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-   -   Figuring out chord progressions from songs (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=32760)

Sherry C 06-17-2016 10:18 PM

Figuring out chord progressions from songs
 
Hi friends,

The short of it: Great free handbook on "Learning Tune Progressions" from Jazz Advice - find it at http://www.jazzadvice.com/how-to-lea...free-download/

We often have folks ask about getting music notation from audio files or recordings. While Notation Software products don't do that (nor does any software that puports to do so do it well at this stage), there are some things you can do yourself to help you get chord progressions and notation for an audio file or recording. You can then use Notation Composer to enter those into a song file that you can print or play along with. Part of this process is developing good ears, along with some other skills that you can work on.

A great resource for learning about this process is from our friends at Jazz Advice. They have a boatload of articles on things musical, and helping you to develop into a top-notch musician. One article of special interest today is "Learning Tune Progressions" which you can find at http://www.jazzadvice.com/how-to-lea...free-download/

Have a look around their website - they have some great free articles, as well as some more advanced ones and some compilations and free e-books (like the one above).

Enjoy!
Sherry

rrayner 06-18-2016 02:42 PM

Re: Figuring out chord progressions from songs
 
Thanks for the lead, Sherry. There are some good tips there.

One additional item that should be mentioned is that often a bass part will include notes that are not part of the basic chord, i.e., root, third and fifth. These will generally be passing tones, notes within the root scale, but not part of the basic chord.

For example, in 4/4 meter, these passing tones would generally fall on beats 2 and 4 and for a C Major chord, you would hear a bass line that goes linearly from C to G in quarter notes: C D E F G -- all part of the root scale for C Major, where chord tones C, E, and G are on beats 1, 3 and 1 in the next measure, and the passing tones D and F are on beats 2 and 4.

So, the tips in the pdf are sound, but don't let the passing tones confuse you.

Ralph Rayner

Sherry C 06-20-2016 03:42 PM

Re: Figuring out chord progressions from songs
 
Hi Ralph,

Good point about the bass line, and thanks for a good example.

Another "sticking point" for some pieces is the whole modal thing. This isn't such a big deal if you're just figuring out chord changes, which is what the main point of the pdf download is about. However, for those who want to put those chord changes into a sheet music format with the correct key signature, modes can often be confusing. Learning to play a whistle (as in Irish) was one of the best things for me in learning about modes, and it's fun, too :) But I can't tell you how many people I've had ask me why the software wasn't putting in the right key signature for a song; for example when the root note of the first chord was an E but the key signature showed G (1 #) rather than E (4 #s). The piece was in Em, which is the minor of G :)

Thanks!
Sherry


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