PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Music "Ahas" that only came recently for you - let's make a list

Hi all,

I'd like to open this thread for all of you lifelong music learners. Our hobby (or profession, for those of you who made a go of it) is so deep, we are all constantly learning new things that previously eluded us. Maybe they were hard, or subtle, or for whatever reason came easy to others but not ourselves. Because we share the same interest so passionately, I thought mutually sharing recent music "aha's" might open each others' eyes to some new "Ahas" they weren't expecting so soon.

For me - chord progressions just did NOT come easy. I understood conceptually, on paper, the whole "chords in a major key", and the 'modes' by starting on another chord tone - but I just couldn't "hear and find" chords by listening to a song. What REALLY threw me was when chords that don't belong in a particular key suddenly appeared for a very short time - and then back to the diatonic chords of that key. I always had a "how would I solo" over this question in my head - and those pesky "other chords" defied fitting into my understanding. Also, the 'modes' thing - I just didn't really get it....because I would start analyzing in the key-signature key - and again, would run into those non-diatonic chords that baffled me.


I'm happy to say that I now understand many of these chords, and the guidelines (intentionally use that word instead of 'rules' - I get it - 'rules' are broken all the time in music). I'm going to share this recent 'aha' for myself to those of you that might benefit from it. I know many of our more experienced musicians know these guidelines. Hopefully, some of our other more experienced musicians will share more advanced 'aha's' that push you into a deeper area of interest.

These are my recent chord progression 'ahas' with respect to pop music:

1.) preceding diatonic chords by dominant 7th's a 5th higher...very very common. The big revelation for me was NOT to get hung up on "how to solo" over these brief chords, and NOT to get hung up on "new and different scales" to use over these chords when composing melodies or soloing over them. They often last a short time, and don't and can almost be considered brief 'ornaments' that are still 'within the current key or mode'. I do however, think about the non-diatonic tones in that chord and consider using them in the melody or solo if I want to add flavor - but definitely NOT using new, other scales.

There is another rule that 'every dom 7 chord changes the key for that brief moment' - well, I suppose that's another rule that works at times - but it really does seem to confuse matters in pop songs for me - and created the mental barrier I described.

So understanding and recognizing these chords is a first step - but actually taking a few of your own diatonic progressions and adding these preceding 7ths - well, that actually made me feel like a musician !!!

2.) Altered tones on 7th chords - 5ths and 9ths - again do not require new scale thinking - they often 'ornament' the chords without changing the tonality at all. For whatever reason, I just didn't 'get' that concept - and continually thought I was missing something that other musicians 'got' in terms of soloing over these chords. Again - those tones might create a clash if you use the wrong tone at the wrong time - but your ear can easily guide you away from them if you continue to use the diatonic scales in your soloing/melody making.

3.) Harmonic Major chord - IV minor - used with IV major right next to each other.
This was a big one for me - I never got it - now I see it all over the place - recently I've been learning Bee Gees chord progressions, and they use this device a LOT. No music rocket science here - but if you didn't have this concept in your musical reportoire before, it's an important one to understand - and possibly apply in your own jamming and composing. In fact - I'm also a big Doors fan - and find them using it all over the place in Lover Her Madly and Love Street.

Most importantly - with respect to all 3 concepts above - if you're trying to memorize song progressions and covers - recognizing these guidelines has made things WAY easier for me - because prior to mastering these 3 guidelines - these chords were "break the rules - just memorize where they belong" - and I did not see the commonality - and so there was no rhyme or reason when they showed up. Linking them to a logical concept has really helped me memorize more covers, which is still one of my favorite things to do.

So lastly I'll share this - my musical ear has always been a weak point for me - just can't hear what chords and progressions are going on - have always had to memorize them one by one for each song. Now I am really focusing on the function (e.g. the progression in terms of numbers) - as I learn a cover - and feel that this mechanical analysis and memorization is helping my ear notice similar progressions and movements from one chord to another far more than in the past - where I seemed to just memorize the names of chords and only really recognize the diatonic I, IV, V's and VIms.

I hope this at least helps some of you.

Well, Joe, your ear has apparently gotten better with experience, so keep at it.

In my case I started so young that whether I had any kind of "natural" ear or not is hard to say. By age 7 I was listening to stuff on the transistor radio and writing chord charts out as the songs played, but that was more the result of having a teacher who beat fundamentals into me. I learned the circle of 5ths as soon as I knew what dot on what line or space went with this key or that key. Every Good Boy Does Fine and FACE, or with ledger lines, Every Good Boy Does Fine At Composing Everything. Stuff like that. He had a lot of very young students mixed in with his "older and need a hobby" students so he was good at teaching kids.

Many people think recognition skills are a "you have it or you don't" kind of skill, but there are ear training drills that can sharpen it. You are proof that recognition can improve. In my case I have regressed from perfect pitch to near perfect pitch, in that you may play a B and I think it's a C, but as you'd go forward playing the song I would get the intervals correct and just the start note would be wrong. So you could play B to E to F#, and I might hear it as C to F to G. But if a song went along and there was a diminished or an augmented chord in there I would recognize what the chord type was. I might just have the root wrong.

Yeah Eddie - you're exactly the kind of guy I hated (e.g. not personally of course - I mean I was very disappointed I lacked that ability) ; )

I have a close friend like yourself - he can jam with anybody, and immediately put his fingers over the right chords. Again, I always wished I could do so. For me a deeper focus on the numbering system / chord function with numbers at least narrows down enormously the next chord that is likely. Many years ago - I would hear the melody not just fine, and then try by trial and error to find the right chord - and that just wouldn't work for me much of the time.

Thanks for sharing your experience in that area. But surely, there are no "aha's" - whether that be music theory, musicianship, showmanship, that you've only been cultivating recently ?

The only thing new for me is that I have set a goal to write a song of every genre I can think of this year. So far I have done a big band, a trance, a country, a rocker, a fusion jazz, and in the can waiting for the lyrical muse to hit me is a disco song. 2 ballads and another rocker are waiting for vocals. It's mainly about motivation for me because I don't play live dates anymore. The last couple of years has really soured me on playing live.