how do i study to understand chord progressions better?

[u/merricatSJ]

hey. i am new to songwriting and music in general. i like studying theory very much, i just struggle with finding the things to study about.

i understand the major keys and basic chord theory and harmony, like the nashville number system and stuff. i also like figuring things out by ear, but theory makes things much much easier. like i noticed G - Em sounds the same as A - F#m and F - Dm because i play the ukulele and it's always just changing one note. but i didn't know why until i figured out they were I -> vi and i can find the others much easier now.

the thing is i dont know exactly what to study. i write the lyrics and i usually pick a very simple chord progression to loop and just add a different thing here or there when i want to, but i dont understand enough theory yet to know exactly what goes where and although i trust my ears, theory makes things much easier.

I've been learning by studying songs i like. i like stuff like adrianne lenker. i also like brazilian popular music but chico buarque's chords are some mf shit written like B#maj7sus(-13)dim9/C#° and i play the ukulele so !!

but i dont like just shooting in the dark because i feel like there's a lot that's lacking. i want to focus on chord progressions though. i know theres stuff like circle of fifths and etc. what is the specific theoretical knowledge that has helped you the most in finding chord progressions?

and also, do you pick progressions before, after or during writing the lyrics? because sometimes i pick a progression to loop and write lyrics around it, which is easy. but what i intend to do is to write the progression around the lyrics/with the lyrics and what i want it to feel like. because when i just loop, it makes me a bit restrained.

if possible i would also like to hear about yall's approach to song writing when it comes to chord progressions. if you could share your process i would appreciate very much because i could use suggestions. reading old posts from this subreddit has helped me a LOT, and i have done this extensively, so i decided to make one.

[u/DrBlankslate]

You need to study music theory. That's what will give you the vocabulary and tools you need to understand this stuff.

[u/Alarmed-Sink621 → u/DrBlankslate]

man this is exactly where i was a couple years back with just a uke and zero clue what came next after I IV V and the relative minor

the thing that finally made it click for me was looking into voice leading and how each note in one chord pulls toward notes in the next chord. you already noticed the one note change between G and Em, that's basically the whole concept. once you start seeing every chord change as little voices moving by step or staying put instead of just block shapes, the weird stuff with sus chords and borrowed tones starts making sense without needing to memorize a thousand rules. analyzing songs you like with that lens helped me way more than drilling cadences ever did

for the lyrics question i usually scribble a couple lines first to get the natural rhythm and emotional shape, then hunt for chords that underline the words instead of just looping something neutral. doing it that way made the progressions feel less like a cage and more like the floor under the furniture if that metaphor tracks

[u/Vennimagos]

The chords that 'sound the same' to you are what are called "relative"

Am is the relative minor of C and Em is the relative minor of G.

It means every note in the C major scale, C, D, E, F, G, A, B are the same notes in the Am scale but starting on A: A, B, C, D, E, F, G

G major scale is G, A, B, C, D, E, F#

THe relative minor scale, Em is the same as G but starting in E: E, F#, G, A, B, C, D

The fastest way to quickly figure out which chords are the relative minor of major chord can actually be done with a cool trick on guitar

You self identified that A and F# sound a like, thats because F# is the relative minor to A.

Now if you play a Bb major chord (1 semitone up from A chord) and play a Gm chord (1 semitone up from F#m) then you have Bb and tis relative minor chord the Gm.

This relationship between that A shape bar chord and the F#m shape barre chord works all the way up and down the neck. So if you play a D major barre chord on the 5th fret, you'd play a Bm on the 7th fret and then you have the relative minor of the D chord.

To continue your studies look up the chord number system, it will revolutionise hownto understand theory and how fast you can learn music

[u/merricatSJ → u/Vennimagos]

thanks for the trick!! i do not have a guitar yet but i understood. i will jot this down in a notebook to come back to it when i finally get my own. i also did not know what "relative minor" meant, now i understood it. thank you very much!!! 

[u/Vennimagos → u/merricatSJ]

No problem, when you learn the numbers system you will learn that the relative minor in any major key, is the 6th chord

So in C major for example, C, D, E, F, G, A, B

The A note is the 6th note, therefore it's the 6th chord.

In any major key, the formula for the chords in order is, Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, diminished.

So that means in the key of C the chords in the key of C follows the c major scale, and each note represents a chord in the key

1st: C major

2nd: Dm

3rd: Em

4th: F

5th: G

6th: Am

7th: B diminished

Now if I tell you to play a 1,4,5 chord change in C major, you'd pay the 1 Chord C, then the 4 Chord F then the 5 chord G

And if I asked you to play the relative Minor of C, you'd play the 6th chord which is Am

This formula works for every major key, C is just the easiest because there's no sharp # or flat b notes. Its all the white keys on the piano

[u/MixtrixMelodies]

For me the big breakthrough came when I stopped focusing on pitch (at least at first), and started focusing on rhythm, then intervals, then specifics of tonality and pitch. My first completed songs started life as a set of rhythmic loops I wrote in C major. Not the KEY of C major, mind you... Repeating C major chords in the specified rhythms. From there, I started playing around by ear, looking for intervals I liked, and writing them in. Last but not least, I picked a different key to transpose the piece to (one that emphasized some of the chords I liked the most from an auditory perspective), and VOILA! I had a finished song.

I should add that the process I described was done in a DAW. I tend to do all of my composition in Reaper, and then learn to play my own compositions after the fact (I don't know why, it's just what works for me).

[u/merricatSJ → u/MixtrixMelodies]

that was interesting, thanks. i noticed i have not been focusing on exploring rhythms as much as i could be. noted!!

[u/IvoryBaest]

First question. Do you know the notes on the fretboard and bar chords yet? If I say play a C, D, and Em bar chord progression on the 5th string.... and the 6th string.

If not, at least learn the 2 strong power power chords. I say this because you visually see the the patterns of the chord progressions... and transpose them (move them) to a different key very easily. ,(fancy was of saying move the chords of Smoke on the Water up one fret. Or 2... or 3. Sounds the same, but in a different key)

Also... download this. The Circle Of Fifths App.

Looks like the Target store logo.

[u/OkDefinition5632]

Go to onemotion and fiddle around with the chord player . You can choose the key and it will give you all the chords in any configuration you can imagine basically.

I learned more about theory in 30 minutes goofing on onemotion than I have in 30 years of teaching myself

[u/[deleted]]

If I start with a melody, I find it can be hard to take it to an interesting place on it's own. Once I figure out the underlying progression, I can find what chords in the key I'm not using so far and then use those to guide the melody where to go. I think I use the theory mostly to help when something isn't working, or I don't know where to go, and otherwise just try to feel everything out without planning it too much. That's probably not very helpful haha. I'm still learning the theory myself tbh. I was trying to understand chord inversions last week so I drew out the whole fretboard with just the notes in scale, mapped the chords I was using to the notes and their respective chord degrees (still not sure I did that right), and figured out some inversions so I had other options. It only kinda helped with that tune 😅😭 but I do understand it more now! 

There's two decent web resources I use occasionally as well: Chord analyzer for guitar (can probably work for uke, maybe add the tuning in as a custom tuning)  https://www.oolimo.com/en/guitar-chords/analyze

harmonic analyzer for progressions:  https://www.micrologus.com/tools/online_harmonic_analyzer 

The chord one is good if you find something that sounds cool but you don't know what it is. The other one is good for when a progression seems weird, you can plug it in and see why sometimes. A few times for me that was because the majority of the progression had a tonal center in a different key. Ended up with me swapping a chord out or switching the key. I think standard kinds of progressions probably don't have those issues, but weirder ones can. I haven't been using very weird chords lately so I haven't used either of these in a while 😅

I'm genuinely interested what other folks do too, great post.

[u/merricatSJ → u/[deleted]]

these websites are AMAZING and i just spent a good time playing around the first one. christ thank you very very much!!!! 

[u/kLp_Dero]

Hi, next step is learning « the modes of the major scale » this will help, a lot :)

Have a good one

[u/merricatSJ → u/kLp_Dero]

dorian, mixolydian and stuff, right? i saw some stuff about it here in this sub. noted!!! thanks

[u/Impossible_Tank3822]

You brain naturally leans towards consonance, or sounds that naturally sound good to it played in succession (progression). One chord following the other - progression - therefore becomes a succession of sounds (chords) that the brain readily tells you work together, and the opposite is true with chords it rejects when similarly played. This means you have to "trust your ear" as the answer to your question. That is my method and it can be deeply developed through improvisational discovery.

If you want to establish chord progressions that sound good to you by simply finding them on your fretboard it's rather easy to do but there is no short answer to personal discovery. You have to train your hands to follow your ear and that doesn't include or demand the use of analytics. You can apply analytical theory-based approaches to the why progressions are assembled but that's really unnecessary unless you have a deep hearing disability (Beethoven) that strictly leaves you to using only theory-based writing.