# What is the chord progression for this short tune?



## athrun200

I am unable to figure out the chord progression for this short tune.

At the end, it seems it is a A major chord so I assume it is in A major.
But the chord before it sounds like a D major chord.

It doesn't seem like a V7 to I cadence even though I hear something resolved one semitone step-wise.

What makes it trickier is that the beginning sounds like A minor to me. Therefore I have difficulty in identifying the chord progression in this short tune. Can anyone help?

What I am sure are:
1. This short tune has 4 bars
2. The time signature is 3/4


----------



## kwokboy

F maj - G maj - A sus4 - A maj

Key = A minor


----------



## athrun200

kwokboy said:


> F maj - G maj - A sus4 - A maj
> 
> Key = A minor


Thanks! After knowing this chord progression, I can hear the bass plays F, G and A clearly.
Before that, I cannot even figure it out. How strange!


----------



## kwokboy

athrun200 said:


> Thanks! After knowing this chord progression, I can hear the bass plays F, G and A clearly.
> Before that, I cannot even figure it out. How strange!


I know that feel


----------



## Vox Gabrieli

It's good to develop an ear for this sort of thing if you've got the time. Check out musictheory.net if you want to train your ears, or sit down in front of a piano with a friend. Makes a good party trick too!


----------



## Pugg

Taking a good teacher also helps.


----------



## athrun200

Pugg said:


> Taking a good teacher also helps.


This is what I want too. In the place where I live, it's easy to find instrumental teachers and they focus on teaching you how to play the instrument well. However, there are hardly any teacher who focus on training up your aural skills.

When I attempt to find some, they will try to "sell" you instrumental lessons, saying that once you have a decent level on piano, you will have a good ear.

So I am using the book Comprehensive Aural Skills by Justin Merritt as a substitution.
Do you think online lesson (Skype) is good? I once saw a teacher who provide aural lesson over Skype.


----------



## kwokboy

athrun200 said:


> This is what I want too. In the place where I live, it's easy to find instrumental teachers and they focus on teaching you how to play the instrument well. However, there are hardly any teacher who focus on training up your aural skills.
> 
> When I attempt to find some, they will try to "sell" you instrumental lessons, saying that once you have a decent level on piano, you will have a good ear.
> 
> So I am using the book Comprehensive Aural Skills by Justin Merritt as a substitution.
> Do you think online lesson (Skype) is good? I once saw a teacher who provide aural lesson over Skype.


i would say online lessons are useless and inefficient

pick about 15 songs that you like
use a decent music player/DAW to loop them
try to play the melodies back on piano/guitar
move on to bass & chord once you are able to get all 15 song's melodies 99% correct
novices may take 300 hours just for laying down 15 melodies


----------



## athrun200

kwokboy said:


> i would say online lessons are useless and inefficient
> 
> pick about 15 songs that you like
> use a decent music player/DAW to loop them
> try to play the melodies back on piano/guitar
> move on to bass & chord once you are able to get all 15 song's melodies 99% correct
> novices may take 300 hours just for laying down 15 melodies


No, I can lay down 15 melodies within 1 day, it's easy and obvious.
The problem is the bass and the chord. For bass line, you can raise the whole song for an octave to make it easier, but it is not always the case.

For chord, I am just doing trial and error and it can take me 300 hours for one song only.

I am doing classical music as a practice now because I can at least check the answer by looking at the score.


----------



## kwokboy

athrun200 said:


> No, I can lay down 15 melodies within 1 day, it's easy and obvious.
> The problem is the bass and the chord. For bass line, you can raise the whole song for an octave to make it easier, but it is not always the case.
> 
> For chord, I am just doing trial and error and it can take me 300 hours for one song only.
> 
> I am doing classical music as a practice now because I can at least check the answer by looking at the score.


yea
you will find chords are very difficult to lay down at the beginning
literally a triad = 3 melodies at the same time and could be more
indeed you are going to trial and error but not by playing chords
beginner wont be able to distinguish multiple notes simultaneously
you really need to check them note by note

personally I always lay down melody first
the melody is the best way to confirm the key thus the scale used
and then lay down the bass line
usually the bass is a chord tone 
work on from the bass
that could be root/third/fifth

IMO modern music like pop, rock, metal are better/easier for beginners


----------

