# On meter and chord progression



## Michk

I'm not sure where's the best place to post this, it seems kinda in the middle of theory and listening but somewhat a beginner's question too. I was wondering how you guys learnt to be aware of progressions going on in music- is this doable without having a score for the piece? I'm having some trouble recognizing chord progressions in most pieces, especially the quicker ones. And I also tend to lose track of the meter. Most of the time my attention just drifts to the melody. Does all this keeping-track just run in the background? How important are these things in developing your listening?


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## dpwave

Depends on type of music you're talking about. Most Pop, Rock, Country, Blues, Folk, ought to be pretty easy to follow once you understand some basic chord harmony. Jazz and Classical is tougher. 

Music boils down to 3 types of musical formats compositionally: scales, chords, and arpeggios. That's it. When notes of a C Major scale, or a C major chord, or a C major arpeggio of that chord is played, you are hearing C Major "harmony". Most Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, etc., will flow with those 3 basic formats making it fairly easy to recognize where the 'harmony' is at the moment.

So from that idea, apply it to the 'harmonized scale' concept, like a C Major scale harmonized in chords (C Maj; Dm, Em, F Maj; G Maj; Am; Bmb5). Notice the "common tone" relationships between the C maj, Em, and Am chords (look at their notes and compare). Those first three chords make up the Tonic family because of their common tones and sound. Then notice the Dm and F Maj chords, which have common tones, they make up the Subdominant family, and then the G Maj and Bmb5 chords have common tones and make up the Dominant family chords. Those different chords within their family can be substituted for each other (especially more so when you add the 7th degree of the scale and make them 7th chords).

(supposing you know your Roman numerals for chords

Thusly, when playing a I, iii, vi progression, which is C Major, Em, and Am chords, you're STILL in the TONIC tonal center. Since I'm using key of C Major for this example, it means the sound, or tonal center with those 3 chords is in C Major harmony on the I chord, usually the start chord of the song. It's because all three of those chords have a TONIC sound.

Then with a IV, ii progression (F Maj, Dm) you're in the Subdominant family sound, not quite the 'Tonic' sound, but like it still needs to go somewhere else with the harmony. 

But with the V, vii chords (G dom7, Bmb5), because they have in them an interval called a TRITONE that creates a TENSION sound, you definitely know the harmony cannot stay there and needs resolving... somewhere else, usually back to the TONIC.

That's the easiest way to learn to hear progressions, i.e., focus on the TYPE of CHORD FAMILY sound the chord is making at the moment in the flow of the song. Write a simple melody and sing it. I guarantee you, you will begin the melody with a TONIC sound, and then progress to a SUBDOMINANT sound and then finally to a tension DOMINANT sound that will require you to resolve the melody back on the TONIC sound you began with.

So think: TONIC, SUBDOMINANT, DOMINANT families when listening and focus on the movement or flow of the piece in that.

Not only does this idea apply to chords in the scale of the key, but also to the scale notes themselves. The 1-3-5 notes of the scale makes the Major scale chord (C Major in key of C). So those notes are the stability notes of the key, like anchors. But the 2-4-6-7 degree notes of the scale usually foster movement, especially the 7th. The 2nd, 4th, and 6th act as passing tones between the 1-3-5 chord tones. Go up to the Dm chord, the ii chord of the C Major scale, and it all applies again only moving up a note.

Where Jazz changes things is it's common to use different scales and chords outside the key to create different harmonic 'colors', so the Diatonic Harmony approach above doesn't apply at all times with Jazz. Likewise in Jazz, chords may be embellished more (Cmaj7#11 or G13b5, etc.) adding more tensions, again to produce more harmonic 'colors'. In the Blues is where all that really begins to take off.


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## Baregrass

dpwave, I didn't quote you to save space but that was a very good introduction to practical chord theory. The only thing I would add from my personal experience in learning guitar more years ago than I care to remember is that I learned to listen to rising and falling tones in the music and to associate them with chord changes.


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