Interesting topic Joe.

I was just wondering. Is there really any such thing as "the right" and the "wrong" chord in a song? Sure there are the chords that are written on the sheet music by the songwriter (or arranger) and there is the chord that is played on the "original" recording but there are literally dozens of chords that will fit a melody line and can be substituted and will still sound good.

So, say if you take a public domain or traditional song or melody you can choose to harmonize it in any way that pleases you.

Plus IMHO I dont think it is strictly necessary for everybody to be playing exactly the same chords at the same time. Lebz and I do this all the time in our live shows. For example he may be playing the major chord while I will be playing the relative minor.

Joe, an easy way to start playing by ear is to just start out playing major key songs with the tonic all the way through the song. Then the second time you may want to put in the four or five chords when the tonic does sound great. There are not many major key songs that you cannot just play all the way through with just variations in sequence I, IV and V. Once you have got that down you will start hearing where the minors are used in the song. Then you can worry about the 7ths..etc..

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