 'Wave of Mutilation' by the Pixies.

 

Another thing to notice is substitutions. Generally, any time you see a major chord, you can swap it out with it's relative minor. So for an F you can substitute Dm. This works the other way around, too; for an Am you can substitute C.

 

Once you get these three concepts: (1) circle of fifths, (2) following the scale, and (3) substitutions; chords progressions are pretty easy to intellectualize:

 

Take a common progression: C Am F G -- you'll recognize this as 'Heart and Soul' or the final chorus of 'Happiness is a Warm Gun.' Well, Dm is F's relative minor, so if you substitute Dm for F, you get C Am Dm G, which is our circle of fifths progression. Swap Am for C and you get C C F G, which is 'My Best Friend's Girl' if you capo 4.

 

Look at Wilco's 'One by One': G F Em C (capo 5). This is just our scale progression (C Em F G) reversed. F G C Am (capo 4) is the chorus of 'Don't Dream It's Over' by Crowded House, but it's also C Am F G starting at a different place. A lot of strange yet familiar chord progressions are just common chord progressions starting in different places or run in different directions.

 

There's more to cover including chromaticism and more complicated substitutions, and some progressions are just random, but this serves as the basis for some 90% of pop songs. You can now go work at the Brill Building.

[Moe_Syzlak]

Just to be clear, ii-V-I in C is Dm-G-C.

D'oh! That's what i get for posting on theory when home sick with a head full of the 'Tussin.

 

Thanks for the correction.

[WaronWar]

Should we talk about tonicization next?

[altrock]

Chords for any key you want to play.....

 

http://www.drpsychotic.com/strike_a_chord/strikeachord.html

[Golden Smoghead]

For what it's worth I don't really understand any of that stuff and I've written dozens (maybe hundreds now) of songs that are pretty good and original.

 

The ONE resource I turn to for musical stuff sometimes is this book. It's part of a series that goes really deep into the stuff I don't really understand above, but what I actually use is this bigass section where they kinda list out a bunch of chord progressions. The ONLY thing you really need to understand in there is what key you are in, which isn't superhard.

 

 

I have never directly lifted a chord progression from them, but I think the guy basically just lists out every possibility so you just flip through and go "whoa dude I never thought about playing a Bm in the middle of a song in G" and the gates can just open. At least that's how it works for me.

 

So basically I think that book is pretty cool because it has them listed in actual song format, but explains to you what you are doing if you're inclined towards learning the progressions they lay out. I tried reading other books in the series but just could not make it anywhere, I don't have a head for the technical side of this stuff. So just recommending that one as a kinda jumping-off point if you are just looking for a random-chord-in-key generator, cause that's what I use it for.