How to recognise chord progressions by ear

This video is sponsored by Hook Theory. Being able to decipher the

chord

s of a song by ear is an incredibly valuable skill and is also something that almost any musician can learn now, although some musicians have the special gift of what is called Perfect Pitch when they hear a

chord

that they can literally hear oh, that's a C chord what we're trying to learn is actually called relative pitch, it's a similar skill, but instead of hearing the absolute note, the absolute chord oh, that's C with relative pitch we're trying to learn. listen to oh that's the chord which is the chord built on the first degree of the scale.

Actually, when we hear a chord progression, we're not necessarily hearing cf g, we're hearing the relationship between those 1 4 and five chords, for example 1 4 5 1. it has the same effect on the sound regardless of the key, so was in C, but it could go to 145 1 again in the key of D. You can hear it's the same melody, the same chords, the same effect just a little bit higher, so in this video we are. We'll go over all the different chords we might find in the major key and have an idea in our head of what they sound like and how they feel when we hear them in context.

We'll also stay until the end where I'm going to Play some chord

progressions

and you'll have to identify them by ear, so let's start with the chord that we could call the tonic. The chord has the quality of sounding completely resolved and finished what you are hearing when If you are looking for a tonic chord, could you go anywhere else? Is it actually completely at rest? If it is completely at rest, you are probably hearing the one that is the tonic, of course there are many examples of tonic chords that you can use as a chord. kind of an arle type version of the single chord, but I like this one, the end of John Lennon's Imagine, you just can't imagine it more complete, it just sounds completely finished and that's the sound of the single chord, so that's the chord.

Chord where everything sounds completely complete and at rest. Now let's look at the fifth chord, which is basically the opposite of the fifth chord. The fifth chord of the key which we can refer to as dominant has the greatest amount of tension in the key. I really want to go back to the one now, of course, there are many cases where the five chords are used in famous songs that we could use as an archetype, but I think my favorite is Twist and Shout, which is in the key of D, so that the The fifth chord is the fifth degree of D, which is one and there's that famous section in Twist and Shout where we're effectively building on that fifth chord, building up all the tension and we can feel that it really wants to resolve back, two, the single chord. that is the characteristic of the five that wants to resolve the next chord that we are going to see is the four chord the fourth chord of the key so in the key of C that would be F now the quality of the four chord is like a faint version of the fifth chord, so the fifth chord really wants to come home, but the fourth chord is more like plans to come home at some point, but it will take its time, so we understand that we have a sense of release and relief when we go from four to one, but not as much as five to one, so if you hear a chord that sounds reasonably at rest but eventually wants to go somewhere, you're probably dealing with the four chord, now a great example of a song based on largely in a movement from one to four back and forth is Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side, which is in the key of C and relies heavily on a movement only from one to four, but then goes somewhere else , but it's a great example of the fact that the four chord has momentum, it wants to go somewhere but can relax and take its time.

Take a walk on the wild side, so the next chord we're going to look at is the six chord, the sixth. of the tonality now the quality of this chord is almost like a different version of the tonic chord, an alternative place to find rest and resolution, so with the tonic chord we have that feeling that we are completely at rest and resolved with the tonic chord. sixth. You can imagine the song could end there, it would be a darker ending, a minor ending. Now, a great example of the sixth key chord is in the iconic song Stand By Me by Benny King, which is in the key of A.

It starts on the A chord and then goes down to the sixth chord of the key. No, I won't be afraid. Oh, I won't be afraid. Next we'll look at the second chord of the key, so in the key of C, that would be it. Whatever the D minor chord, the second chord in the key is always minor by default, that's the chord we get when we build a chord on the second degree of the scale. Now the two chords are almost like an alternative version of the four chords in the key. They have a similar feel, it's like the two is the kind of minor feeling version of the four chord, so in the key of C the f chord is four and remember with the four chord we have a kind of feeling of wanting to resolve but you're not in a rush and that's similar with the two chords you want to resolve eventually but you can take your time now.

A great example of this chord is the song Time After Time by Cindy Laper where in the verse we go back and forth from 2 to 1 and it's in the key of C so we go to D minor C D minor C so we keep getting that resolution of D minor to see in my B hear the clock think of you. Next on the list is the third chord. of the key of E minor in the key of C, so here is C our only chord and here is E minor our third chord in the key which, like the two chords we just looked at by default, is a minor chord , so we have E minor here.

Back to C, the single chord, now the third chord in the key has this kind of mixed sound, it's not necessarily at rest but it's not necessarily NE tense either, it's kind of a perfect balance between the two, you say here that this is the single chord and when If we go to E minor, we could get a good sense of resolution by going back to one, so in that sense the three is a little tense, but we could also stay on the three and you can imagine the song ends here, It would be a little less satisfying ending, but it would be an ending anyway, so that's the quality of the three chords, it has like a mixture of tension but also rest, it's a kind of balance on the edge in the middle. and a great example of this chord being in the key of C, as we are here, is the verse from Space Oddity by David Boe and E minor, there you have it, that's the three chord space oddity that goes from one to C and then the three chords of E minor control the round to earth.

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Enjoy 20% off select Hook Theory products, including an annual premium subscription to Cord Crush, using my exclusive link in the description, so the six chords we've looked at so far are the chords found diatonically in a key major, are the chords that we don't have to go out of the key to create and that's why they are by far the most common chords you'll find, but, of course, most songs don't just stay in the major key, but that they will venture outside of it and introduce notes that are not technically within the scale and a really common chord that you will find in many songs is the flat seven chord, the chord built on the flattened seventh degree of the scale, so, for For example, if we were in the key of E major, normally the seventh degree would be D sharp, but we are going to have a chord that is built on the flattened version of that note, the lower D natural version instead, so the chord flat 7 even is the chord built on D natural in the key of E flat 7 1 and only with that movement is it possible that you can recognize the song that I am going to give you as a kind of reference, which is Don't You Forget About Me by SimpleMinds.

That song not only opens with that movement from the flat 7 to the one, but in the chorus we also move from the 1 E down. Flat 7, so it's actually in that song and it's a great example of this chord because this even flat 7 chord to me at least has a kind of open sound, it sounds pretty epic Pi the moment we play that chord, this is the e and the moment we reach that flat seventh it's almost as if the horizon suddenly opened up for us, a new dimension opened up in the song. Another very common chord that we find that is not technically in the key is the flat three chord, so in the key of C. major generally the third degree of the scale is E natural, so the flat three chord of which we're talking about now is the chord built on the flattened version of that third degree E flat, so the E flat chord in the key of C and I think the flat 3 chord has a kind of almost bluesy edge to it and that really makes sense because blues is about mixing major and minor together and right here we are in a key of C major but we are using a chord built on the minor third degree of that key, so we are getting that major minor mix that is so indicative of the sound. of blues.

Now the example I'm going to give you for this chord is Love Shack by The B-52 which in the chorus goes from C to E flat, the three chord, then goes up to the four and the flat six, but we only need to focus on the two first chords of that movement, so at that time with Love Shack I briefly mentioned another chromatic chord. which is the flat six chord, so for example in the D chord is R1, the flat six would be the B flat chord, there is D, there is B flat, so generally in D the sixth note would be B natural, here we are using B flat now.

The example I'm going to give you for this chord is the opening of the song Poison by Alice Cooper which starts on a D major chord but then goes to B flat and suddenly we feel this feeling that we've moved into a new space. here in the key and that makes sense because B flat is not in the key, so the moment we land on that chord, we're taking an unusual left turn in the key, the next chord we'll look at. It's quite an unusual chord, a chord that doesn't appear that often, but it's a very distinctive sound and it's the chord built on the second degree of the scale but flattened, so, for example, in the key of F sharp usually we have the second grade. since G Shar G Shar would normally be the second degree, but here we are talking about the flat two chord, so we want the g chord in the key of FP and this has a very typically exotic sound, almost a kind of arabesque sound and that sound actually appears in one of the most famous examples of this chord, a song that is actually named after this exotic arabesque sound and is Pyramid Song by radio head which starts on F shar and then goes up to G major, technically it is a G major 7. but we are still getting the same quality from one to flat two.

The next chord we'll look at is perhaps the weirdest chord you'll ever find in the major key, so on this one you don't need to worry too much about being I can't put my finger on it, but if you need to find a weird string, a good place to go is the headstock. radio head, so let's continue with an example of a radio head. The chord I'm talking about is the chord built on the flattened Dee fifth. of the scale or the sharp fourth degree, it doesn't really matter how you think about it, so in the key of C, for example, that would be the F Shar major chord in the key of C F Shar major if you're thinking of sharp 4 or g flat major , if you're thinking that the flat five has a very unusual sound, I think it's quite a cinematic sound, but it is sometimes used, and I really mean sometimes, in popular rock songs and the example I'm going to use today is just by radio head where in the chorus we get the c chord then f sharp and then it goes to f so what we're getting here is a flat five and then four do it yourself that's what it should do so Now we have looked. in all the dionic strings of the key, all the chords that appear naturally in the key without changing anything, we have also seen all the predominant chromatic chords, the type of modal exchange chords that you can find, but there is also another type of category of chords that comes up a lot and that's when we're dealing with a string that's been slightly modified from its default diatonic state, so for example in the key we usually have a four major chord, so in the key of Cthe chord is built. in four F is usually major by default, but it could be minor, we could have an F minor chord, but in the key of C, and that's a very distinctive sound, it's often described as kind of a long, bittersweet, melancholic, and you will often hear listen to it in the context major four minor 4 one is very common delete now the song I'm going to give you for this there are many examples of this but the song I'm going to give you is another radio head song, it's creepy now in this context we are in the key of G creep is in the key of G it goes to the B chord then we get the c chord which is the four four chord the usual four chord in the key of G major and then it goes to C minor which it's the minor version of that four chord and then it resolves back to the tonic chord, the G major one makes me c now, there in creep, you may have noticed that I started with the g chord and then went to the b chord major and the eagle eyes of the audience will know that B major does not naturally belong to the key of G, so the usual chord you would have in G in the third degree would be B minor, which is our spatial odity. chord from before, just the third chord of the key, but in creep we have a major version of that chord and that's a very common sound when we have that third chord but major, it usually wants to go to one of the two places it wants. go to the fourth chord like we just heard in creep or you might want to go to the sixth chord and if you go to the sixth chord then we'll get a very resolved sound and that's because this chord is what we call a secondary dominant which I won't explain much about now, but I have a video, so creep is a good example of how the major 3 chord goes to the four, but as an example of the major three chord goes to the six so in this example the key of C that's ours that's ours three major chord E major and that's our six we could use happier than ever by Billy eyh as an example that's in the key C goes to E major the third major chord and then that sound, that tension is resolved in the sixth chord of a minor of yours.

I'm happier than I've ever been, so that three major chord that we just talked about, like I said, there's an example of a secondary dominant chord and another example of a secondary dominant chord is the major version of the two chords, so yeah If we were in the key of D, for example, the usual chord you would get in the second degree would be E minor, that was that chord over and over again Cindy laa, but here instead of going to E minor, we use Let's go to E major, so let's go to the key of D, which is one and then two chords of E major and it has a very bright and colorful sound.

I think the moment you hear that it's like a ray of sunshine is coming. the song and that chord often doesn't have to, but often then it resolves to the fifth chord of the key and then of course the fifth chord of the key wants to resolve back to the one, so it's a very typical way to hear the major 2 chord is a major 2 five and then one and a song that does that is Love Me Tender by Elis Presley love me tender love me sweet so the next chord we'll look at is the major sixth chord which in the key of G, for example, would be the E chord and, like all other secondary dominants, they have a tendency to want to resolve to the A fifth chord above, so you'll often hear that chord going to the two chords, which would be a fifth up from where we are currently, so G e, that's the single E chord, which is our major version of the sixth chord and then it feels like it logically wants to go to the double chord, so it's something you can hear when you hear these secondary dominant chords these major versions of chords that are typically minor is where we are drawn to in the key of G when we get an E major chord we can hear that pull towards two, that's what we want to hear and that's exactly what which happens in the example I'm going to give you, which is I Get Around by The Beach Boys, which often features this movement from a G to the major six chord, E and then moves to a minor chord, two, while saying the next.

The chord we're looking at is the major chord built on the seventh scale degree, so in the key of G, for example, the seventh scale degree is F sharp, so we're talking about an F chord. sharp in the key of G. seven major that is the chord we are talking about, it is a very unusual chord to find really, it is quite rare, but a great example is the song Karma Police by radio head, the chorus of Karma Police goes four, which is C five, which is d 1, which is G and then 7, which is F sharp, so it's a pretty unusual sound that you can hear when we reach that chord, it's still a little bit discordant and that's the kind of sound you're looking for when you hear an A seven chord.

The degree built major chord is a bit of an unusual quality, really this is what you get and that brings us to the last chord we'll look at today, which is the minor version of the fifth chord, so we already looked at the minor version. of the fourth chord remember that was our kind of very melancholic chord of F minor and the key of C, for example, but now we are looking at the minor version of the fifth chord, so if we stick to the key of C, we are talking about minor g. for example, then you could go to four, one which is a common form used now, the minor version of the five chord, I think it has a bit of a reflective and melancholic sound, it certainly adds that it takes a different angle.

Wick is almost what we're waiting for. the major five chord is much more obvious, so when we get the minor version of the five chord we get this kind of reflexive alternative version of the chord. Now a great example of this chord is in the song Clocks by Co play, which is an E flat. and it goes to B flat minor, which is the fifth chord of the key, but minor, so normally it would go from E flat to B flat major, but here we go from E B flat to B flat minor, which is our fifth minor chord . then it goes to two and back to one, so now I'm going to play some chord

progressions

and I want you to figure out by ear what those chords are.

Now I'll keep everything in the key of C and I. It'll start out a little easier and get progressively harder, so this is our c chord. Now I'm telling you this because when you're working on a song by ear, it's very valuable to first identify where the chord is so that your The first thing you want to do when you listen to a song and you're working on the chords is figure out what the key is, where it is. the tonic and in this case it is C and from there we can work on other chords, so here is the first one.

Chord progression, that's our C chord and then where does it go next? Well, I'll play it one more time, so we have the C chords, one, then 2 D minor, four F major and then back to a C major, okay, keep count. of your sheet music and put it in the comments at the end of the next one, so stay in the key of C, here's the second chord progression, what was it? We had C, then we went to the 3 E minor chord, then to E minor, and then to the 6th. minor chord and then to the two D minor chords, okay, I hope you have two of two right now.

We're going to do three more examples, so here's the third example, the third chord progression to figure out by ear what that was. I'll play it one more time, okay? So what was it? We started on C, then we went to the seventh flat chord of B flat, then we went to the sixth chord of the key of A minor and then to the four chords of F major and then we looped. See again here we go with the penultimate chord progression, what was that? So that was the first time we didn't start with a chord because of course string progressions don't have to start with that chord, even if that's probably the most common way they start it's not necessary and here we start with that chord which was F in the key of C, so four four chords, then we go to F minor, the four minor chord and then we go to a C which was Okay and now we're going to do the last chord progression, this is going to be the hardest one. , so listen, here we go, okay, I told you it was hard, so what did we have there?

Well, we start again with the c chord. then we went there, what is that? That's the two D flat chord in the key of C, then we went to that A, flat chord, the flat sixth chord of the key and then to B flat, the flat seventh chord of the key, so the most. Some of the chords here were not in the usual major key which definitely makes it more difficult and by having a whole series of non-dionic chords it starts to get muddied where the center of the key is, so it was certainly a pretty example. bad, so if you got that last bit, then I'm very impressed, so put your score for that little quiz in the comments below.

Now all the chords we've seen in today's video are in the context of the major key, but of course you could be. Listening to a song that's in a minor key and the chords can have a very different sound in the minor context, so what I'm going to do is make a second video, a follow-up video to this one, where we hear central progressions in a minor key. We do minor key ear training, so if you're interested in that, consider subscribing so you don't miss anything.